mr. pitts, and the gentleman from california, mr. waxman, will each control ive minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. pitts. mr. pitts: mr. chairman, i yield myself one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. pitts: mr. chairman, every year for the last decade, doctors have faced an ever-increasing cut to their reimbursement under the sustainable growth rate, or s.g.r., and every year congress intervenes with a doc fix to stop the cut from going in effect. 15 times since 2003. the pathway for s.g.r. reform act will postpone the cut providing a .5% update to physicians for the next three months. while this is a necessary and important bill, i'm disappointed that legislation to permanently repeal the flawed s.g.r. formula will not be considered before the end of the year. doctors deserve to know that they will be fairly compensated and this annual uncertainty about reimbursements could lead to access problems for medicare benef

>> well, mr. pitts, i think that the president talked about health care costs going down for americans. i think that we have adequately documented that health care costs indeed have gone down based on the trajectory that we would've seen thousand the affordable care act. underlying health costs are rising at the slowest rate in 50 years. medicare costs have risen at the slowest rate. medicaid costs have actually come down per capita throughout the country, and private insurance rates are rising at the lowest level that they have in decades. so americans are seeing a very different cost trajectory than they would have after the passage of the affordable care act. >> my time is expired. think you madam secretary, for your responses. now recognize ranking member, mr. pallone for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and again, madam secretary, i don't want to keep beating a dead horse here, but this whole idea that we have from the republicans that the world is turned upside down and aca is a disaster,

nowhere near ready to join or retire. 50's never looked so good, mr. pitt.world war ii movie. >>> and finally, one man's amazon shipping mixup has led to a twitter rant that's gone viral. josh gates ordered a t-shirt from the online retailer -- he ordered a t-shirt. he got sent a pair of hamburgereer muhamburger e ear muffs. running late for work. i might be able to catchup. amazon, we would be happy to resend your order. sorry, can't hear you through the lettuce and cheese. the shipping mistake has been a plus for amazon, as well. they are sold out. now, i know. >>> we're going to turn to an issue a lot of parents struggle with at holiday time. how much is too much when it comes to christmas gifts for kids? bianna golodryga talked to one mom who sparked a defor her argument for spoiling her kids at holiday time. >> reporter: this scene from the classic movie, "a christmas story," kids ripping open gifts galore, is a scene many parents try to avoid re-creating. but this holiday season, one mom is buying her kids whatever they want. and she doesn't feel bad a

>> well, mr. pitts, i think that the president talked about health care costs going down for americans. i think that we have adequately documented that health care costs indeed have gone down based on the trajectory that we would've seen thousand the affordable care act. underlying health costs are rising at the slowest rate in 50 years. medicare costs have risen at the slowest rate. medicaid costs have actually come down per capita throughout the country, and private insurance rates are rising at the lowest level that they have in decades. so americans are seeing a very different cost trajectory than they would have after the passage of the affordable care act. >> my time is expired. think you madam secretary, for your responses. now recognize ranking member, mr. pallone for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and again, madam secretary, i don't want to keep beating a dead horse here, but this whole idea that we have from the republicans that the world is turned upside down and aca is a disaster,

>> well, mr. pitts, i think that the president talked about health care costs going down for americans. i think that we have adequately documented that health care costs indeed have gone down based on a trajectory we would have even absent the affordable care act. underlying health costs are rising at the slowest rate in 50 years. medicare costs have risen at the slowest rate. medicaid costs have actually come down per capita throughout the country and private insurance rates are rising at the lowest level that they have in decades. so americans are seeing a very different cost trajectory than they would have absent the passage of the affordable care act. >> my time has expired. thank you, madam seg tear, for your responses. chair recognizes ranking member mr. pallone. five minutes for questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. again, madam secretary i don't want to keep beating a dead horse here but the whole idea that we hear from the republican that is the world turned upside down and aca is a disaster i

mr. kaplan, five minutes for a summary of his opening statement. >> chairman pitts, ranking member aloneand members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. minus jon kaplan and i'm senior partner of the boston consulting group. i have a healthier background of over 25 years working closely with both nonprofit and for-profit health care entities throughout the entire health care industry. earlier this year i led a team that analyzed differences in health outcomes between patients enrolled in traditional medicare and those enrolled in private medicare advantage health plans. we found that patients enrolled in the medicare advantage plans have better health outcomes than those participating in traditional medicare. there are three key findings from our research. first, the m.a. patient under sample receipt higher levels of recommended preventive care, and have fewer disease specific complications. second, during acute episode required hospitalization, the patients in the m.a. plans spent almost 20% less time in the hospital than those in traditional medicare. in

>> thank you, mr. pitts. there's no question that the cuts that are proposed and coming up -- coming down on medicare advantage, and i was specifically stressed the rescaling of the risk adjustment factor which really was a key component in what i believe is making it a positive incentive to care for the sick and fragile patient was to be paid based on the duty of the patient. .. -- the acuity of the patient. .. the people will not be able to gain care if they are really sick. and that is a potential, serious problem. and i would also like to say that medicare advantage should not, in our opinion, be the pay for foreign sgr fix. i think as you for from all the other witnesses that it is extremely important for the seniors of our country, 10,000 more of which are inching medicare everyday to be ableo to be able to access good good and eseciad care and especially for that at% of patients that ae are eating up 52% of all health% care dollars, the thickest anddl most fragile patients to access the doctors of thei

the gentleman from pennsylvania mr. pitts is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. the concept of the beneficiary page is at the heart of the way our transmission system operates and assigned cost. and i'm concerned under order 1,000, ferc is defining benefits so broadly and spreading the cost so likely that the simple action has no meaning anymore. chairwoman lafleur, please explain the idea of the beneficiary pay, what it would mean and keep in mind i don't want my constituents paying for subsidized midwest wind with no voice in the processing. i know that you can't address the merits of individual compliance filing but there is a legal point i would like to raise with you that i think stands on it's own t its own toi hope you will be able to respond. it required the regions to plan cooperatively across the region as the region encompassing pennsylvania already does and take into account three kinds of benefits, reliability benefits which can be very hard to quantify but are very real and making the public policy requirements to connect resources at stat

the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. pitts, is recognized by minute. >> in one. the concept of beneficiary pays is at the heart of the way our transmission system operates and assigns cost to i'm concerned under order 1000 ferc is defined benefits so broadly and spreading costs so widely that the simple axiom has no meaning anymore. chairwoman lafleur, please explain the idea come your idea of beneficiary paid, what that should mean. and keep in mind i don't want my constituents thing for subsidized midwest went into my market with no voice in the process. i know you can't address the mayors of individual compliance filing under ferc's order 1000 but there's a legal point i'd like to raise with you, everything stands on its own to which i hope you will be able to respond. >> thank you very much, congressman pitts. the order 1000 required regions to plan cooperatively across the region as the region encompassing pennsylvania already does. and take into account three times -- the types of benefits, reliability benefits which can be very hard to quantify but are ver

. >> that's brad pitt and angelina jolie in mr. and mrs. smith, rating their marriage.h a bad deal. >> giving your marriage a numerical score can actually benefit your relationship. here with the questions you should be asking to see how yours stacks up is elizabeth bernstein, who recently wrote an article. >> here with psychotherapist, excuse us, barry neuman, and author of a new book. >> fascinating article. >> how do people go about rating their relationships? >> researchers and clinicians said this would be a very good tool for people to use at home. you want to know what is wrong in your marriage and you basically can't fix something unless you know what's wrong. you also want to know what's good. you go about asking yourself what different areas of a marriage are important? >> these are the three things that you say couples should rate themselves on. these are interesting. here's the first one. my partner doesn't keep any big secrets from me. the second is my partner and i share every day news and experiences with each other. and the third is our bodies respond wh

. >> thank you, chairman upton and ranking never waxman, mr. pitts, mr. colÓn, members of the committee. , our teams last here has been working around-the- clock to improve healthcare.gov. we committed to making the site work smoothly for the vast majority of users by the end of november. after several hundred software fixes and hardware upgrades, we have achieved this first benchmark. there is still more work to do. healthcare.gov is working faster, responding more quickly and we are able to handle larger volumes of concurrent users. pages that once took eight seconds to load are now responding in under one second. the error rate which once topped six percent has been driven down to below one percent. the system has more redundancy and stability. we can now handle 50,000 simultaneous users and more than 800,000 daily visitors. givere americans healthcare.gov a second look, they are finding the experience is night and day compared to where we were in october. they are responding by shopping for plans and enrolling in greater numbers. more than four times

mr. mandela's death, a few flowers were placed outside his home. look at it now. in the days to come, there will be more. >> that is for sure. byron pitts tonight.nk you. >>> and some dramatic pictures coming in from overseas, from ukraine. hundreds of thousands of people filling the central square there in the capital. angry that their president is now forging closer ties with russia and moving away from the west. a landmark statue of vladimir lenin was toppled over. people taking turns taking aim. >>> and from iran tonight, state tv is reporting that u.n. inspectors have begun their work. it comes after that landmark short-term nuclear agreement. this weekend in washington, meantime, president obama giving the odds of achieving a long-term agreement with iran 50/50 at best. >>> meantime, the pentagon under fire tonight for its decision to buy combat helicopters made in russia. lawmakers on both sides, asking, why not made in america? here tonight, abc's aditi roy. >> reporter: tonight, new questions arise as to why the pentagon chose to spend more than $1 billion on dozens of russian mi-17 helicopters, to support afghan troops, bypassing u.s.

pitts is outside nelson mandela's home in johannesburg. byron? >> reporter: it's a bit loud here on the street outside of mr. mandela's home.ple singing songs and chants from the movement mr. mandela lead here decades ago. all day long here, a steady stream of humanity, as people have shown up, sometimes entire families. here, we show their last respect to the man this entire nation so adored. as the world mourns the death of nelson mandela through song, dance and tears, details about his grand state funeral are coming out. >> we should all work together to organize the most befitting funeral. >> reporter: beginning tomorrow with a national day of prayer and reflection, for south africa. with an official service on tuesday in johannesburg, where thousands are expected to gather at the fnb stadium, the same stadium where mandela made his last public appearance during the 2010 world cup. the services are expected to be the largest in generations, with prominent leaders and dignitaries from across the globe attending, including president obama and the first lady, who travel to south africa next week, to pay respects, bringing

mr. speaker, i rise today to recognize the 50th anniversary of the university of pittsburgh at bradford, located in mckeane county, pennsylvania. 50 years ago pitt-bradford was a few buildings with a few students. it's grown from a feed campus to a distinguished, thriving four-year university. today their chasm pus is home to 4,600 students. the university offers 37 bachelors degrees, and more than 50 minors. for the last nine consecutive years, pitt-bradford has been ranked by the review as one of the best clieges in the northeast. area residents have a grow -- have access to a growing number of jobs and the economy has greatly benefited i offer my praise to the university's founders and the generations of students and teachers who have worked to turn this campus into a renounced institute of higher learning. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas seek recognition? for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one mi