#shorts Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said, “”I came to this floor to ask for unanimous consent, and that is, you know, Mr. President, is where you present a bill and then nobody objects, it passed. But there was an objection, and it came from a good friend and a good man, Senator Ron White, who’s chairman of our finance committee. There aren’t words in English to express how much I respect Ron Wyden, but Senator Wyden came to the floor and he said, ‘Kennedy, I’m going to object to your bill,’ and he said, ‘I don’t want you to worry about this, we’re aware of that President Biden has proposed to cut every Medicare physician in America, but we’re not going to let him do that. We’re putting together a budget bill right now, we call it the Omnibus, we’re putting together a budget bill right now that’s going to address that problem, and that’s why I’m objecting to your bill. Your bill, Kennedy, is unnecessary.’ Now, I’m not blaming this on Chairman Wyden. I’m not. The Omnibus passed with a vote of, I think, virtually all, if not all, of my Democratic colleagues and some Republican colleagues. So, it is, I’m not saying it is Senator Wyden’s fault, but after the Omnibus passed, I didn’t vote for it, in part because I didn’t know what was in it, but after the Omnibus passed, I went back and looked and lo and behold, the Omnibus Bill, which passed at the encouragement of President Biden and with a lot more votes from my Democratic friends than my Republican colleagues, had a two percent cut for every provider, every physician that treats a Medicare patient in America. Two percent cut. It’s better than a four percent cut, but it’s still a cut in the time of raging inflation. Now, I don’t know yet what that impact is going to be on health care and the health care delivery system in my state. I don’t know how many more physicians, after President Biden has cut their fees, I don’t know how many more physicians are going to stand up and say, ‘I can’t take Medicare patients anymore.’ I hope none, but I suspect some. So, I’m going to end like I begin. Oh, and let me mention this, Mr. President, I mean, I talked about that pool of money, the Provider Relief Fund that had 9.8 billion dollars in it, maybe 15 billion dollars sitting there in an account unspent, unappropriated, what happened to it? I don’t know, but it got spent on something, but it didn’t get spent on helping Medicare doctors and patients, they got cut two percent. So, I’m going to end like I began, in this town, you have to watch what people do, not what they say. The President can try to blame the Republicans and say, ‘Well, they don’t want to seriously negotiate about controlling spending and controlling debt, all they want to do is cut Medicare,’ he already did it. He did it in December. With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.”

On 2/16/2023, Kennedy spoke on the Senate floor refuting Pres. Biden and Democrats’ claims that Republicans wish to cut Medicare and entitlements. Kennedy’s speech comes after Biden’s repeated comments falsely accused congressional Republicans of aiming to cut Medicare. In December 2022, Kennedy attempted to pass his Protecting Medicare Patients and Physicians Act through the Senate by unanimous consent. The bill would have protected patients and health care providers from a total of 8.5 percent in planned Medicare cuts to physician reimbursements, but Democrats immediately blocked the bill. The bill would have required no new federal spending, but, instead, would have employed unused Covid money from the Provider Relief Fund that had been returned to the Department of Health and Human Services. Using those leftover funds to help patients and doctors who are suffering under the Biden administration’s historic levels of inflation would have represented a fiscally responsible solution to help vulnerable Americans.

Each year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services establishes a Physician Fee Schedule, which sets out how much a doctor gets paid for a particular service rendered. Kennedy’s legislation would have protected patients and health care providers from a total of 4.5 percent in planned Medicare cuts to physician reimbursements.

other clips of this published longer video is here: https://youtu.be/IHoPJFQ_07o
Kennedy: Dems blocked my bill & passed Omnibus bill which had 2% cut for every Medicare provider, physician