Political Quotes

“I thank Representative Schakowsky, my good friend. This is something that has been one of the great accomplishments, not just of the Democratic Party, but of the United States. Medicare has been a success. It has been medically a success. It has been socially a success. This legislation before us will only strengthen Medicare. And to underscore a point that you were making, Ms. Schakowsky: By getting better coordination among doctors, by having more primary care doctors, by covering preventive care, by making sure that beneficiaries have access to medicine, we not only get efficiencies, but each patient gets better care. We begin to shift more attention toward the outcome, the health of the patient. Having extra procedures or having to go to a specialist when you don't need to go to a specialist but only because you don't have a primary care physician available is not only costly but it is not healthful. It does not produce the best outcome, and it leaves the patient frustrated and getting the runaround. So people ask me, well, in this health care bill, how can you claim to cut costs and not cut our benefits? How can you claim to cut costs and not give us worse care? Well, in fact that is the point exactly. By having primary care physicians, by paying for the medical education of those physicians to have more of them available, to have better coordinated care among doctors, the patients will get better care.”