Congressman Dennis Cardoza
18th Congressional District of California

"This legislation is woefully inadequate in its rural health care provisions for the Central Valley," Cardoza said. "Its plan for Medicare’s future is also unacceptable. I did not come to Congress to destabilize or end Medicare – I came to fix it."

Cardoza had reserved hope for a compromise with the House Republican leadership and waited until Thursday to determine whether enough rural health provisions were included in the bill. The situation was made more difficult on Thursday when a member of the GOP leadership let slip his party’s true goal of totally privatizing Medicare, stating, "To those who say that [the bill] would end Medicare as we know it, our answer is: We certainly hope so." Cardoza reluctantly decided he could not support the bill.

The Central Valley lawmaker supported two alternative bills that provided greater assistance to rural hospitals without seeking to privatize Medicare. He also favored the Senate version of the Medicare reform bill – which is similar to the moderate Blue Dog proposal – over the House version. Differences between the House and Senate versions that passed will be worked out in conference.

"I hope we ultimately emerge with legislation that provides a prescription drug benefit without privatizing Medicare or ignoring the needs of our struggling rural health care system," Cardoza said. "I am committed to working on a bipartisan basis to fix Medicare and I’m confident that we will be able to secure greater assistance for rural health care."