Nancy L. Johnson: “As a representative from Georgia, not only has he been very effective here in this body of the House, but as a physician…”

“As a representative from Georgia, not only has he been very effective here in this body of the House, but as a physician Member, he has been extremely effective. This is the first time we should have had a critical mass of physicians to participate in these debates, which are striking at the heart of the inadequacy of the public program in regard to our seniors. Medicine found ways to stop our seniors from dying of heart attacks, but then it left them living with cardiac problems. Medicare as a payor could pay for heart transplants and all those things that can deal with diagnosed heart illness, but we cannot pay for all those programs that we now know that medicine has now developed to prevent cardiac illness from getting worse and leading people to needing heart transplants and serious heart operations. When we say Medicare is no longer adequate to provide health care to our seniors, that is what we mean. The whole world has moved into the world of disease management to prevent diseases from getting worse, to identify them real early, prevent them from getting worse, and that is what this bill does.”