Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague for convening us and for giving us an opportunity to discuss the important topic of delivery system reform and to highlight some of the innovations that are occurring in our own States. I heard Senator Whitehouse talking about moving forward. It is actually the motto of the State of Wisconsin. One simple word: ``Forward.'' Throughout our State's history, that motto has well represented our leadership in extending high-quality and affordable health care. Our health care providers and payers have pioneered forward-looking reforms that improve the quality of care and lower costs for families and for businesses. We are home to world-class, highly integrated health care systems. We make quality and outcomes data widely accessible to providers so they can measure their success against their peers. We stand at the forefront of using and advancing health care information technology. All of this affords some of the highest quality care in the country at a competitive cost. Congress has a lot to learn from Wisconsin's health care delivery systems. A recent Institute of Medicine report reinforced what we have known for a long time: that geographic variation in health care spending and utilization is real and that variations in health care spending are not consistently related to health care quality. For every State such as Wisconsin with higher quality outcomes and lower costs, there are five other States faring worse.…”