IPAB petition
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| You have probably heard me say that the United States has the best healthcare system in the world – this is something I truly believe. But it won’t last if we’re not careful.
Less than a year after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, we have reason to believe that American patients — especially seniors with Medicare — will experience an alarming reduction in the quality and accessibility of medical care. In addition to the $500 billion in cuts that were made to Medicare to pay for the law, the Independent Payment Advisory Board will soon empower a panel of unelected bureaucrats to cut billions more from Medicare every year. Additionally, the outdated SGR formula, which determines Medicare reimbursements for physicians, is putting patients’ access to health care at risk as many doctors can no longer afford to treat Medicare beneficiaries. If Congress does not act soon to defend American patients from these threats, there is no telling what kind of care patients, and seniors in particular, will receive ten — or even five — years down the road. With so much at stake, we must act now. In light of this, I am excited to announce the launch of our new digital media campaign to fight for patients’ rights. Through this new campaign, we hope to provide a platform for doctors, patients and health care experts across the country to discuss how to best protect the quality and accessibility of U.S. medical care going forward – with one caveat: let’s put our political views aside and focus on the patients. Here are the details: Facebook/Twitter: We will be featuring a new hashtag, #focusonpatients on CPPR’s Twitter account, PatientsNOW. We hope the use of this hashtag will catch on and become commonplace in tweets focused on finding patient-focused solutions for our nation’s current health care ills. We hope you will participate in generating a healthy and robust discussion. BlogTalkRadio: Starting next month I will be hosting a weekly, hour long, talk-radio program on blogtalkradio.com that will feature real stories from doctors and patients from across the country. I hope you will tune in and help promote the show, which will focus on a variety of important health care related issues and provide timely industry updates. You can click here for more information on the show. It’s not too late to protect U.S. healthcare and I believe that healthy discussion between real Americans will play a key role in doing so. I hope that you are as excited as I am to talk about how to best move forward and ensure the continued quality and accessibility of U.S. medical care.
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