June 12,2008

Grassley floor statement on S.3101, the Medicare bill

Floor Statement of U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Ranking Member of the Committee on Finance
Cloture on the motion to proceed to S.3101, the Medicare bill
Thursday, June 12, 2008

Mr. President, the vote we are going to take later today is an important one. The outcomewill determine whether we begin working together again on a bill the President will sign. Forthe sake of the 40 million Medicare beneficiaries, I urge my colleagues to defeat the cloturemotion today. Then we can get to work on a bipartisan basis and write a bill that can be signedinto law.

Mr. President, this afternoon, the Senate will be voting to move forward on a bill thatwould be vetoed if it passed. That is a pointless exercise if there ever was one. What's worse,the reality is that the bill is not even really ready for serious consideration. It is incomplete. Itwas introduced riddled with blanks and brackets. It won't become law. It cuts oxygen. It cutspower wheel chairs. It threatens future physician updates. It is a partisan bill that delaysbipartisan consideration of a Medicare bill.

And while the Senate wastes time with this bill, millions of taxpayer dollars inadministrative costs are also going to be wasted. CMS has to program their systems to not havethe physician pay cut go into effect on July 1. But they can only do that if Congress can pass abill that can be signed into law. Voting for this bill is the same as asking for the physician paycut to go into effect. And if it does, then CMS has to potentially hold millions of claims toreprocess them later. That costs millions and millions of dollars a week.

If the Senate votes for cloture on this bill today, we may as well be taking a match tomillions of taxpayer dollars. We had been working on a bipartisan process that could get us abill that could be signed into law, but for some reason, the majority got up and walked awayfrom the table. That was at the end of May. With all due respect to my friends on theother side of the aisle, in the three weeks since, they have produced a bill that, for all the rhetoricwe'll be hearing today, isn't worth the paper it's printed on. It won't become law - it will bevetoed.

Meanwhile, doctors in this country are looking at the calendar wondering what theirpayments will be after June 30th and wondering whether they can still afford to see Medicarepatients. They are wondering if they have enough cash reserves if Congress doesn't get its acttogether.

Mr President, I want to say something to the doctors back home who are listening to thisdebate. I know your insider Washington lobbyists are telling you that supporting cloture is thebest way to prevent the physician pay cut from going into effect on July 1st. But they are givingyou bad advice. It's a good thing they aren't giving the advice to real patients like you do if thisis the kind of judgment that they would use. The fact is a vote in support of cloture is theabsolute worst thing that could happen if you want the physician payment update addressedquickly.

If 60 Senators support cloture, we'll move to pass a bill out of the Senate. Of course thatwill be a bill that will get vetoed. Then the Senate will sit down with the House on a partisanbasis and produce a compromise that has even more spending, is even more liberal and morecertain to be vetoed. Then it will be voted on in the House and come back here for a vote. Thenfinally, it will go to the President where it will get vetoed. Then we will have a veto overridevote that will certainly fail. And then, and only then, will we sit down on a bipartisan basis towrite a bill that can become law.

Given how quickly things move around here that should be at about Thanksgiving. Ifcloture fails, I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and go to work tonight, June 12th. So to all thedoctors listening to this back home, to folks who pay dues to groups like the American MedicalAssociation and the American College of Physicians, hear me when I say, the people telling youthat supporting cloture is the way to get the physician payment update done fastest don't deservethe jobs they hold.

Mr. President, the solution is a simple one. We need to defeat the cloture motion todayand get back to bipartisan work to protect Medicare for America's seniors and the providers whoserve them. Mr. President, yesterday Senator McConnell and I introduced a bill, S.3118, toaddress the problems we face in Medicare. The Democrats are blocking our bill from getting avote today.

It's too bad, because it is a very good bill. I spoke of some of the provisions of the billearlier this afternoon. It is a bill that clearly serves Medicare beneficiaries. Our bill reducesmedication errors with stronger e-prescribing provisions. This will help ensure that our seniors'health care is not compromised by duplicative, dangerous or incompatible prescriptions. Our billhelps patients who have had a heart attack with cardiac and pulmonary rehab. Our bill insurersthat seniors who need access to outpatient therapy services will continue to receive the therapythey need.

I am very pleased that our bill pays a tribute to our beloved, departed colleague, SenatorCraig Thomas by including a number of provisions that protect access for beneficiaries in ruralAmerica. Specifically, our bill would accomplish this by addressing inequitable disparities inMedicare reimbursements between rural and urban providers and helps ensure these providersare able to keep their doors open. By continuing to fund two important and successful programsto combat diabetes, our bill helps people with diabetes. Finally, our bill includes a number ofextensions to help low income seniors and families.

Mr. President, as we close this debate, I think the vote is a very simple one. ThePresident will sign a bill that preserves Medicare for America's seniors and the providers whoserve them. The President will sign a bill that will provide increases in payments for rural healthcare in America. The President will even sign a bill that reduces payments to MedicareAdvantage. The President will also sign a bill promotes value-based purchasing, electronicprescribing, and electronic health records. The President will sign a bill that doesn't require cutsin oxygen payments or payments for power wheel chairs.

Unfortunately, the bill we are voting here and now to move forward on is not that bill.People back home often don't understand votes on procedural motions like this one. But this oneis easy. Voting for this bill is a step backwards. It's not a step forward. It won't become law.

Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to vote 'no' on the cloture motion so we can get towork on a bill the President will sign. Let's set aside the partisan games and get to workprotecting Medicare for America's seniors.