the texas hospital association has estimated that hospitals in my state will suffer almost $10 billion in reduced payments. i have a letter from texas hospital association that outlined their concerns with the cut and this bill. and they are very concerned. here's one the quotes from their letter. the texas hospital association says with a significant reduction in payment, hospitals may be forced to reduce medical services. hospitals may be forced to close or merge with another hospital or severely reduce the services they provide to their communities. essential service such as paternity care, medical services or wellness program may be reduced or eliminated entirely. mr. president, i don't know so many -- i've talked to so many hospital administrators and people in hospital boards. and they are very concerned about the cuts in this bill. because they are on very thin margin. most of them -- they are struggling. and especially in our rural areas, and they are very worried that there are going to be shutdowns of hospitals throughout our state and certainly our country. but our aging pop

the texas hospital association has estimated that hospitals in my state will suffer almost $10 billion in reduced payments. i have a letter from the texas hospital association that outlines their concerns with these cuts in this bill and they are very concerned. here is one of the quotes from their letter. the texas hospital association says with a significant reduction in payments hospitals may be forced to reduce medical services. hospitals may be forced to close or merge with another hospital or severely reduce the services they provide to their communities. a essential services such as maternity care, emergency services, medical surgical services or wellness programs may be reduced or eliminated entirely. mr. president, i know so many, i have talked to so many hospitals administrators and people on hospital boards and they are very concerned about the cuts in this bill because they are on very thin margins, most of them are struggling and especially in our world. areas are very worried that they are going to be shut down throughout our state and certainly our country. but our aging

the texas hospital association has estimated that hospitals in my state will suffer almost almost $10 billion in reduced payments. i have a letter from the texas hospital association that outlines their concerns with these cuts and this bill, and they are very concerned. here's one of the quotes from their letter. the texas hospital association says -- "with a significant reduction in payments, hospitals may be forced to reduce medical services. hospitals may be forced to close or merge with another hospital or severely reduce the services they provide to their communities. essential services such asthma ternity care, emergency services, medical-surgical services or wellness programs may be reduced or eliminated entirely." mr. president, i know so many -- i've talked to so many hospital administrators and people on hospital boards, and they are very concerned about the cuts in this bill because they are on very thin margins, most of them, they're struggling, and especially in our rural areas, and they are very worried that there are going to be shutdowns of hospitals throughout our st

the texas hospital association estimates that $2 billion will be cut in the payments to hospitals for medicare patients. now, $2 billion out of our economy. 254 counties in texas. more than one-fourth do not have an acute care hospital within their boundaries. with these kinds of cuts to our rural hospitals, we are talking about losing more hospitals, there's no doubt about it. because they're already struggling. why we pay for health care reform on the backs of our senior citizens? why would we take away the program that they have that is tailored for their needs in order to pay for another big government program that is going to cost $2.5 trillion? $2.5 trillion, most of which is going to be added to the deficit, added to the debt in our country. and we're already hitting the ceiling of the debt a at $12 trillion. we're in a very tough financial time. we are in a time that is hard for people who have lost their jobs, hard for seniors who are stretched to make ends meet. hard for hospitals that are serving these seniors. and not getting paid the full cost of the treatment and, yet, w

and -- and as we have heard from the texas hospital association, the medicare cuts to hospitals simply won't work because this is another sort of accounting trick that here in washington, d.c., and congress people think, well, we can get away with this and fool the american people into actually what is happening. but here on the senate bill, and people are not fooled. people are a lot smarter than i think members of congress sometimes give them credit for. but under the senate bill, the senate bill's expanded coverage does not start until 2014. but the hospital cuts begin immediately. well, i've talked about the broken medicare program and, frankly, i think a lot of people would rather see us fix medicare and fix medicaid before we create yet another huge entitlement program that's riddled with fraud, that is on a fiscally unsustainable path and one that, frankly, promises coverage, but ultimately denies access to care because of unrealistically low payments to providers. we're going to make that worse if this bill passes, not better. well, this bill also includes something else that i

i know that the senator from texas has been heavily involved in the issue of hospitalization and the american hospital association'sreaction to what appears to be an expansion of medicare. mrs. hutchison: i thank the senator from arizona and am so pleased that our leader is standing strong to say that nothing should take precedence over our handling of this bill and making sure that it's done right. and that's what the republicans are trying to do, is make sure this is done right. we talked about the medicare expansion that is in the purported bill that we haven't seen yet, but that the democrats appear to be putting forward. and yet, we've been spending the week talking about a $500 billion in cuts to medicare. now we're talking about possibly expanding medicare at the same time we're cutting $500 billion out of the care that medicare patients would get. one of the amendments -- the senator from arizona mentioned -- i mean, excuse me, oklahoma mentioned that he has 15 amendments pending. i have an amendment, and it would stop the cuts to hospitals. $135 billion in the underlying bill that would cut hospitals reimb

i know that senator from texas has been heavily involved in the issue of hospitalization and the american hospital association's reaction to what appears to be an expansion of medicare. >> on thank the senator from arizona and in so please our leader is standing strong to say that nothing should take precedence over our handling of this bill and making sure that it is done right, and that is what the republicans are trying to do is make sure this is done right. we talked about the medicare expansion that is in the purported bill that we haven't seen yet but that the democrats appear to be putting forward. and yet we've been spending a week talking about half a trillion dollars in cuts to medicare. so now we are talking about possibly expanding medicare at the same time we are cutting half a trillion dollars out of the care that medicare patients would get. one of the amendments. the senator from arizona mentioned, excuse me, oklahoma mention he has 15 amendments pending. i have an amendment, and it would stop the cuts to hospitals. $135 billion in the underlying bill that would cut hospitals reimbursements from

i know the senator from texas has been heavily involved in the issue of hospitalization and the american hospital association reaction to what appears to be expansion of medicare. >> i think the senator from arizona and am so pleased our leader is standing strong to say that nothing should take precedent over our handling of this bill and making sure where it is done white, and that is what the republicans are trying to do is make sure this is done right. we talked about the medicare expansion that is in the purported bill that we haven't seen yet but the democrats appear to be putting forward, and yet we've been spending the week talking about half a trillion dollars in the cuts to medicare. so now we are talking about possibly expanding medicare at the same time we are cutting half a trillion dollars out of the care that medicare patients would get. one of the amendments, the senator from arizona mentioned, excuse me, oklahoma mengin he has 15 amendments pending. i have an amendment and it would stop the cuts to hospitals. $135 billion in the underlying bill that would cut hospitals reimbursements from med