Political Quotes

“I think the gentleman from California just said what this is all about: The IPAB is about cutting expenditures for our seniors on Medicare when they need their health care. The IPAB is no straw man. It's a health care policy bureaucrat's dream and a Medicare patient's nightmare. It's 15 bureaucrats--and the gentleman from California called it right--insurance company representatives, pharmacy company representatives, benefit managers, employers, all those people who really have the care of an individual patient in mind. In fact, that rationing board limits the number of health care professionals who can serve to a minority, a minority of people, and then goes further and says, And, oh, by the way, they have to actually stop practicing health care for the 6 years they sit on the board. How close are they going to be to knowing what's going on in the care of a patient? The gentleman from Iowa talked about the myth of defensive medicine. I want to ask anyone who cares to go in a labor and delivery suite and look what's happened to obstetric care, to our women in America over the past 40 years because we don't have effective tort reform. I'm an obstetric anesthesiologist. I spent 30 years in a labor and delivery suite. In 1970, the cesarean section rate in this country was 5 percent. One in 20 women going to a hospital to have a baby would have a cesarean section. Last year it was 33 percent.…”