Phil Gingrey: “I practiced medicine, an OB-GYN practice, for over 28 years; and, of course, most of my patients were fairly young, in…”

“I practiced medicine, an OB-GYN practice, for over 28 years; and, of course, most of my patients were fairly young, in the child-bearing age range, and I did not really see a lot of Medicare patients. However, if I were back in that practice today and doing just the gynecology part of that specialty, my practice would be predominantly Medicare patients like my precious 85-year-old mom who has been on Medicare now for 20 years. This program, as we all know, came to us in 1965. I was a freshman medical student in 1965. I really did not understand the system too well. But I knew that back then, prior to Medicare, physicians gave away a lot of their services. They made a lot of house calls. They took a bushel of corn sometimes in lieu of any other financial payment for their services; and they were glad to do that, especially for the neediest of our citizens, many of them seniors. In 1965, Medicare, in a way, was good for these doctors. They were able to get paid for some of this care that they were rendering and at least maybe break even. Over the past 25, 30, 35 years, of course, medicine has changed very much now.”