dr. cassidy you've identified an excellent point here. >> mr. secretary, you look like you're -- >> well, this is a bigger issue -- ma'am, this is a -- this is an important issue for hep c because we're putting our doctors in the position of making decisions about somebody's life or death, whether they go to community care or our care. but this is an important issue for the committee in general because once we decided the choice program -- from choice care to v.a. care. yet, we've introduced the invisible hand of adam smith allowing the veteran to choose. and i don't have the ability to move money to care for them. so my biggest nightmare is that somebody goes for care and i have money in the wrong pocket. you wouldn't run a business this way. >> well, can you help us? >> yes, ma'am, i'd love to. i'd love to. >> well, i would like you to communicate with the chair and the ranking member who will then work with the leadership at the -- >> we have talked with both of them. and they're both supportive. >> i think senator cassidy's brought up a grea

dr. cassidy. >> listen, a friend of mine, tells me that the budget for treating hepatitis c has been exhausted. that currently, the only folks that can access the medicine used to clear hep c are those with cirrhosis. if you have cirrhosis, that's great. but really, you want to catch it before it gets to cirrhosis. once you have it, you have a lifelong risk to cancer. first, any comments on that, then i have a follow-up once that asked. >> as you're aware, the treatment for hepatitis c is krr very expensive. in the private sector, it's roughly $1,000. a pill. we get it for about $650 a pill. so our treatment is cheaper and arguably, we have the best protocols of any medical system. so we do want to use it. but it has become a huge proportion of our budget. and as a result of that, we've asked for incremental money in a supplemental appropriation for hepatitis c specifically. because i think it's a moral and and legal issues that we treatment. we know what to do and we have patients that need it. because our population is disproportionately has hepatitis c. and we can't use it. carolyn, you wan