Phil Gingrey: “when we extrapolate that, and I have gotten verification of these numbers from the gentlewoman from Connecticut, the…”

“when we extrapolate that, and I have gotten verification of these numbers from the gentlewoman from Connecticut, the chairman of the Health Subcommittee under the Committee on Ways and Means who has done so much work on this bill, and I really commend her leadership. She has indicated to me that defensive medicine is costing the Federal Government and indeed the taxpayers of this country $14 billion estimated over the next 10 years. That would go a long way toward paying for this prescription benefit that we are going to be offering this year. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas was talking earlier about the cost of prescription drugs and what we can do about that. Of course we are going to be providing a good prescription benefit for not just our neediest seniors. Of course the program is weighted toward them as well it should be, but we are providing a benefit for all of our seniors. But along with that, along with that, as the gentleman pointed out, it is very, very important that we address this issue of the cost of prescription medication.”