Medicare improvement bill

In debates about major legislation, rarely does a bill have the strong and diverse support like that of the bipartisan Medicare improvement bill just approved by Congress. Kansas seniors, doctors, pharmacists, hospitals, military families and I all worked together to pass this bill.

We preserved seniors’ access to care and improved the care they received.

Doctors don’t have to worry about an unworkable 10 percent cut in reimbursements from Medicare.

Pharmacists will be promptly paid under Medicare and will not face cuts in reimbursements, preserving critical care local pharmacies provide to Kansans — changes I have long sought.

And finally, I saw to it the bill contains important provisions I wrote to address the challenges of health care in rural America.

It has been my pleasure to work with so many Kansans on this legislation. It is clear that support from the Kansas AARP, Kansas Medical Society, Kansas Hospital Association, Kansas Pharmacists Association, and all of the other military, provider and patient groups helped get this bill approved.

It was unfortunate the president chose to veto it, but I am glad Congress swiftly voted to override. Improvements to Medicare are on the way.

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts
Kansas Republican
Washington, D.C.

Editor’s note: Sen. Roberts is a member of the Senate Committee on Finance and a Member of the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee. He is co-chairman of the Senate Rural Health Caucus.

Comments

[jack]

McCain has missed bunches and bunches of votes over the last couple years. Either candidate pointing a finger at the other for shirking his responsibilities in the senate is gross "pot and kettle".

[tomw]

Our esteemed Senator fails to mention the postions of the presidential candidates. Obama voted for the bill, but McCain was the only senator to miss the vote. McCain stated that he would have voted against.

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