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(Washington, D.C.) U.S. Rep. Mike Ross (AR-04) Thursday delivered opening
remarks in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Full Committee Hearing
entitled, “Medicaid: Empowering Beneficiaries on the Road to Reform.”
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Ross strongly discouraged fellow
members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce from cutting $10
billion to Medicaid, a major health care safety net to 717,000 beneficiaries
in Arkansas alone. Below is the text of Ross’s remarks.
“Thank you Mr. Chairman. I just want to make some comments after
sitting here and listening to a lot of things that have been said this
morning.
“Mr. Chairman, we are talking about $10 billion worth of cuts to Medicaid.
In the same budget we are talking about $106 billion in tax cuts. Those
tax cuts will not be debated in this committee, but they will be debated
in this Congress, and last time I checked, we are all members of the 109th
Congress. So, it’s about priorities. There is a lot of
talk these days about faith. Some people talk about it, some try
and do something about it. As we go through this debate affecting
the poorest among us, I hope all of us will pause for a moment and think
about Matthew 25:40, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the one
of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
“Let me tell you about my America. Half of the children in Arkansas
are on Medicaid. Eight out of ten seniors in the nursing homes in
Arkansas are on Medicaid. One in five people in my home state of
Arkansas are on Medicaid. Now we have 60,000, the number could be
larger, we are still trying to figure it out, but we have at least 60,000
of our neighbors from Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Orleans now in Arkansas
and many of them are in desperate need of Medicaid.
“Now the gentleman from Oregon talked about the Erectile Dysfunctional
Drug and how it’s covered by Medicaid. I don’t know where the gentleman
got his information from, but I can tell you that my wife and I own a small
town family pharmacy, and in Arkansas Medicaid does not pay for Erectile
Dysfunctional Drugs. Perhaps the gentleman from Oregon is confused
because the Medicare Drug Bill that he voted for does cover Erectile Dysfunctional
Drugs, but Medicaid in Arkansas does not. In terms of the hair loss
drug, I am still trying to get an answer to that question. But, I
can tell you this, my wife and I own a pharmacy, and never once has Medicaid
paid for a hair loss drug at our pharmacy.
“So, let’s get our facts straight as we debate these issues because
we are talking about peoples’ lives. We are talking about $10 billion in
cuts to Medicaid. Medicaid is the health insurance plan for the poor,
disabled, and the elderly. In my business and from my home state,
I see a lot of poor people, and never once has someone walked up to me
and said, ‘I like being poor.’ As I mentioned, my wife and I own
a family pharmacy and we see a lot of sick people. But never once
has someone walked through our door and said, ‘You know, I just love being
sick.’ And when you talk about cutting Medicaid $10 billion, it’s
as if we are going to wake up tomorrow and people are going to quit getting
sick or quit being poor.
“This is more about shifting more of the expense to the state.
We saw it happen with the end of Federal Revenue Sharing in the early 1980’s
and poor states like Arkansas simply cannot afford to take on anymore of
the burden. This is about shifting more of the burden to the states.
Mr. Chairman, I believe that is wrong. Thank you.”
Ross is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which
has jurisdiction over Medicaid. |
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