Robert Torricelli: “I rise with a matter of equal importance for each of our States and all of our communities; that is, the rising pressure…”

“I rise with a matter of equal importance for each of our States and all of our communities; that is, the rising pressure on medical care in America as a result of our difficult budget circumstances. In the next few months the Senate Finance Committee and then the Senate itself is going to be debating the question of how to fund different components of American health care in this difficult budgetary environment. That debate will affect doctors and their ability to maintain their practices and the integrity of their profession; home health care providers and their ability to provide service to those who are often locked in their own homes and need desperately to have care; nursing homes, in many cases not simply the quality of their care but whether hundreds of nursing homes around the country continue to operate at all; and teaching hospitals. It is teaching hospitals this morning that I want to address in detail because in some ways their plight is the most perilous and the issue most immediate.”