americans need health care. i don't think it will. too many democrats are undecided. we appreciate you sending in the responses. we'll continue to share those throughout the morning. interesting to see what some people are saying. they hope it will. some not so sure sure something will come up. too many democrats on the fence she says there. >> absolutely. and everyone has an opinion. >> of course. >> everyone is going to be watching all day long. we'll see how it goes. >> and we'll be back at the top of the hour. first, want top hand it over to sanjay gup that, md, which starts right now. good morning, i'm dr. sanjay gupta, welcome to a special place. a police where we'll learn to live longer and stronger. there's a battle going on out there over biologics. that could be the reason we may so much for drug costs. speaking of costs, the concern is always that we pay too much and get too little.

and finally, a medical mystery. potentially and epidemic that so many people are ignoring. we start with news that could affect your wallet. there's a battle going on out there, the battle over biologics. this is a part of health care reform that you may have never heard of, the power of big pharmaceutical companies and the wonder drugs they make are very expensive. we know that. they're likely to that way for a at least a dozen years. blame it on the power of lobbyists. here's dana bash. she's been investigating the story. >> reporter: to watch jim greenwood is to watch old fashioned bare knuckled washington lobbying. >> i went from office to office in the house and the senate -- >> reporter: and pushed a

provision buried inside the health care bill that could save the pharmaceutical industry billions in profits at the expense of you, the consumer. >> what happened? >> well, i think what happened is unfortunately politics trumped policy. >> reporter: so what's this all about? nothing short of miracle drugs. and the cross roads between how much it costs to make them and what you pay for them. >> reporter: the drugs are called bio logics made from specific organisms. >> we have protein biologics for multiple sclerosis or for oncology. >> reporter: and they sell for blockbuster prices. consumers spent more than 40 billion a year on them. sharon brown says the biologic

rescues her from arthritis. >> $1,095.87 for four injecti s injections. >> reporter: she takes the weekly drug every other week. >> i cannot afford the medication. >> reporter: for chemical drugs like these, there is a law that allows generics, which are cheaper. it doesn't apply to biologics. so democrats in their health care legislation which today say is aimed at lowering costs decided to make a pass for generic biologics, which would bring the cost of the drugs down. they want brand biologics exclusive rights for seven years before cheaper je anywherics could enter the lobby. they argued for 12 years and won. they said the development takes 12 years and a billion dollars. >> we want people to invest for cancer and diabetes and aids.

we want some chance to get a return on their investment. >> keeping them honest, brand named boilogics had major reinforcements to make their case. last year they spent more than $700,000 a day. they gave $30 million in campaign contributions, a record half of that to democrats. >> the brand industry have made good fronts in the democratic party. >> reporter: not just the president, but aarp, unions and more. but brand name biologics outspent them and worked the system. gym greenwood isn't just the president of bio, he's a former member of congress. you're a former member of the club? >> right. >> that helps. >> it helps in this way. i know what people want, what they need. what kind of information they need before they vote. >> reporter: the results in this

committee and others, many democrats voted to give brand name biologics a longer corner on the market. >> this language is anti-competitive. it will help the drug companies reap billions more in profits. it will restrict access to life saving drugs for people. too many democrats are siding with the drug industry. >> reporter: thanks in large part to the money and manpower behind their washington lobbying. dana bash, cnn, capitol hill. >> thank you. later on i'm going to talk with the former head of the mayo clinic. one of the hospitals in this country that really seems to get it right. patients get great care and the costs are relatively low. most people aren't getting what they pay for. we'll have that ahead. do you know what causes low blood pressure? one viewer e-mailed us and no secrets. i take care of myself, and i eat yoplus.

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hypotension is low blood pressure. when blood pressure is much lower than usual. that means your heart, your brain, other parts of your body are simply not getting enough blood. there's no specific threshold that your day-to-day blood pressure has to hit. some people just may simply run low. but there is sort of a guide. hypotension is the number one cause of people fainting. it happens when you get dehydra dehydrated. blurry vision can also occur. they may have clammy skin. what's interesting is that simply hydrating more often than not is the number one way to take care of this. so mem poo are dehydrated. your diet could be playing a role. people taking too much salt, too much sodium. some people don't take enough. there are also medications to walk. like diuretics, alpha blockers,

drugs for parkinson's. blood less, lack of nutrients in your diet. as always, direct any questions to your doctor. now for fit nation this week we're going to talk about something i'm interested in. people say they don't have enough time to exercise. a lot of people say that's not an excuse anymore. some research says you can exercise less and get just as fit. this is going to sound gimmicky. stay with me. the key is known as h.i.t. high interval training. 20 minutes of high intensity exercising does burn more calories and build more muscle than someone who jogs leisurely for even an hour. here's why.

you exercise very intensely for a minute, take a break for a minute, exercise for a minute, take a break, and so on and so forth. so you get ten minutes of heart exercise and ten minutes of more reps. what they found was first of all your heart rate, while it dropped during the rest periods, did not drop significantly. so you are continuing to have an aerobic workout. the second thing was endurs measured after a period of time seemed good as someone who did the longer workouts. a lot of benefit according this study in a much shorter time. also types of exercise that could work. cycling, running swimming, these sports are better for this type of training. if you're running, find a hill. takes a minute to run up. keep doing this back and forth for 20 minutes. bottom line, take a look at your fitness goals. if lack of time is an issue, a

lot of people it is, then these could be a solution that works for you. little bit of advice there. straight ahead, a man who ran one of the best hospitals in the country. what he says the keys are to saving your money and getting better care. it's delicious. delicious. i know. but it can't have... can't have about half a i assure you it does. i was expecting... expecting sawdust and cardboard? i know. i can only taste... only taste the crunchy clusters, honey, and brown sugar. no madam, i don't have esp. ok. i'll take a box, but you probably already knew that. (announcer) fiber one. cardboard no. delicious yes. [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time.

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welcome back. today a foundation professor at the business of engineering and school. until recently president and ceo of the mayo clinic. they are famous for delivering high quality care and doing it efficiently. not surprisingly given these times, he is very much in demand nowadays. thanks so much for joining us. >> you're welcome. it's a real pleasure to be with you, sanjay. >> how did you decide to go into medicine? >> i've known i wanted to be in medicine since i was 13. i developed an interest back then. i was playing a fair number of sports as i went through junior high and high school. i always enjoyed and admired the team physician. he was a local prak tigs ner in the community where i grew up in pennsylvania. >> you've had a remarkable

career. did you ever get disenchanted with medicine. ever second thoughts? >> never. i would go back and do it over again and do the same thing. the miserable part about medicine is all the surrounding things, the insurance and the billing and all of the rest of that. but the caring for parents is the most exciting thing. bringing care to the patients is the main reason for physicians to be practicing. it's a great profession. you get the best medicine perhaps in the world. you also do it with less cost and much more efficiently. how do those two things go hand in hand. most people think of those two things as opposite. it's going to cost more. why does it? >> first of all, within -- i've

been at mayo clinic for 40 years practicing medicine. during those 40 years we paid just about no attention to the specific total amount of cost we were incuring on people. many of us would have thought that we were a high cost organization. however, what we did concentrate on was not the amount that we were costing. we concentrated on the needs of the patients, what did they really need to have done and the incentive that physicians were on a salary. some when people years later looked at the outcomes of that kind of practice model, it turns out they were less expensive. mainly because we do fewer things to people that might be occurring elsewhere. fewer days in the hospital. fewer days in icu, fewer

procedures being done. fewer excess testing. that sort of thing. >> that seems like wre with should have evolved. most doctors, most health care providers want to do those things. why doesn't it happen except for the places you just mentioned? >> many places in the country have done this with different models. as they've done that, as the care has become safer, with better outcomes in every instance. it's turned out to be lower expense also. >> we have to take a short break. i'm going to be back with dr. cortiz in just a moment.

we are back. a foundation professor at the business engineering school at arizona state university. until recently president and ceo of the mayo clinic in minnesota. they're known for high quality and patient care. >> the man tra as you well know is that this is a country that costs and charges and pays way too much. and gets too little in return. who is wearing the black hat. is there someone that you point to and say there's the problem? there's the black hat in all this? >> yeah, i don't think there's any one place is any one place to point to. i think it has been an evolution over many years over the past several years, payment has really been linked very much to whatever is done. we ended up with a model that is now called fee for service. where we are paid for doing things to people. the ultimate of that, if care reed

read to the extreme, the sicker you are, the more money we make as physicians. the more times you come into our office, the more money we make. the more procedures we do, the more money we make. that's just opposite of what high value care should be about. do we pay the most amount of money to people that may do procedures or should we be paying more money to the nurses and primary care doctors to keep you from needing those procedures? >> are there greedy people in the system the way you outlined it? doctors greedy, pharmaceutical companies greedy? is that what has driven some of this? >> i think so. that's been part of it, an element of greed. there is always that element of fraud that is lurking in there. to me, whatever those ancillary drivers are that have pushed prices up, have been sort of caused by the fact that the country has not focused on

getting its moneys worth out of health care. >> let me broach one topic, which is a tough one to explain. there is the criticisms that you hear are often centered around rationing. will there be rationing of care? the term that makes people's eyes glaze over is comparative effectively. you figure out what works and pay for those things or reimburse for those things. things that don't work, you don't necessarily pay for those things. or it is not as easy for those particular treatments or procedures. is that a type of rationing? given your background, how much of medicine is an art versus a science? >> with regard to comparative effectiveness, what that really means is if i were sick and i were a patient and let's say i had high blood pressure an given my circumstance, maybe my genes, my family history, there might be two or three drugs that are

available for me. the patients and the doctors ought to be interested in what is the comparative effectiveness for each one of those three, effectiveness means what might be best for that person, what might work best for that particular person. comparative effectiveness is the science side of the question. now, when you end up working with a patient in making the final treatment, you may have to bring in the art of medicine, because the way you treat a patient going forward might vary very much depending on their personal needs, family needs. some patients will decide and say, doctor, thank you very much. i prefer no treatment just keep me comfortable. you can use the art of medicine in the way we provide the care. we should use science in the way we make a decision. >> you are such an important voice in all of this. i am delighted to be able to speak to you and hope to speak to you much more off nn the

future. thanks for joining us. >> you are welcome. thank you. [ female announcer ] they make little hearts happy... ♪ ...and big hearts happy too. because as part of a heart healthy diet... ...those delicious oats in cheerios can help naturally lower cholesterol. [ cheerios spilling ] cheerios. how can something so little... ...help you do something so big. try new chocolate cheerios with a touch of delicious chocolate taste in every bite. compare a well equipped lexus es, to a well-equipped buick lacrosse. get inside each. and see what you find. if perfection is what you pursue, this just might change your course. meet the new class of world class. the twenty-ten lacrosse, from buick. may the best car win.

welcome back. a quick update on baby patricia, a two-month-old rescued after spending five days in the rubble following haiti's earthquake. she was flown to miami for urgent care. a few weeks ago, a couple came forward claiming to be the baby's parents. dna testing has now confirmed that. her parents now free to take jenny, her real name, incidentally. once her treatment in haiti is done, they can take her back home. former president bush and bill clinton are going on behalf

of the clinton/bush haiti fund back to haiti. we have time for our medical history of the week. this is a disease that people are ignoring that is becoming an epidemic. the answer is skin cancer. it has become an epidemic, nonmelanoma skin cancer rates have more than doubled in the past 15 years. pay back. people not paying attention. what surprised me the most about these cancers is that it affects individuals more than all other cancers combined. the reason, people still aren't protecting themselves against the sun. people are living longer and getting more of the diseases like this one. it starts to accumulate over time. we are talking specifically about nonmelanoma cancers.

there are two times, basal cell and squamous cell. that is what basal sell looks like, a closer look. look at the indented area on the side and top. a little bit of a red flag to see your dermatologist. there is also squamous cell carcinoma, rough, patchy. both are rarely fatal but they can be painful and cause deformities and all kinds of scarring as well. a lot of people ask, how do i know when something is potentially a problem? it is as simple as the as, bs, cs, and ds. look for a sim met tri. half of it looks different. the borders, for "b" could be rough or