At a time when Americans are facing skyrocketing health care costs, the last thing we need is to discourage doctors from seeing Medicare patients by reducing their Medicare reimbursement.

Correcting the flawed physician payment formula is something that I have been working hard at ever since being contacted by hundreds of doctors and patients in our district. I have supported this change every step of the way, first by cosponsoring a bill in the 107th Congress to change the formula and then voting twice for bills that included a fix. Unfortunately, the Senate did not act on this critical legislation before adjourning last year.

Now is the time for Congress to correct this situation. That is why I have cosponsored HJRes 3, disapproving of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed rule that would further reduce the reimbursement level for physicians by 4.4%. This reduction is unacceptable and I will continue fighting until this issue is resolved. We need to make sure our seniors continue to have access to high quality of care.