NEWS – CONGRESSMAN PETE STARK
239 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5065
www.stark.house.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 15, 2010
Contact: Brian Cook, (202) 225-3202

WASHINGTON - The House Republican pledge unveiled three weeks ago would turn back the clock on health care progress.  Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, today criticized the Republican plan to eliminate assistance for primary care providers.

"Primary care providers are the front line of health care in America," said Chairman Stark.  "The health reform law makes key investments, increasing the number of primary care providers to help meet America's health care needs.  Republicans would eliminate those investments and jeopardize Americans' access to family physicians."

The health reform law makes several key investments in the primary care workforce:
• Implements a 10 percent Medicare bonus for primary care services provided by primary care physicians through 2015;
• Increases Medicaid reimbursements to match Medicare levels for primary care physicians in 2013 and 2014;
• Provides an additional $1.5 billion in mandatory spending for the National Health Service Corps to get more primary care providers to areas that need them the most;
• Redistributes unused Medicare residency training slots to hospitals that will use them to train primary care and general surgery doctors.

Republicans would repeal these investments, stalling much needed growth in our health care workforce growth.

For additional information on how the Republican pledge is detrimental to America's health:
Make it harder to appeal unfair denials by insurers: http://go.usa.gov/aKN
Balloon the deficit: http://go.usa.gov/aZo
Make more Americans face medical bankruptcy: http://go.usa.gov/aju
Repeal free preventive care: http://go.usa.gov/a4j
Reduce Medicare's solvency by 12 years: http://go.usa.gov/a10
Permit discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions: http://go.usa.gov/ach
End reinsurance program for early retirees: http://go.usa.gov/ac2
Shut down healthcare.gov: http://go.usa.gov/al8
Gut programs to fight Medicare fraud, waste, and abuse: http://go.usa.gov/xuT
Increase the uninsured by 29 million: http://go.usa.gov/xMU
Kick people out of new Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plans: http://go.usa.gov/x60
Eliminate the small business tax credit: http://go.usa.gov/xsj
Re-open the Medicare Part D donut hole: http://go.usa.gov/xGe
Repeal investment in health IT: http://go.usa.gov/xGF
More to come...