Healthcare

It is long overdue for the nation's political and government leaders to come together, change course and begin to implement policies that more fairly allocate the burden of the war effort on our citizens.  We are engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that no doubt will have lasting consequences for the nation in terms of costs - both human and budgetary.  Clearly the time is right to appreciate the need for national sacrifice to support such endeavors. Yet, this notion of shared sacrifice is not embodied in the Administration's domestic policies that unevenly spread the burden of the war effort by providing tax cuts to the wealthiest among us while shortchanging programs that benefit veterans and the middle class.  Current policies under the Republican-controlled government expect veterans to sacrifice twice - once when they serve their country in uniform, and a second time after they return to civilian life - in the form of higher health care fees, pared-back health care budgets, and delayed and denied access to care.

I think we can do better and I am confident that we as Americans are capable of joining together for the common good and begin to share in the sacrifice that our servicemembers, veterans and military families are currently experiencing.  Unfortunately, this Administration has never asked the public to share in this burden equally.  Rather, the Administration appears to be disconnected from the harsh realities facing our servicemembers, veterans, and military families - preferring instead to promote tax cuts for the elite while shortchanging funding for veterans and military families.  In contrast, my Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives have tried to increase funding for veterans' health, expand TRICARE health care for the members of the National Guard and Reserves and worked to defeat Administrative efforts to raise veterans' health care fees.  We must continue these efforts.

Friends, the time is right to change course and head in a new direction.  We must begin asking the nation to share in the sacrifice during this time of war and truly support our servicemembers, veterans and military families.  Our comfort, peace and security depend on them; they should know they can depend on us.

Like most Americans, I was appalled by Rush Limbaugh's heartless attack on Michael J. Fox.  Attacking someone suffering from Parkinson's disease is a new low, even for Rush Limbaugh.

Anyone who has ever had a family member who has suffered from this tragic disease knows that Michael J. Fox was not faking.  Parkinson's is a severely debilitating disease that robs it's victims of their motor functions.  Embryonic stem cell research could hold the key to curing this and other life threatening diseases.  Michael J. Fox should be applauded for speaking out on this important and life saving research not ridiculed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh.

Rush Limbaugh should start his show today by begging the forgiveness of Michael J. Fox and the millions of Americans and their families who suffer with this disease every day.

In speaking about the horrors surrounding our nation’s attitude concerning innocent life in the womb, John MacArthur, pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church said “America as a nation is highly committed by law and by practice to a form of mass murder. Read more...

I have sent a letter to several Congressional districts across the country that have been targeted by political interest groups mischaracterizing AARP’s Voters’ Guides and the positions of candidates on Social Security.

AARP members in AZ-5, CO-7, FL-16, KY-4, PA-10, and TX-17 will be receiving this correspondence.  The letter sent to these districts can be seen below.  All political interest groups, parties, and candidates should cease using AARP’s Voters’ Guides in a misleading way.

AARP believes that a bipartisan, balanced plan can maintain guaranteed Social Security benefits for future generations, and an overwhelming number of our members and the American public agree with this position.  AARP’s Voters’ Guides provide voters with unedited candidate responses and allow our members and the general public to have a more accurate understanding of the candidates’ positions in order to make an informed choice when they go vote. Read more...

This week, charges were filed against former FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford for making a false writing and serving with conflicts of interest.  I led the call last year for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General Daniel Levinson to conduct an investigation into Crawford's sudden resignation with a particular focus on any potential financial conflicts of interest.  Levinson initiated the investigation in response.

Senior officials at the FDA have led the agency down a dark road into a state of crisis.  This new court filing against Lester Crawford underscores the fact that the FDA, which is one of the most important protectors of public health and safety, is in need of a serious overhaul.  By blatantly ignoring the law on financial holdings and conflicts of interest, Lester Crawford used his position as the head of the FDA to send all the wrong signals to other FDA employees and the American public.  It is not possible for the FDA to fairly and impartially regulate the food and drug industries when the commissioner of the agency has a vested financial interest in the results. Read more...

By passing the “Older Americans Act

Today U.S. health care spending has reached 16 percent of our gross national product. At the same time, our population is growing older, and the retirement of the "baby boom" generation will substantially increase health care expenditures. No matter what we do to provide coverage to Americans, or to improve the quality and efficiency of care, a failure to manage costs will undermine those efforts.

One area in which I have focused efforts to reduce costs is the increasing problem of the affordability of prescription drugs, where price increases outpace inflation by two to three fold. That reduces access, and as has been said, "A drug one that one cannot afford is neither safe nor effective."

That is why I joined in a bipartisan effort with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) in 2004 to offer legislation to improve our Medicare prescription drug benefit. While millions today benefit greatly from Part D, the cost of prescription drug coverage is far in excess of what the Congress was promised. Today seniors are realizing help primarily due to government subsidy, without the substantial discounting of drug prices we should be seeing. Our legislation - the MEND Act (S.239) - will assure that the HHS Secretary has an appropriate role in drug price negotiation to ensure that seniors and taxpayers realize the savings they deserve. Indeed, achieving modest additional savings on just a single blockbuster drug would save several billion dollars per year. Such savings are essential to making this benefit more affordable and to providing a means to help eliminate the "donut hole" gap in coverage.

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The findings of the GAO are troublesome. Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries should feel secure that their personal health information is kept private. Agency officials ought to do whatever it takes to strengthen the program, and ensure that all beneficiaries are protected.

For more than five years, Congress has been aware of the serious flaws in the way Medicare calculates physician payments. Right now, physicians receive no payment increase to account for inflation. As their expenses rise, their payments remain stagnant. Essentially, they are receiving less money for services now than they did five years ago.

Unless Congress acts when it returns in November, Medicare physician payments will be cut by more than 5 percent on January 1, 2007. This problem is not a new one, and it should come as no surprise to members of Congress. In fact, we have acted several times to block cuts in physician payments, giving Congress more time to fix the problem.

But that fix is nowhere in sight. House leadership has taken no real action on the issue. Last week, the Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee held its fifth hearing in 12 months on the issue. What we need is a plan, not another hearing.

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Is anybody else out there tired of talking about this?  Over the next nine years, doctors participating in Medicare will face payment cuts of approximately five percent per year.  Everyone on the Hill has heard this message again and again - both in the past few weeks and in previous years. It keeps coming up, we keep putting a band-aid on it, and somehow we're always surprised that it comes back to haunt us.

I would like to actually fix this.  Call it the physician in me, but I want it to heal and go away.  And the problem itself is pretty simple; we can do this.  Right now the Medicare physician payment system pays doctors less when they overspend their SGR limit.  It's punitive.  And when doctors get paid less per patient, they first increase the number of patients they see to try and make ends meet - quality suffers - and eventually they leave the system.  We aren't talking about fat cats here, we're talking about working men and women who come out of school with a load of debt and a genuine desire to help people.  Doctors don't want to refuse patients, but simple economics is forcing them to do that, despite what the AARP may believe.

They will keep the patients they have now if they can, out of responsibility and friendship, and they will stop accepting new ones.  It is already happening. Read more...