Believe that everything can be fixed. My former training in college in my graduate work work was an Aerospace Engineer and i hope to become an astronaut but because of my Mothers Health might life took a fast change. I must tell you as a little divergent comment, the pay performance structure we have now in medicare for bonus pay to most physician colleagues i think we can honestly say should he scrapped. We are trained to give our best to our patients. We are paid supposedly to give our best to patients. We shouldnt be doing metrics that have no bearing on the field that we do. In my field of ophthalmology some of the payfor Performance Measures could include something as ridiculous as doing a bodymass index. What does that have to do with the health of the eye or with the eye says about other conditions in the body . Nothing. You are spending medicare money for ridiculous measures. Taking her time in clinical practice to document this for someone who is a statistician who wants to ru
And im glad that i was put in the middle of this because for everything that something good comes of it and that is why im here today. As a Small Business i insured my family and my two employees and i had wonderful insurance. I was pleased with it. It was a Small Business plan and i might tell you a little fact now that you will find surprising. In 2008, just as you said, those premiums raised ridiculous amounts every year. One year was 26 for this great Insurance Plan. I was in sticker shock. It got to the point in 2008 that each individual in my Small Business plan to have a fully comprehensive plan would have cost 859. These are 2008. I did the math and i said, i cant possibly afford this so i contacted my Insurance Broker and i said what are my options . He mentioned the consumerdriven health plans. Not very familiar with it, a little bit leery about the concept, i explored it. It took me two years to sign on however. What i did in those 2008 without the Affordable Care act legisl
Care system that needed to be reformed. The fact is america had an imperfect system developed with a number of public and private forms of money, tremendous , and the like. Crashing it into a wall is not a fixed system. With that, i recognize the gentleman from maryland for his Opening Statement. Thank you for calling this hearing. This week, i had the tremendous honor and privilege of traveling to south africa. As part of our nations delegation to honor the life of the late president Nelson Mandela. It was an inspirational trip, life altering because i have the opportunity to reflect on the amazing changes that one individual, working with determination over a lifetime, can bring to millions of others. There will always be forces aligned against progress, against quality, against basic human dignity. But Nelson Mandelas life reminds us that our mission on earth is to transcend these district to forces and always pursue the betterment of our fellow man. Atraveled back yesterday on 20 h
This isnt about creating a New Washington system to how to figure out how to pay people to provide care. This is much more broadly, about how do we establish policies to allow patients and families to remain in control of their health care and health care decisions. So so why did you guys bring up the reimbursement rates under medicare and medicaid as one of the reasons why there is this lack of adequacy of network i would say providers within some of the plans . I would say it is one of the reasons. Okay. So it so if the congress could help address the reimbursement rates and reform sgr, would that help or hurt the process . I think it all depends on how its done. And, again, id refer you back to the position of the Obama Administration who said in a court filing this year saying theres to general mandate under medicaid to reimburse providers, including hospitals in that, for all or substantially all of their costs. So the position of the medicare, sgr is focused on medicare. But im j
Less than 24 hours after his public testimony, Julie Swetnick, this woman, has come forward against kavanaugh, this time in the form of a sworn declaration. Among several graphic details of sexually aggressive behavior and drugging girls at parties, swetnick said in 1982 she, quote, became the victim of one of these gang or train rapes where mark judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present. According to her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, Julie Swetnick says shes ready to testify in front of the Judiciary Committee. In the early 1980s, Brett Kavanaugh she is describing as someone that drank excessively, was verbally and physically abusive towards women, also engaged in conduct relating to attempting to get women inebriated. Kavanaugh released a statement denying the allegations saying, quote, this is ridiculous and from the twilight zone. I dont know who this is, and this never happened. What was the president s reaction . Trump tweeted a direct attack. Avenatti is a third rate lawyer who is good