Our physicians and health care providers are the foundation of our rural health care system.  If we want to preserve this system, which is designed to protect patients, then it is critical to have a stable, predictable payment system for our physicians to be reimbursed by Medicare.  A five percent reduction in payments may not sound like much, but it could cause doctors to stop accepting new Medicare patients and possibly even limit seniors’ access to health care opportunities.

   I have long supported efforts to assist our physicians in this dilemma so that they can continue to provide quality care to Medicare beneficiaries.  I am a cosponsor of the Preserving Patient Access to Physicians Act of 2005 (H.R. 2356), which would reform the Medicare physician payment update system by repealing the SGR payment system altogether.  I also recently signed a letter to House Republican and Democratic Leadership requesting that they take immediate action to prevent these pending 2007 reimbursement rate cuts from going into effect before Congress adjourns this year.  

   If Congress does not take action before January 1^st, these payment costs will destabilize the Medicare program and put all patients’ access to health care at risk.  As your Congressman, and as a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee which oversees all health care legislation in the House of Representatives, I will continue to fight to prevent these cuts so that our physicians will continue to have the ability to serve working families and seniors in rural America.