Gov. Deval Patrick speaks to reporters in Springfield in this file photo.WHAT THEY SAID: GOV. DEVAL PATRICK'S SENATE TESTIMONY
Gov. Deval Patrick testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance Wednesday, at a hearing titled "Health Care Entitlements: The Road Forward."
Click to hear Patrick's testimony in full
Gov. Deval Patrick testified before the Senate Finance Committee in Washington, D.C. Thursday, calling on the federal government to reject a proposal from some Congressional Republicans to convert Medicare and Medicaid into voucher-like systems.
"Dispersing federal Medicaid funding in the form of block grants, as some have proposed, won't reform the system," Patrick said. "It will starve it."
Testifying at the hearing, titled "Health Care Entitlements: The Road Forward," Patrick argued that such proposals focus on "abstract policy" rather than people.
Video and testimony from the hearing is available on the committee's website.
Patrick, a Democrat, also echoed members of his own party in calling for "revenues" — taxes — in order to maintain funding for health care entitlements. Patrick said:
Congressional Democrats and Republicans have been struggling over that very issue in ongoing budget talks brokered by Vice President Joe Biden. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor exited budget talks prematurely Thursday after Democrats demanded tax increases be coupled with Republican-mandated spending cuts in negotiations.
Congress must find common ground on the federal budget in order to raise the nation's debt ceiling by Aug. 2, the date at which the administration says the nation would default on its debt obligations without an increase.