Press Releases

(As prepared for delivery)

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Health care in America has transformed under the work of this Committee. We dream big, and achieve even bigger.

Thanks to the work of Democrats, we’ve reached historic health care milestones that are improving Americans’ health and well-being. More Americans have health insurance today than ever before, with 4 out of 5 people being able to access high-quality care for less than $10 a month.

When I was Chairman of this Committee, we opened up more graduate education spots with an emphasis on rural and underserved communities to address systemic worker shortages. With President Biden, we’ve capped out of pocket costs for prescription drugs for seniors and the monthly cost of insulin. Soon, Medicare will have the ability to negotiate on lower drug prices, putting money back into the pockets of consumers and taxpayers. Just yesterday, we learned that against all odds, including Republican threats and inaction, the Medicare trust has been extended by five years because of the strong economy President Biden and House Democrats worked so hard to build.

If you think about where our nation was four years ago, it’s safe to say, we are healthier, safer, and more secure, and if my Republican colleagues would work with us, there’s even more we could do.

Throughout the course of the last several years, and in the wake of the pandemic, the ease and usefulness of telehealth became a central tenet for delivering health services across the country.

Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Lloyd Doggett and Tax Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Thompson have been leaders in the House on this issue, fighting to shine a light on fraud and do what’s best for our nation’s patients. There’s much more to do here to protect consumers before this legislation could become law.

When Democrats held the Majority, we established the Rural and Underserved Communities Health Task Force to focus—on a bipartisan basis—on the challenges facing these areas while also addressing what contributes to inequity in the health care system. Both populations are in need, neither more worthy than the other.  With underserved being excluded from today’s legislation, I’m left wondering why. We easily could’ve targeted this legislation to help both populations.

We are also marking up a bill that will make it more difficult to make headway on America’s physician shortage, and risks having the new physician slots we fought so hard for go unused.

And then we have two bills that run the serious risk of undermining existing community providers – one bill that pays ambulances owned by critical access hospitals more than local ambulances even though they may be serving the same area.

Another concerning piece of these bills is how they invite more private equity money to infiltrate our health system. Rural emergency hospitals get paid an extra nearly $300,000 a month – even if they don’t see one patient. So as President Biden’s economy extends the Medicare Trust, this bill is a money-making opportunity for PE that lacks guardrails and has no concern for the impact on the Trust.

It’s always disappointing to see a bill so narrowly tailored that it even includes a handout for one particular rural hospital. We are all here representing our districts, and their individual interests, but we govern for the masses. At a time when many communities are hurting from Republicans’ inaction on health care, we should be widening our scope, not narrowing it.

One of the key factors in the success of rural hospitals is Medicaid expansion. Yet, not only have a number of Republican governors continued to oppose it – the Republican members of this committee also opposed it when this Committee marked up a proposal to fill that gap using the ACA premium tax credits.

Is the interest in helping rural communities or providing new opportunities for private equity to profit off of rural America?

Finally, I have to talk about the biggest threat to Americans’ health and well-being: just weeks ago, 80% of House Republicans endorsed ripping away Medicaid coverage for 45 million people. It’s more of the same wealthy and well-connected playbook: they’ve consistently opposed Medicaid expansion while exacerbating coverage gaps that disproportionately hurt rural and underserved communities.

For a slate of bills that won’t even become law, there’s much more we could’ve done—for starters, what about text more than 36 hours before the mark? Or more member scrutiny of last minute changes? The American people deserve more, and I will continue working to achieve that in our year-end package.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.