Phil Gingrey: “Well, the gentleman is so right, Mr. Speaker, and physicians who take Medicare patients really do so out of great…”

“Well, the gentleman is so right, Mr. Speaker, and physicians who take Medicare patients really do so out of great compassion. I do not think they would be doctors if they did not love people and want to care for them. But, of course, as I just mentioned a few minutes ago, they are businessmen and women and they have got practice overhead, not the least of which, as the gentleman knows, is the high cost of malpractice insurance. We tried to address that issue, did we not, earlier, way back in February or March; trying to get some meaningful tort reform; just trying to balance the playing field? And we got practically no help from the other side. And with those kinds of escalating expenses and decreases in Medicare reimbursement, as the gentleman knows, I think the physicians were scheduled in 2004 and 2005 to take another 4.5 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement for each of those 2 years, on top of what has already happened in a downward trend when their practice expenses are going up. I have often said to people that ask me about this, the excitement about getting a prescription benefit under Medicare, and the reason why we cannot just do that as a stand-alone part D of Medicare, if you will, run by the government and price setting by the government, the reason we cannot do that is because we just cannot afford it. We literally cannot afford that.”