“I can tell you as a doctor, the simple truth is this health care bill is bad for patients, it’s bad for providers; our doctors, our nurses and our hospitals.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) joined other GOP physicians at a press conference on Capitol Hill regarding the Democrats’ health care bill. Senator Barrasso is one of two physicians in the U.S. Senate, an orthopedic trauma surgeon and former president of the Wyoming Medical Society.
Excerpts from Senator Barrasso’s speech:
“I want to thank everyone for joining us today. You’re looking at a number of physicians, people who have practiced medicine around the country in their home districts for many years. I’m John Barrasso from Wyoming, an orthopedic surgeon taking care of the families around the state of Wyoming for the last quarter century and serving now in the United States Senate.”
“I can tell you as a doctor, the simple truth is this health care bill is bad for patients, it’s bad for providers; our doctors, our nurses and our hospitals. As well as it’s bad for payers – the American people who are going to end up having to pay this bill.”
“You take a look at this and the President continues to talk about making sure more people are covered. But that doesn’t mean more people will get care. And there’s a fundamental disconnect when he says he’s going to solve this by putting 15 million more people on Medicaid. There’s a front page New York Times two days ago that says both doctors and patients are dropping out of Medicaid because the reimbursement is so low.”
“In the Seattle Times yesterday, going coast-to-coast, the Walgreens drug stores – a 131 of them – said we don’t want any new Medicaid patients.”
“So I’m delighted that all of you are here to listen to our comments. We’re going to hear from physicians with who have a great deal of experience. In Wyoming, I took care of a number of patients from Canada- people that have come from Canada for health care. It’s not just a Member of Parliament or the Premier of Newfoundland who comes to the United States for care. 33,000 Canadians last year came to the United States for surgery because even though they had coverage in Canada, they couldn’t get care because the waiting lines were so long. It wasn’t just there. In Massachusetts as well, the waiting time now is 42 days – 42 days to get an appointment to see a family physician. And it’s the most expensive insurance state in the country. And they’re the ones that have a health care system that is closest to what the President and the Democrats are trying to force through Congress.”
“We have better solutions; we believe we need to go in a step by step process. The President this morning is signing a jobs bill. He said the first of several. That’s what we ought to do with health care. Go step-by-step in a positive direction with solutions that we know work for the American people. Not a trillion dollar bill that cuts Medicare by 500 billion dollars from our seniors who depend upon Medicare for their health care. Not raises taxes by another 500 billion dollars, and a bill that is absolutely loaded with sweetheart deals. And yesterday on Fox, the President said the ‘Louisiana Purchase’ is going to stay in no matter what happens. That’s what we’re dealing with.”