Phil Gingrey: “I thank him for bringing that up because it is so important. A lot of the concern over this Medicare part D addition was…”

“I thank him for bringing that up because it is so important. A lot of the concern over this Medicare part D addition was the cost. And some Members on our side of the aisle, fiscal conservatives, and I understand that, voted against the prescription drug part D because they did not think we could afford it. Some of our friends on the other side of the aisle voted against it because they did not think we were doing enough. And, of course, if we had done more and there was no doughnut hole, then it would have cost, who knows, $3 trillion maybe instead of the estimated $750 billion over 10 years. But Dr. Burgess brought up an excellent point, Mr. Speaker, and I think we need to elaborate on it a bit. Even if it does cost $750 billion or $75 billion a year over the next ten, what Dr. Burgess is saying, Mr. Speaker, you are going to shift costs from part A and part B onto part D. So what we are saying is, let's pay for the prescription drugs so that we can keep people out of the emergency rooms, off the operating table, off of renal dialysis, out of the nursing homes, maybe in some instances because they have had a stroke. They did not have the medicine to treat the high blood pressure. Now we are paying, either on Medicare or Medicaid, 20 years of skilled nursing home care. What a false economy that is. It is a compassionate thing to do to shift some of that cost from part A to part B. I know, Mr.…”