John Boehner - 8th District of Ohio

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Nov 19, 2009

Washington -

Congressman John Boehner (R-West Chester) issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed “doc fix” legislation (H.R. 3961) that would add nearly $300 billion to the federal budget deficit:

“Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats have voted to add nearly $300 billion to the deficit just days after the national debt topped $12 trillion for the first time in U.S. history. This irresponsible ‘doc fix’ proves once again that out-of-touch Washington Democrats simply cannot help themselves when it comes to piling debt on our kids and grandkids. Democrats continue to add tens of billions of dollars to the deficit while promising to eventually end their unprecedented spending binge. Out-of-work families asking ‘where are the jobs’ don’t have the luxury of making fiscal responsibility a New Year’s resolution. Republicans have a better solution that addresses this critical issue and protects America’s doctors at a price our nation can afford.”

NOTE: Following is a summary of Republicans’ better solution to reimburse physicians fairly to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries have access to the health care they need in a fiscally responsible way:

• Provide physicians with a two percent Medicare payment rate increase in each of the next four years. This would erase the scheduled 21 percent cut in 2010 and the roughly five percent cuts in 2011, 2012, and 2013. The remaining savings ($26.3 billion) generated by the reforms included in the GOP alternative will be used to address future cuts. At a cost of $210 billion, the Democrats’ bill would provide for a 0.8 percent payment rate increase in 2010, but physicians could see their rates cut as early as 2011.

• Avert the scheduled Medicare physician cuts in a fiscally responsible way by including reforms that would fully offset the cost of the bill. These reforms would:

Implement comprehensive, meaningful medical liability reform, ending junk lawsuits and costly defensive medicine by protecting doctors from overzealous trial lawyers who are looking to get rich quick (savings of $54 billion; H.R. 1086 introduced by Rep. Gingrey);
Use existing resources available to the HHS Secretary contained in the “Medicare Improvement Fund,” which is designed to improve physician payments (savings of $22.3 billion)

Create an approval process at FDA for biosimilar products with appropriate patent and market protections that continue to encourage innovation, providing Americans with access to affordable biologics and reducing the cost of health insurance (savings of $5.7 billion; nearly identical to H.R. 1548 introduced by Reps. Eshoo and Barton); and

Enact health insurance administrative simplification policies, eliminating inefficiencies that unnecessarily drive up health care costs, by creating greater standardization in health care forms and transactions (savings of $19 billion).

• Unlike the Democrats’ bill, the GOP proposal would not increase the deficit.