John Ensign: “I want to clear up something. We don't touch any of the other Medicare reforms in your bill. The whole thing with the…”

“I want to clear up something. We don't touch any of the other Medicare reforms in your bill. The whole thing with the PPOs, we touch the prescription drug part of the underlying bill. You mentioned competition. I practiced veterinary medicine, built, owned, and operated two different animal hospitals. Why do I bring that up? It is because in veterinary medicine people pay out of their own pocket. Veterinarians are in an incredibly competitive field because we know that if somebody brings a case to you, they are going to shop about half the time based on price. So veterinarians have to be very competitive and price sensitive to that, so they work to become more efficient, to keep their costs down, because individuals shop. In our health care system today, individuals do not shop because we have low deductible policies, and a lot of times the doctors waive those deductibles. Senator Frist will be able to tell you about that. The hospitals waive the deductibles. So the person receiving the care is not accountable for the care, and so they don't shop.”