roe.house.gov
Phil Roe
Contact:
GOP House Doctors Answer: What is most dangerous about President Obama’s Medicare Plan for Americans?
Washington, Jun 17 -
Washington, DC – Members of the GOP Doctors Caucus today issued the following statements revealing what is most dangerous about President Obama’s Medicare plan for Americans: Rep. Phil Gingrey, M.D., Co-Chair (GA-11): “There are so many reasons why President Obama’s idea of Medicare reform is dangerous for patients. He raids Medicare of $500 billion, empowers an unelected board of 15 bureaucrats to make decisions about our citizen’s health care, and makes absolutely no effort to save the Medicare system from its present fast-track to bankruptcy by 2024. Obama’s plan for Medicare is to ignore this fact, and to ignore it is to destroy Medicare – THAT is the real danger to Americans.” Rep. Tim Murphy, Ph.D., Co-Chair (PA-18): “Currently, Medicare is replete with bureaucracy, regulations and rules that stand between doctors and the most effective patient care. Adding another barrier to quality care with the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) will only make matters worse. Reform in Medicare must focus on lowering costs by improving quality, coordinating care and helping ensure seniors live healthier lives, not on empowering unelected bureaucrats to deny access to treatment for beneficiaries.” Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (TN-01): “First, President Obama cut $500 billion out of Medicare to pay for a new entitlement program for government-run health care. Then, he created a rationing board known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) that is charged with cutting benefits that are not deemed to be cost effective. With the IPAB, there will be drastic cuts to patient care based on a budget, not on the patient’s needs or quality of care. This is a dangerous board that must be repealed before it does great damage to the Medicare program.” Rep. Paul Broun, M.D. (GA-10): “The most dangerous part of President Obama’s Medicare plan is that he flat out doesn’t have one,” said Congressman Paul Broun, M.D. (GA-10). “In thirteen very short years, the Medicare Trust Fund will run out of money – leaving seniors high and dry and future generations without a healthcare program to depend upon. Yet, the Obama Administration doesn’t care. They’ve sent their Medicare reform responsibilities to a panel of unqualified bureaucrats, just as the President’s economic policies send American jobs overseas. It’s the Administration’s responsibility to at least present us with one real option for fixing Medicare’s money problems, and if they can’t, the GOP House Doctors have plenty of ideas on where to begin.” House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Tom Price, M.D. (GA-06): “When they voted to cut $500 billion from today’s seniors and empower Washington bureaucrats to effectively ration care to seniors through ObamaCare, Democrats ended Medicare ‘as we know it.’ Rather than offering a plan today to save Medicare from insolvency, Democrats have resorted to false attacks and demagoguery on Republican-led efforts to preserve and strengthen the program for today’s seniors and tomorrow’s retirees. House Republicans have taken the mantle of leadership seriously and are offering positive solutions that will protect access to quality care now and in the years to come. While Democrats would rather shift health care decisions from patients and doctors to a rationing board of unelected bureaucrats in Washington, our solutions would ensure that health care decisions remain in the hands of patients and their doctors.”
Rep. Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (TX-26): “The Independent Payment Advisory Board exponentially expands the power of the executive branch, giving an unelected and unaccountable panel of fifteen individuals the authority to make changes to the Medicare program. The Obama administration’s assault on the health care system robs patients and doctors of their traditional relationship and places it in the hands of a bureaucratic panel.” Rep. Larry Bucshon (IN-08): “As a physician, the most important thing to me was the doctor-patient relationship. Under President Obama’s plan for Medicare, I am afraid that the doctor-patient relationship will no longer be important when it comes to making the best decision for a patient’s care. The President’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) will leave health care decisions up to a board of 15 unelected bureaucrats. Health care decisions are best made between a doctor and their patient, not by the government.”
Rep. Diane Black (TN-06): “The worst part about the president’s plan for Medicare is that it is well past the planning stage—it is now law. Thanks to Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, we face a future where 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats will be dictating senior’s Medicare benefits from Washington. This Independent Payment Advisory Board will restrict benefits for seniors in the name of arbitrary spending targets. Our seniors deserve better than a board of untouchables in Washington standing between them and quality care.” Rep. John Fleming, M.D. (LA-O4): "We are facing an imminent medicare crisis. If not reformed, Medicare will be bankrupt in 12 years according to its own actuary. Instead of coming up with real solutions to this catastrophe, President Obama and the Democrats would rather play the "mediSCARE" game. As a practicing physician for over 30 years, I know firsthand that Medicare needs real reforms which is why I support the Republican Budget that SAVES Medicare for future generations while not changing benefits for individuals over 55 years of age." Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (NY-25): “The Independent Payment Advisory Board directly threatens the authority of Congress to deliberate and modify Medicare payment policy. This infringement of Congressional authority places yet another barrier between Congress and its relationship with the American people.” Rep. Bill Cassidy, M.D. (LA-06): “The Republican reforms preserve Medicare so that those 55 and older will continue to have Medicare as they have known it and the reforms save and strengthen Medicare so that it remains solvent for Americans 54 and younger. Obamacare has made reform harder by cutting $500 billion from Medicare to spend on other government programs. But the need for reform is clear – if we do nothing Medicare goes bankrupt in 2021. There are those who oppose the Republican reforms. But doing nothing is not an option as Medicare is too important a program to be allowed to fail,” said Dr. Cassidy.” Rep. Charles Boustany, Jr. M.D. (LA-07): “I have grave concerns about the future of Medicare. We must take action now to fix it for current seniors and future generations,” Boustany said. “As a doctor for nearly 20 years, I treated many Medicare patients, and too often they lacked a primary care physician. Seniors’ access problems will grow worse as the new health law raided $500 billion from the Medicare program to fund unrelated programs and created a board of bureaucrats to make deeper cuts. IPAB’s decisions will have the force of law and destroy Medicare for current seniors and future generations. Critical health care decisions are put in the hands of unelected bureaucrats while the Republican plan makes no changes to individuals at or near retirement and maintains Medicare for the future.” ###