Political Quotes

“today in the Committee on Energy and Commerce we are marking up the most critical expansion of Medicare since its inception 37 years ago. As you might have expected, Mr. Speaker, in my opinion, the bill is not perfect. It needs work. There are two amendments that I will introduce to strengthen the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2003. My first amendment will ensure that diseases that disproportionately affect the African American community will be highlighted in the disease management component of the bill. The diseases that need to be highlighted include prostate and colon cancer, hypertension, and obesity. The current language in the chairman's mark does not include enough diseases that should be highlighted in the preventive care management portion of the bill. There is disease management capacity in the bill, and it requires preventive care in Medicare. So, in my opinion, Medicare must address the diseases that proportionately affect minority populations. We have to address a population who has been told that their life expectancy is 15 years lower than that of their white counterparts. African American men have a 34 percent greater chance of being diagnosed with prostate cancer and a 123 percent greater chance of dying from prostate cancer than white men. African Americans' overall cancer rate is 33 percent higher than for whites overall. The incidence of this disease among African American men is among the highest in the world.”