Sunday night, I voted against the Health Care Reform Bill in Congress. I did so because I made a promise. As a candidate, I promised the citizens of the Eighth District I would fight to protect Medicare, and the bill cuts nearly $500 billion from Medicare. From this day forward, I will make it a priority to restore as much of this money as possible back into Medicare. For starters, we must immediately restore the $40 billion cut from home health care, allowing the many thousands of families who depend on those services to plan for the future care of their loved ones.

I have heard from friends and constituents on both sides of this issue. To those of you who disagree with my vote on the Health Care Reform Bill, and my belief that a nearly half trillion dollar cut to Medicare will negatively impact services to our seniors, know that I believe taking care of our seniors and our children trumps all else. It is indisputable that home health care and hospice keep folks out of hospitals and nursing homes and allows them to live, and die, with dignity. These institutions, and the dedicated professionals they employ, help keep seniors in their homes and living independently which, among other things, keeps health care costs down. I am gravely concerned that the cuts in home health care reimbursements will devastate home health care and hospice programs, especially in rural communities, where they are a vital part of the business and community fabric, and where care options for seniors are becoming more and more scarce.

It is many times cheaper to treat seniors in their homes than it is to treat them in a hospital or a nursing home. It is simply a matter of common sense. A recent study indicates that as much as $30 billion can be saved annually by expanding access to home health care. In the absence of this care, aging Americans will be forced into repeated trips to the hospital, or moved into nursing homes years before they wish to be. Both of these options are much more expensive than being treated at home, and do not represent a compassionate, practical, or cost effective way to care for our aging citizens. It is also worth noting that these cuts to Medicare could also cost thousands of jobs in home health care at a time when our nation is struggling to recover from a severe recession.

In the coming years, millions of “Baby Boomers” will join the Medicare rolls. The system will require enhanced funding, not massive cuts, in order to meet the obligation the government has made to our senior citizens. The nearly 500 billion dollars cut from Medicare in the Senate Health Care Bill are not re-invested into Medicare; they are used to pay for new programs that do nothing to increase the sustainability of Medicare.

Hubert Humphrey once said, "The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped." Medicare, coupled with Medicaid, forms the primary social safety net that provides a level of care to our citizens who fall within these groups. And I do not believe we should trade off the quality of care for people in one of these groups in order to enhance care for the members of another group. That is why I supported an expansion of the State Children’s Insurance Program, and that is why I will continue my fight against any attempts to cut funding to Medicare and the services it provides to the disabled, the terminally ill and the senior citizens of our nation. Our senior citizens have earned the right to be treated with love, dignity and respect as they enter and navigate the twilight of life. That journey is sufficiently challenging and stressful without the government making it worse by denying key elements of care to those who need it most. It is never the right time to shortchange senior citizens the care and dignity they are due; and this is certainly not the time to pull a half trillion dollars in funding out of the Medicare programs on which so many of our seniors depend.

Again, I know we need health care reform, but I couldn't vote for this bill. I am a man of my word. And now that the Health Care Reform Bill has moved through the House, I will work to reinstate as much of the funding cuts made to Medicare as I can. We've had enough of partisan politics. I hope we can call on those from both parties who said they were concerned about Medicare to work in earnest and pass this "moral test."