“That is Andrew Wakefield's legacy. The hospitalizations and deaths of children from measles who could have easily avoided the disease. … He gave heft to the notion that vaccines in general cause autism.”
—Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at the University of Pennsylvania, on the United Kingdom banning Wakefield from practicing medicine. Wakefield's research, now discredited, linked the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella to autism.
“In the past two years, (lawmakers) keep coming up to the deadline—or a little past it—and waiving the cuts for shorter and shorter periods of time, which makes us uneasy. … The current uncertainty about what the fee schedule will be, and whether at some point there will be a 20% cut, makes it harder to accept new Medicare patients. … I like to take care of older adults, but I have rent to pay, and a staff to pay.”
—Susan Crittenden, a primary-care physician practicing near Raleigh, N.C., who is taking very few new Medicare patients, on the sustainable-growth-rate formula for Medicare payment to physicians.
“They should have used Medicare dollars to fix this. It's irresponsible” that the healthcare law left such a major issue unresolved. “I think we should have put a crowbar in our wallets and still come up with the money for the uninsured. But in trying to meet a range of goals—having the bill not be more than $1 trillion and having it be budget-neutral—they dumped this issue.”
—Former Medicare trustee Marilyn Moon, who now directs the healthcare program at the American Institutes for Research, on the sustainable-growth-rate formula.
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