Amending Title XI of the Social Security Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments from my friend from Texas. Mr. Speaker, there is occasionally a little bit of controversy around the House, a modest amount of disagreement, and, of course, that is just in the Republican conference. There are lots of things that get the spotlight.
But I appreciate the leadership of my friend with our Health Subcommittee on Ways and Means for there are things below the radar screen where we have been working in a thoughtful and bipartisan way to try and see if we can thread the needle on a number of these things that don't have to cost a lot of money, and they enable us to be able to refine healthcare opportunities.
One of the biggest accomplishments of the session was getting the SGR monkey off our back to deal with the sustainable growth rate in a bipartisan fashion, and there have been, I want to say, about 12 bills that have moved out of our Health Subcommittee that deal with initiatives going forward.
What my friend from Texas said about the PACE Act is absolutely true. This is an opportunity for us to take a proven set of techniques to help seniors who want to stay at home, who do not want to be in nursing facilities, being able to give them the flexible needs in terms of services, and it works.
I represent a program in Portland, Oregon, Providence ElderPlace. It serves over 1,000 Oregonians. It has got a solid track record. It has costs that are lower than average if they were Medicaid beneficiaries. In some States, these savings can be nearly 30 percent.
There are opportunities here to be able to give better ongoing service. The hospital readmission rate, for example, the program I mentioned in Oregon, is far under the national average of 15.2 percent. It is about half that rate.
This simply extends this opportunity to a broader range of beneficiaries, people who have complex health conditions, but who are younger, for instance. They are no less deserving of this opportunity. I am absolutely convinced that the results will be every bit as strong.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate having this bill move forward, and I appreciate the advocacy of my friend, Mr. Smith from New Jersey. We seem to find a variety of things to work on together in this Congress, and there is nothing that I think is more important and is going to have more long-term impact for people who are quite vulnerable. It is going to save the Federal Government money while it provides better outcomes for patients and for their families.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time urging strong support from my colleagues.
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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to close just by saying, again, I express my appreciation to the chairman and to Mr. Smith for moving this forward.
We find that the evaluations of the PACE program have proven that participants experience better health outcomes, fewer unmet needs, less pain, less likelihood of depression, and fewer hospitalizations and nursing home admissions.
There are people out there now, if we make this change, that are ready to extend this higher quality of care for very deserving, needy, and vulnerable people who are younger than the threshold 55 years of age.
Mr. Speaker, I urge we vote tonight, enact it into law, and let these people get to work serving these people in a new and profoundly improved way.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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