Rep. Ellison Statement on H.R. 2

Statement

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) released the following statement today after voting in favor of H.R. 2, a bill to fix the Sustainable Growth Rate for Medicare.

"The current formula for paying doctors who see patients on Medicare is broken. I support a fix that is fair and provides critical stability for doctors, hospitals and Medicare patients. The package passed today fixes the Sustainable Growth Rate formula, but the bill unfortunately pays for it by dipping into the wallets of our seniors and disabled Americans

"The legislation passed today does a lot to help working families. It funds community health centers and moves our health care system toward value and outcome based care--a critical step towards driving down costs for patients. H.R. 2 also extends Medicare low-income supports such as the Qualified Individual Program, and Temporary Medical Assistance.

"Republicans, who never fail to use a crisis to play politics, insisted we take from seniors and disabled Americans who are already paying high premiums. The people who rely on Medicare are not millionaires and billionaires. The bill also contained a harmful political amendment to limit low-income women's access to abortion services.

"I supported the bill reluctantly because asking seniors and people with disabilities to pay more for their health care should be our last option--especially when there are so many others ways to pay for H.R. 2. But the entire package passed today does more good than allowing investments in working Americans to expire."

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