WASHINGTON, DC—Congressman Jim Himes (CT-4) issued the following statement today after voting for the bipartisan Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. The bill repeals Medicare’s flawed Sustainable Growth Rate formula for physician payments and extends the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for low-income children through 2017. The bill passed by a vote of 392 to 37.
“This legislation represents a bipartisan compromise to finally fix Medicare’s broken reimbursement system that has threatened seniors’ access to care, caused uncertainty for doctors and failed taxpayers for much of the past two decades. While the bill is far from perfect, it moves us toward rewarding quality, providing better coordination of care and ensuring seniors get the care they need when they need it.
“I’m also proud to support the legislation’s extensions for CHIP and Community Health Centers. These critical programs together have brought the children’s uninsured rate to historic lows and provided comprehensive health care to all Americans, regardless of income or background. Community Health Centers continue to play a central role in our cities and towns in Connecticut, and I am pleased Democrats and Republicans worked together to support them.”