Lloyd Bentsen: “I represent the largest medical center in the world, has the largest children's hospital, Texas Children's Hospital, in…”

“I represent the largest medical center in the world, has the largest children's hospital, Texas Children's Hospital, in my district. They have an emergency room that was built I think for something along the lines of 20,000 emergency room visits a year. They get about 60,000. Why do they get so many? They get so many because they have a lot of children who do not have health insurance who are getting ambulatory care, who are getting primary care in the emergency room. What is wrong about that? Well, one, it overwhelms the system, but the other problem is the cost structure. As the gentlewoman well knows from her professional career before Congress, the cost structure is much higher in the emergency room. A lot of these kids who could have gotten more preventive care if they had been receiving regular primary care, and from the Federal standpoint, and this is something that those of us in the Congress, as stewards of the Federal taxpayer and the budget, should be concerned about is the way that is funded are two ways.”