Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2, Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, and Providing for Proceedings During the Period from March 27, 2015, Through April 10, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) for the customary 30 minutes. I also want to thank him for his work on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, for far too long, Congress has shirked its responsibility when it came to permanently fixing the sustainable growth rate formula. Since its inception, our Nation's doctors and hospitals were held hostage to a misguided funding formula that was included as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

I voted against the Balanced Budget Act back then when I was a new Member of Congress. It was plain to me that the Medicare cuts and proposed financing included in that bill were simply impossible to sustain. I am glad that 18 years later Congress is finally doing the right thing and repealing the sustainable growth rate formula and replacing it with a payment system based on value.

It is past time that we repeal this misguided formula that has wreaked havoc throughout our healthcare system. Year after year after year, Congress, whether controlled by Democrats or Republicans, was forced to temporarily patch this formula. And year after year after year, Congress did the bare minimum, providing a temporary fix without actually addressing the real problem and permanently repealing the formula.

Today, Congress is finally doing the right thing. That alone is worth supporting. But this bill does more than just repeal the sustainable growth rate formula. Instead, it provides a clearly defined schedule of payment adjustments that will give physicians and healthcare providers the stability they need while ensuring quality and value in the services patients require.

In addition, H.R. 2 also provides critical funding through September 2017 for our Nation's community health centers, funding that was initially provided under the Affordable Care Act, and it also provides support for the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP.

I have already started to hear from hospitals in my district about why this bill is good for them and good for their patients. UMass Memorial Medical Center, in my hometown of Worcester, is one of the Nation's most distinguished academic healthcare systems and is the safety net hospital for all of central Massachusetts. The folks there are pleased to see the delay in additional cuts to safety net hospitals and the delay in the implementation of the two-midnight rule.

Now, this bill is not perfect--nothing around here is ever perfect--but this is the result of long and careful bipartisan negotiation. Even though there are many very positive aspects of this bill, there are some provisions that are more problematic, and I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention some of them.

Most troubling is the inclusion of the Hyde amendment and its application to the funding for the community health centers. It is important to clarify that this language is not a permanent extension or codification of the Hyde amendment. It only applies to the funding for community health centers and expires when that funding expires. It does not affect non-Federal funds. In fact, it is the same language that has been included in annual appropriations bills for nearly three decades.

Let me be clear: I do not support the Hyde amendment. However, the language in this bill mirrors both President Obama's executive order and the language included in the annual appropriations bills.

And I wish the CHIP extension was for 4 years rather than 2. But in this environment, I think that having a 2-year extension is a good thing, is an accomplishment, is a step in the right direction.

Mr. Speaker, this is an important accomplishment, and I want to thank both Speaker Boehner and Leader Pelosi for their work in reaching this compromise, a deal that will finally enable this House to move away from annual doc-fix patches and toward providing stability and certainty for Medicare physicians and patients.

I am encouraged by the process taken to reach this agreement. For a Congress that I might say accurately has been called ``broken,'' ``hopeless,'' ``helpless''--a Congress plagued by gridlock and extreme partisanship--this bill represents what I hope will be a renewed commitment by my friends in the majority to work across the aisle with Democrats to address some of our country's most pressing issues. It is, and has always been, the way Congress passes important, substantive, and even historic legislation.

This place can work when we work together. Just look at what this House has done over the past few weeks. We responsibly kept the Department of Homeland Security open, and now we are on the verge of passing an incredibly vital bipartisan bill to repeal the sustainable growth rate, fund community health centers, and reauthorize CHIP.

I hope this bipartisan approach is contagious. I hope this is not the exception but becomes the rule. Every Member represents the same number of constituents, and every voice in this House needs and deserves to be heard.

Today--thanks to the leadership of Leader Pelosi and Speaker Boehner and so many others--we are doing something that we can feel good about, something more than a campaign slogan, something that is more than red meat for the political base.

This is something that will help seniors, kids, and low-income families. It deserves our support.

Before I reserve my time, Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the Statement of Administration Policy, which begins with the following:

``The Administration supports House passage of H.R. 2 because it would reform the flawed Medicare physician payment system to incentivize quality and value'' and ``would make reforms that could help slow health care cost growth, and would extend other important programs such as health care coverage for children.''

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I include the following statements for the Record in support of H.R. 2: the statement by the Massachusetts Hospital Association, a statement by the Massachusetts Medical Society, a list of a number of groups in support of H.R. 2, statements by the American Hospital Association, SEIU, and others. They are all in support of this bill.

Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) Statement on H.R. 2

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Mr. McGOVERN. I yield myself the balance of my time, and I will take this opportunity to close my side of the debate, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking all of those who have been involved in this compromise, especially Speaker Boehner and Leader Pelosi. I want to thank Mr. Burgess. I want to thank all of the members of the Energy and Commerce Committee. I am grateful to the staffs of all of the relevant committees for all of the work that they have put into this.

I especially want to acknowledge the incredible work of the staff who works in the Office of Legislative Counsel. They don't always get thanked, but they do so much of the work around here, not only on important and complicated legislation like what we are debating here today, but on all legislation, so we are grateful to them.

I don't really know what else to say here except that I am happy we are doing something, and I am happy that we are actually putting forward a bill, a bipartisan bill, that will help a lot of the people who most need help.

As Mr. Burgess said, in reality, this bill is about access, making sure our senior citizens have the access to the doctors and to the health care that they want. We are making that possible through this bill, as well as helping countless children and low-income families and supporting our community health centers.

This has been kind of an incredible week. It is hard to believe. First, we read that Ted Cruz signs up for ObamaCare, and now, we have this bipartisan compromise on the doc fix, and it reauthorizes CHIP and provides money to our community health centers.

Who knows. I mean, if this is contagious, maybe next week, we will deal with climate change, so I am feeling good as we close this week. Again, I hope this is a coming attraction of what we can see in the future: more bipartisan cooperation, more give and take.

If we follow what we did here, we actually can accomplish a lot more for the American people, and I think that would be a good thing.

Let's get this done.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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