Senate Proceeding on Oct 26th, 2009 :: 0:39:25 to 0:46:00
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0:39:16 to 0:39:36( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: package to help these states with $80 billion in aid. would the senator like to factor that into his conversation sensitivity to what the states are mr. alexander: mr. president, i thank the -- the. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i thank the senator for raising the point. it's a point i'd be delighted to address. i voted against that proposal.

0:39:25 to 0:46:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lamar Alexander

0:39:37 to 0:39:58( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: that proposal was a backdoor effort in a so-called jobs bill to spend $85 billion over two years for medicade. that's one reason why we have 10% unemployment today because the money that was supposed to be for the stimulus was borrowed from the biggest deficits that we've ever run up in history and spent on something other than jobs.

0:39:59 to 0:40:19( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: and what it also did was it it unrealistically lifted up the level of medicade spending in tennessee and every oth forcing an expansion of that program which i will go on to show in just a mine is -- is nearly cruel to the people who are dumped into the program because doctors and hospitals

0:40:20 to 0:40:41( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: won't serve them. so i was glad to vote against that program. i was sorry it passed because it it borrowed money we d't have to spend on programs that didn't create jobs and it artificially lifted up and expanded the medicade program which is ready bankrupting statements. medicade expansion is not real health care reform.

0:40:42 to 0:41:03( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: and one reason is because 40% -- according to the medicare payer advisory survey, 40% of physicians reticket access to medicade patients. mainly they won't take new medicade patients because reimbursement rates are so low. only about half of u.s. physicians accept new medicade

0:41:04 to 0:41:25( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: patients compared with more than 70% who accept new medicare. those are the senior patients. according to a 2002 study in the journal of american academy of pediatrics, the national rate for pediatricians who accept all medicade patients was 55%. in tennessee it was lower than that. why is that? it's because reimbursement rates

0:41:26 to 0:41:47( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: are so low. today patients who see -- doctors who see patients who are on medicare get paid about 80% of what private insurers pay. doctors who say patients who -- who see patients who are on medicade get paid about 61% or

0:41:48 to 0:42:09( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: 62% of what private insurers pa and for doctors who see children it's lower than that so doctors don't see those patients. so what's going to happen if we dump 14 more million low-income americans into a system like that? those patients, especially those children, are going to have a harder time finding doctors and

0:42:10 to 0:42:31( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: hospitals to be taking care of them. it will be like giving somebody a ticket and a pat on a back to a busline that only operated 50% of the time. further the quality of care for medicade patients is significantly lower than those with private insurance and even those with no insurance. according to a survey by the

0:42:32 to 0:42:53( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: national hospital ambulatory care, medicade patients visit emergency rooms at nearly twice the rate of uninsured patients. a 2007 study by the american -- patients enrolled in medicade were less like to receive breast cancer screening, have timely prenatal care than similar

0:42:54 to 0:43:14( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: patients in private plans and they had lower survival rates. and i mentioned this earlier, according to the government accountability office, medicade -- t expand, the gernment-run insurance program that sounds so good, the so-called largest public option plan that we have today. the plan where half the doctors

0:43:15 to 0:43:35( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: won't take new patients who are on the program, 32.7 bp in proper participates -- billion in proper patients. 10% of the program's total spending is wasted. so, mr. president, as we consider a scalled public option, i hope we'll look at the public option we already have

0:43:36 to 0:43:57( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: called medicade. one which already has an opt out provision for states. one which already has 60 million low-income americans in it. one in which we plan to put 14 million more americans so that 50% of the doctors will say to new

0:43:58 to 0:44:18( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: because the reimbursement rates are so low. medicade is the public option we have right now. states could opt out of it, but quality is down, fraud is high, costs are up, states are coming in, governors on both sides of the i'll are saying we're head toward bankruptcy.

0:44:19 to 0:44:40( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: at the present rate you're sending us more bills, if you want to expand it, pay for it and doctors are turning away patients. so the american people deserve better than that. i'm i'm the co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill that would actually reduce the number of students on medicaid. it's called the wyden-bennett bill. it adds no costs to the government.

0:44:41 to 0:45:02( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: that bill has not been seriously considered. the other approach that we begins believe we should take is focusing on reducing costs to the government, focused on reducing costs of premiums, take four or five steps in the right direction, and expand services to uninsured patients as we go. one way to do that, of course, would be the small business

0:45:03 to 0:45:23( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: health insurance bill which has broad which would permit small businesses to come together, pool their resources. the estimates are that at least a million more americans would be covered by employer insurance if that were to happen. some estimates say many more millions. but especially on a day when the

0:45:24 to 0:45:44( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: press has it rumored that the majority leader may offer a new government-run insurance program with the state having the opportunity to opt out, i hope americans will look carefully at the current government-run insurance program, which states have the option to opt out of but none do, and kts that it

0:45:45 to 0:46:00( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: has 60 million americans. it's about to have 74. half the doctors won't see new patients because of reimbursement rates. one out of ten dollars is wasted. it's not a solution to health care and neither is a new public option.