“Once again the Republican Leadership is trying to coerce Members of Congress into supporting a bad Medicare Prescription Drug bill.  Since I began my service in the House of Representatives nearly three years ago, I have worked diligently to enact a more equitable formula to calculate Medicare hospital provider payments, as well as increase Medicare  payments for physicians, hospitals, ambulance and other rural health care providers.  However, the Republican leadership has refused to give us a separate vote on provider issues for the last three years. They have turned their back on our rural healthcare providers up until now. But now that the vote is so close on the Medicare Prescription Drug bill, they have included these much-needed rural Medicare provisions to attempt to force us to vote for a bad Medicare Prescription Drug bill.

“We have now learned that within the Republican Medicare Prescription Drug bill is a new cost containment provision that may harm our rural healthcare providers.  The cost containment provision places an arbitrary ceiling on Medicare funding.  When the general revenue support for Medicare exceeds 45 percent of total Medicare spending, a trigger will require Congress to lower Medicare’s expenditures.  It is expected that the first items to be used to lower Medicare’s costs will be reimbursement to physicians and hospitals.  This harmful provision is not included in our bill, HR 3549. Currently, Medicare spending is at 38 percent and considering that general revenues will primarily finance the prescription drug benefit, reaching 45 percent of spending will certainly occur in the near future.

“Serious questions have been raised in the current Republican Medicare Prescription Drug legislation about the lack of a benefit to our seniors and how it does nothing to bring down the high-cost of medicine. I cannot support this so-called Republican Medicare Prescription Drug bill that only benefits the big drug companies and insurance companies. However, we must help our rural healthcare providers now.  They should not be penalized any longer.  There is bipartisan support for helping the rural health care providers and the Republican leadership should give us a vote on H.R. 3549.”