Political Quotes

“You know, it is interesting because we can see from the Republican administration of Richard Nixon, the Democratic administration of Jimmy Carter on oil and gas, that when you try to artificially control price with regulation, it doesn't work. You have to address the fundamentals. So let me give an alternative between this top-down bureaucratic means of control and a patient-centered approach. I was speaking about HSAs and patient-centered approaches with a constituent, and he says, you know, doc, I take a pill for my ulcer. Now, I have an HSA. My physician wrote a prescription and I said, physician, I know from experience that this pill is going to cost me $159--he didn't say $160, he said $159. He said, I have an HSA, I pay for this out of pocket, can you do me something different? And the physician said, oh, you have an HSA? Tore it up and wrote a prescription for generic and it cost him $20. The system just saved $139. I have another patient who called me--I am a liver specialist--called me up, and she says, Dr. Cassidy, I have a bad heart. My doctor over here said I needed this test because of my bad liver, not my heart, but rather my liver. And I said, from a liver perspective, you don't need it. She said, well, I will pay for it if I need it, I have an HSA, but I will pay for it if I need it. I said, no, ma'am, you do not need it. The system saved $1,000.”