WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) 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.

“The fact that the president is saying this and saying, ‘Well, you Republicans want to hurt Medicare,’ . . . I find to be quite ironic . . . maybe even a tad hypocritical,” Kennedy began.

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.

“A lot of physicians won't take Medicare anymore. Because they say . . . ‘We can't turn a profit. We're not looking to make,’ say the physicians, ‘obscene profits, but . . . we're in the middle of inflation. . . . We're paying more in rent. We're paying more for our nurses. We’re paying more for supplies, and the Medicare fees that were paid to treat folks on Medicare . . . they're not keeping up,’” continued Kennedy.

 “And, so, President Biden, 'the champion of Medicare,' . . . proposed a four-and-a-half percent across the board cut for every physician treating Medicare in America—that's 900,000 people in my state . . . in the middle of raging inflation.”

Kennedy offered a plan to protect the people who rely on Medicare and the doctors who take care of them—without taking another dime from taxpayers. His bill would have put unused Covid money from the Provider Relief Fund to use, requiring no new federal spending.

“I didn't come to my colleagues with just a problem. I came with a solution. . . . I'm not suggesting that we reject President Biden's attempt to cut Medicare and fill the hole by borrowing the money,” Kennedy explained.

Ultimately, no Republicans blocked Kennedy’s bill, but a Democratic senator did.

“I went to every one on my Republican colleagues, and they all said, ‘We're with you.’ I came to this floor to ask for unanimous consent, but Senator Wyden came to the floor and said, ‘I’m going to object to your bill.’ And he said, ‘I don't want you to worry about this. We're putting together a budget bill right now—we call it the omnibus—and that's why I'm objecting to your bill. Your bill, Kennedy, is unnecessary.’”

That omnibus spending package, which Kennedy voted against, included a two percent cut in reimbursements for every physician who treats a Medicare patient in America.

“The president can try and blame the Republicans and say, ‘Well, they don’t want to seriously negotiate about controlling spending, controlling debt. All they want to do is cut Medicare.’ He already did it—he did it in December,” Kennedy concluded.

Background:

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.

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.

Video of Kennedy’s comments is available here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today introduced the Hospital Transparency Compliance Enforcement Act to increase penalties on hospitals that hide the true costs of their items and services from patients. 

“Patients deserve to know the true cost of hospital items and services. I wrote this bill to protect patients by making hospitals clarify how much a visit might really cost so that patients can make informed choices about their care,” said Kennedy. 

The Hospital Price Transparency Rule requires hospitals to establish and make public a list of the prices that hospitals charge for items and services. Hospitals must also display charges in a consumer-friendly manner. A February 2023 study of 2,000 hospitalsfound that only 489—or 24%—were fully compliant. 

In January 2022, the government implemented higher penalties on hospitals that fail to comply with the transparency rule. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requires non-compliant hospitals with 30 or fewer beds to pay a penalty of $300 per day, those with 31 to 550 beds to pay between $310 and $5,500 per day and those with more than 550 beds to pay $5,500 per day. 

The Hospital Transparency Compliance Enforcement Act would: 

• Double the current government penalties on non-compliant hospitals. Penalties would increase to $600 per day for hospitals with 30 or fewer beds, $620 to $11,000 per day for hospitals with 31 to 550 beds and $11,000 per day for hospitals with more than 550 beds.
• Require all hospitals to comply with the higher penalties within six months of the law’s passage.
• Prohibit hospitals from shielding information on their websites using webpage coding.
• Give non-compliant hospitals 60 days after notice of non-compliance to pay their monetary penalty. 
• Require CMS to publish the names of hospitals that have not complied.

Text of the Hospital Transparency Compliance Enforcement Act is available here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today introduced the Inflation-Adjusted Education Investment Act to help parents afford the cost of K-12 tuition. The bill would permanently increase the amount of money that parents can withdraw from their 529 savings plans without incurring tax penalties. 

“Parents know their kids best and have the right to choose the educational path that’s best for their kids. Now that raging inflation is making alternatives to government school less accessible, I’m introducing a bill to help families afford more private education options,” said Kennedy.

Kennedy’s bill raises the cap on withdrawing from a 529 plan from $10,000 to $12,000 for 2023. The increase adjusts for inflation that has already occurred under the Biden administration and is likely to occur by the end of the year. Additionally, the bill would make the new cap adjustable for inflation, beginning in 2024. Because of high inflation, it cost parents more than $11,400 in January 2023 to pay for what $10,000 purchased in January 2021.

The specific tax advantage of a 529 plan is that distributions from this savings plan are tax-free if parents use them to pay for qualified higher education expenses. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act gave parents the freedom to withdraw up to $10,000 tax-free each year for each beneficiary and to apply the funds to qualifying K-12 expenses. Those expenses include private and religious schooling.

Text of the bill is available here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today joined Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) in introducing the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) to help law-abiding gun owners better access suppressors to preserve their hearing and safety. The HPA would reclassify suppressors so that they receive the same regulation as traditional firearms, removing regulatory burdens.

“Making it easier to buy and transfer suppressors would help protect law-abiding gun owners’ hearing now and into the future. There’s no reason not to take this commonsense step,” said Kennedy. 

“The Hearing Protection Act will benefit Idaho’s sportswomen and men by ensuring they have access to adequate hearing protection while hunting and participating in other recreational shooting sports,” said Crapo. “Law abiding Americans enjoying the recreational freedoms provided under the Second Amendment should not have to wade through overly-burdensome regulations in order to protect their hearing." 

Suppressors are currently subject to additional regulatory burdens under the National Firearms Act (NFA). The HPA would remove suppressors from regulation under the NFA and replace the overly burdensome federal transfer process with an instantaneous background check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. This process would make the purchasing and transfer process for suppressors equal to that for a rifle or shotgun.

By taxing suppressors under the Pittman-Robertson Act, rather than the NFA, the bill would also generate funding for state wildlife conservation agencies.

The legislation does not impact any state laws that prevent suppressors, and it does not eliminate background check requirements.