Economist Thomas Sowell on life expectancy rates and the health care debate:
“No small part of the current confusion between ‘health care’ and medical care comes from failing to recognize that Americans can have the best medical care in the world without having the best health or longevity because so many people choose to live in ways that shorten their lives.”
Howard Dean on the reason tort reform is omitted from the current House proposals:
“Here is why tort reform is not in the bill. When you go to pass a really enormous bill like that the more stuff you put in, the more enemies you make, right? And the reason why tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on, and that is the plain and simple truth. Now, that’s the truth.”
Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Henry Waxman on Medicare Part D:
“We want it back. We want to make sure the windfall for the drug companies does not continue, and we want to recover the money that has been a windfall.”
Henry Waxman on the deal between PhRMA and the White House:
“We don’t have any deal with them, and the whole enterprise of doing health insurance for all Americans isn’t to make the drug companies happy, or wealthier.”
PhRMA CEO Bill Tauzin’s response to Waxman’s efforts to recover a so-called windfall for drug companies as a result of Medicare Part D:
“You not only break the deal, but you break the bank for us.”
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on the ambitious health care proposals currently under consideration:
“We’ve got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy’s out of recession. There’s no reason we have to do it all now, but we do have to get started. And I think the place to start is cost, health delivery reform and insurance market reforms.”
Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) on how to proceed with health care reform:
“I'd prefer a private market-based approach to any health care reform that would extend coverage. I'd like to cover everyone -- that would be the moral thing to do -- but it would be immoral to bankrupt the country while doing so.”
