Phil Gingrey: “Thank you. As you point out, it could be seven times. We had passed it just last year, and I guess we will have to do it…”

“Thank you. As you point out, it could be seven times. We had passed it just last year, and I guess we will have to do it again this year maybe for the eighth time. I just have got a little poster here, Mr. Speaker, that I want to call my colleagues' attention to here. The gentlewoman from West Virginia talked about it a little bit in regard to these issues of the need for tort reform, the cost factor, Federal outlays for health care on the rise. Yes, indeed. Nearly one-third of all Federal spending goes towards health care. And that is what she is talking about. A lot of this spending is defensive medicine. It is unnecessary. She is talking about the trauma center in West Virginia that had to close because they could not get coverage. They could not get the neurosurgeon to take the liability or a thoracic surgeon to see that youngster with the penny lodged in his windpipe. These are the issues; and, yes, everybody that comes into the emergency room anywhere in the country with a headache, doctors know physical diagnosis and ability to examine by looking in the eyes and checking the blood pressure. But they are not sending that patient home with a couple of aspirins and careful instructions to call the next day. They get a CAT scan and the most expensive one that is coming along for that particular year. She did such a great job. Finally, in her last two minutes and I am so glad that she did that in regard to the Medicare Prescription Drug Act, part D.…”