Lindsey Graham on Health Care Republican Sr Senator; previously Representative (SC-3)

I am not going to vote to extend the ACA subsidies

"The subsidies we're talking about here," Graham added, "if the Affordable Care Act is so affordable, why, every time I turn around, are we spending $350 billion to keep it afloat?"

COVID: no one attacked Wilson when he got Spanish flu

Graham: President Wilson got the Spanish flu right after World War I, and we live in such unusual times I doubt if anybody yet attacked him. All I can say is that the virus is a problem that came out of China, not Trump Tower. The one thing I want people to know is that the virus is serious, but we have to move on as a nation. When a military member gets infected, you don't shut down the whole unit.

ObamaCare takes money from some & gives free care to others

GRAHAM: Well, we'll get there, I hope. If we don't, we'll pay a heavy price. We're the dog that caught the car. So the bottom line is, I hope Democrats will help us. I remember voting against Obamacare on Christmas Eve, the year it passed, jammed down our throats. The best thing we can do is try to get Democrats to help us. Obamacare, when we passed it, Congress was excluded, right? Listen, I'm going to be noble and I'm going to live like the average person in South Carolina, so I went into the state program. I got whacked. And I'm like 58 years old, short white guy, no kids. My premiums tripled. My deductible went up to $6,250. This is not health care reform. This is just taking money from one group of people and giving health care free to another group of people.

Oppose ObamaCare but don't shut down government for that

US troops in Africa is the right way to fight Ebola

But about the spread of Ebola throughout Africa: We're cutting the CDC's budget, the NIH budget. We're taking the military budget under sequestration cuts down to the smallest Army since 1940.

Opposed ObamaCare from day one

Let ObamaCare show itself as a continuing debacle

GRAHAM: I hope we learn from this tactical mistake that they made regarding defunding ObamaCare. We have got a unique opportunity here after this debacle called the shutdown to reenergize the Congress and maybe get better standing.

Q: What about Senator Ted Cruz--has he hurt your party by shutting down on ObamaCare?

GRAHAM: I think the tactical choice that he embraced hurt our party. After this debacle called the shutdown, our party's been hurt. Our brand name is at its lowest ever. ObamaCare actually got a bump in polling. And we got in the way of a disastrous roll-out, so from my point of view, this was a tactical choice that hurt us, but the good news for the Republican Party is that of the debacle is over, if we don't do it again and ObamaCare is a continuing debacle. ObamaCare is a debacle that will go into 2014. The shutdown should be in our rearview mirror as Republicans.

Rated 12% by APHA, indicating a anti-public health voting record.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) is the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world, representing more than 50,000 members from over 50 occupations of public health. APHA is concerned with a broad set of issues affecting personal and environmental health, including federal and state funding for health programs, pollution control, programs and policies related to chronic and infectious diseases, a smoke-free society, and professional education in public health.

The following ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization`s preferred position.

Establish a national childhood cancer database.

Conquer Childhood Cancer Act of 2007 - A bill to advance medical research and treatments into pediatric cancers, ensure patients and families have access to the current treatments and information regarding pediatric cancers, establish a population-based national childhood cancer database, and promote public awareness of pediatric cancers.

Authorizes the Secretary to award grants to childhood cancer professional and direct service organizations for the expansion and widespread implementation of:
1. activities that provide information on treatment protocols to ensure early access to the best available therapies and clinical trials for pediatric cancers;
2. activities that provide available information on the late effects of pediatric cancer treatment to ensure access to necessary long-term medical and psychological care; and
3. direct resource services such as educational outreach for parents, information on school reentry and postsecondary education, and resource directories or referral services for financial assistance, psychological counseling, and other support services.

Increase funding for occupational & physical therapy.

Medicare Access to Rehabilitation Services Act of 2011 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to repeal the cap on outpatient physical therapy, speech-language pathology, and occupational therapy services of the type furnished by a physician or as an incident to physicians` services.

SEC. 2. OUTPATIENT THERAPY CAP REPEAL.

Section 1833 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395(l)) is amended by striking subsection (g).

[Explanatory note from Wikipedia.com `Therapy Cap`]:

In 1997 Congress established per-person Medicare spending limits, or `therapy cap` for nonhospital outpatient therapy, but responding to concerns that some people with Medicare need extensive services, it has since placed temporary moratoriums on the caps. The therapy cap is a combined $1,810 Medicare cap for physical therapy and speech language pathology, and a separate $1,810 cap for occupational therapy ($1870 for 2011). Medicare patients requiring rehabilitation from disabilities, car accidents, hip injuries, stroke, and other ailments would be limited to roughly two months worth of treatments at an outpatient therapy clinic. Any patients that exceed the cap, whether they are healed or not, would have to stop therapy, or pay for the therapy services out of their own pocket.Several medical associations have lobbied against therapy caps because the bill inadvertently restricted disabled seniors, stroke patients, and other severe cases from receiving therapy treatments.

Expand medical savings accounts for employers & individuals.

To expand the availability of medical savings accounts. Amends the Internal Revenue Code with respect to medical savings accounts to:
1. repeal the limitation on the number of accounts;
2. make all employers (currently limited to small employers) eligible to offer accounts;
3. increase contribution deduction amounts;
4. permit employer and employee contributions;
5. reduce high deductible health plan deductibles; and
6. permit accounts to be offered under cafeteria plans.

Establishment of Office of Health Care Fraud Prevention.

CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY:
• There is hereby established, in the Department of H, the Office of the Deputy Secretary for Health Care Fraud Prevention.
• The Office shall provide contracts for the design, development, and operation of a predictive model antifraud system, based on the risk level assigned to claims activity, and develop a comprehensive antifraud database for health care activities carried out or managed by Federal health agencies.
• The Office shall promulgate and enforce regulations relating to the reporting of data claims to the health care antifraud system.

SPONSOR`S INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

Sen. LeMIEUX. The current proposal for health care is a $1 trillion proposal. If we spent as much time caring about the money we are spending now, as opposed to the money some in this Chamber want to spend, I suspect we could find plenty of money to either return to the people or to find money for these new programs.

Today, I wish to talk about just such an idea, an idea to recover some of the waste, fraud, and abuse that is currently happening in our current provision of health care--in Medicare and Medicaid. Estimates are that some $60 billion to a staggering $226 billion a year to waste, fraud, and abuse.

This health care proposal that we are discussing in the Senate is $1 trillion over 10 years. That is about $100 billion a year. We may be wasting $226 billion a year. If we captured just half of that, we might be able to pay for this program.

Why can`t we do the same thing the credit card companies are doing for health care? Why can`t we use a predictive modeling system that says a health care claim is not going to be paid when a red flag comes up? Right now we are on a pay-and-chase system. If we put this predictive modeling system in, it stops the fraud before it happens. The credit card industry benchmark is 0.1% while fraud losses in the health care business run from 3% to 14%.