it's been mentioned mortality, morbidity incidents. the u.s. care system has been very good if you're healthy. unfortunately, that's not the case for many individuals. despite the overall improvement in the u.s. population, racial and ethnic minorities experience high rates of morbidity and mortalities than nonminorities. it's proven by looking at life expectancies. african-american have shorter life at 66 years than white men on average will live to 74 and compare that to the american indians where in some areas are expected be to live if their mid-50s. the life expectancy gap that between white and african-american males have not changed significantly in the past 40 years. even though our country can top major health and technological advances in the 60 years, african-american mortality rate is 1.6% higher than whites and this is identical to what it was in 1950. infant mortality is just as dismal. 2.5 and 1.5 times higher than whites. examining the prevalence of certain disease and condition and racial ethnic minorities we have further evide

racial and ethnic minorities experience greater mortality and morbidity. african-americans have a laugh -- life expectancy of 66 years, when white men will live to an average of 74. compared to an american indian, they will live in their mid =fifties. -- they will live into their mid fifties. major health and technology could dances and the past 60 years, despite that, 1.6% higher than whites is the african- american race, and that is the same as it was in the 1950's. examining the prevalence of certain diseases and conditions and racial and ethnic minorities gives further evidence of health disparities. african-americans have the highest mortality from hiv/aids, stroke, cancer, and hypertension green in fact, if you look at hiv/aids rates, more than 80% of women who have diagnosed -- and hypertension. in fact, if you look at the hiv/aids raids, more than 80 percent of women who have been diagnosed with an -- hiv/aids rates. hypertension and african- american leads to a a% higher stroke mortality rate, 32% higher rates of renal disease than the general pop

about one decade ago, my colleagues and i wondered if the higher mortality rates with cancer could be due to blacks receiving less affected treatment, specifically in the setting of cancer. we chose a simple procedure. this was for early stage lung cancer. the streets the no. 1 cancer killer, lung cancer, 25% of all cancer deaths, and it is enormously effective. in an analysis printed one decade ago, prior to the report that has been referenced many times, we show that in medicare, blacks with an incurable diagnosis receive surgery 30% less often than whites with the same diagnosis. this was not even due to differences in social and economic status. we also showed that we believe that this treatment that was the explanation for their poor survival outcomes and lung cancer. the study is personally memorable for me. it was one of the first major analyses in the database which has become a cornerstone of cancer care, and it was also one of the few studies that demonstrate at that time that treatment gaps in terms of disease outcomes. that has been since shown in numerous other settings,

whoops, solid line is the observed mortality and the dash line is a standard computer model for mortality you can see that the observed deaths dramatically exceeded those from the computer. about 19 or 20 per 100,000 people with the computer predicting about 15 per 100,000 people. this is a disaster of major proportion. but the fact is that people aren't stupid. and that they do adapt. down here is the heat wave of 2006 in france which i bet you didn't hear about. nobody heard about it. but, in fact, it was just about as warm as 2003. not enough people died to make headlines. here's the predicted warming. you can see the predicted warming in 2006. it's just about the same as the predicted warming in 2003. or predicted number of deaths, i'm sorry. and here are the observed number of deaths in 2003. what happened? people adapted and they do it worldwide. they've been doing it in the united states. we in our cities, heat-related death has been declining for decades. and, in fact, the more frequent heat waves are in our cities, the fewer people die. you know, we hear it's the old and it's the

we're 29th in the world in terms of infant mortality, in all due respect, to our friends in poland and slovakia. we should be doing a lot better than that, because we spend a lot more on health care than they do in poland and slovakia. further, according to a study published in the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine, the united states has the highest rate of preventible deaths among 19 industrialized nations. and although our rate has declined over the past five years, it is doing so at a slower rate than other countries. according to that study, if the rate of preventible deaths in the united states improved to the average of the top three countries -- france, japan, and australia -- approximately 100,000 fewer u.s. residents would die annually. mr. president, when we talk about health care, we're not just talking about individuals who suffer and die because they don't have health care. what we're talking about is that the high cost of health care, as president obama makes clear all of the time, is a major, major economic issue as well. in our country today, we are now spe

and to help address the high rate of maternal mortality in pakistan. as secretary of state clinton noted earlier this year. -- earlier this year, the status of women and girls is a key indicator of whether or not progress is even possible in a society. we simply can't solve the global problems confronting us from the worldwide financial crisis to the risk of climate change, chronic hunger, disease, poverty, when the energies and talents of hundreds of millions of people, half the world's population is left behind, according to the world health organization, maternal mortality is an indicator of disparity and inequity between men and women and reflects a woman's so-called place in society. and their ultimate access to social health and nutritional services and to economic opportunities. in this case, pakistan's maternal mortality rate speaks of the great challenges facing pakistani women. over 400 women per 100,000 live births in -- 400 women die per 100,000 live births in pakistan and for comparison, that's 11 per 100,000 in the united states. it's the

decade ago, my colleagues and i wondered if a higher mortality rate from cancer seen among blacks could be due to the receiving less a effective treatment, specifically in the setting of cancer. we chose to study a single cancer procedure to address our questions. surgery for early stage one cancer. we focused on this procedure because it treats the no. one cancer killer, you lung cancer, and is enormously effective. in an analysis we published in the new england journal in 1999, a decade ago, prior to the report that has been referenced many times, we showed that in medicare, blacks received this surgery 15% less often than bites with the same diagnosis. we showed that this was not due to greater morbidity amongst blacks or differences in socioeconomic status, we showed that we believed the achievement gap was the explanation for their survival lot comes. the study is memorable for me, one of the first major analyses published in the medicare database which is a cornerstone of cancer care and one of the few studies that demonstrates that treatment gaps were important in terms of diseas

and behind the fear of our own mortality is the ability to go forth and to enjoy the life that we do have. to the utmost. because really to live a life in fear is not so much to live a life poorly as it is to take a long time dying. and whether you agree or not with our current administration i think we can take a note from them. there's been a lot of talk with our current financial crisis and the obama administration has been quite up front in trying to use a crisis to good end and they frequently talk about ever wasting a crisis. and i think similarly albert einstein had a similar quote that said in the middle of every difficulty lies an opportunity. and "the lassa ward" is really a book that embodys that spirit. at the end of the book i talk about -- me myself being sick and really without that illness that i went through, i think it's very unlikely that i would have actually sat down and written a book if i wasn't forced to not be able to move from a couch for an unduly period of time. and similarly, without the death of my friend and mentor, dr. conte at the loss of the lassa vi

, in terms of internal mortality and diabetes and in terms of obesity. but in one category the united states ranks number top and that category is life expectancy at 65. so if you get to be 65 in this country for chances of living a longer, healthier life are better in this country than they are in almost every other country in the world. what is the difference between life expectancy at 65 and overall life expectancy, the fact we of medicare and everybody's covered by medicare. today nearly some 60, almost 65 years after president truman called on congress and the joint session when addressing a joint sessions to move on health care reform we are still waiting for a health care system. we have made progress in 1965 with medicare but other than medicare and medicaid in so many ways we are still waiting for a health care system that delivers on the promise of affordable quality coverage. we are waiting for reforms that were cost for businesses and families who are buckling under the weight of every climbing premiums. we are waiting for reforms that foster

we rank, in terms of victim mortality, in terms of maternal mortality, in terms of life expectancy, in terms of diabetes, in terms of obesity, the united states of america, amazingly enough, even though we spend twice as much as everybody else, we rank almost at the bottom among the rich countries of the world on life expectancy, infant mortality, child obesity, all of those things. mr. president, there is one statistic where we rank near the top. that statistic is life expectancy at 65. so these pages sitting in front of me, five decades from now or so when they turn 65 -- we're going to change the system way before then. but people who are 65 in this country have a longer, healthier life in front of them than almost all other countries in the world. that's because we have medicare, and medicare works. it's pure and simple. today, some 65 years after harry truman made the speech to the joint session i mentioned, we're still waiting. we're still waiting for a health care system that delivers on the promise of affordability, of quality health care coverage for all. we're still waiting f

, maternal mortality, immunization rates, we're not among the world leaders in any of those categories. interestingly, madam president, the only place we are a world leader is life expectancy at 65. if you get to be 65 in this country, the chances that you will live a longer, healthier life is greater than in almost any other country in the world. in ohio, $3.5 billion is spent each year by and on behalf of the uninsured for health care that meets about half their needs. that's no bargain. for the first time in a long time, we're on the verge of meaningful health care reform that will make a difference in the lives of americans who have for too long put up with less than they deserve when it comes to health care. our health insurance system does some things very well but we've let the industry, the health care industry, forget its own core, central purpose. the insurance industry's supposed to bear risk on behalf of its enrollees, not avoid risk at the expense of its enrollees. the insurance industry is supposed to protect the sick, not throw them overboard. the insurance industry is s

so the greatest single cause of mortality was disease. but in addition to that, the mortality among american soldiers who were taken prisoners was absolutely catastrophic as well. 47% of the american soldiers who were taken prisoner by the british perished in captivity. to put that into some context, at the infamous andersonville prisoner camp in georgia in the civil war, about 37% of the prisoners perished. but 47% from the revolutionary war is just about the same percentage as was true of americans who were held captive by the japanese during world war ii. and life was tough for american soldiers, even when they weren't on the battlefield or for those who weren't taken captive. oftentimes, as i think everybody remembers, there were shortages of food, lack of clothing, only rudimentary housing existed for those soldiers. we usually think of the valley forge winter. that's the one that's the most famous as being a bad winner, but the soldiers themselves spoke of a winter two years later in moorestown, new jersey, where the winter quarters

additionally in hospital mortality was lower for african-american patients. additional preliminary analysis of over 230,000 patients in the module demonstrated that adherence to balance improved in both women and older patients and allows light disparities exist between men forces women and older forces and their patients and baseline analysis these gaps narrowed over time. yet with the guidelines has enhanced the transparency of issues devolving disparities, at the microscopic level these help individual who hospitals of justice in around here on a case by case basis. at the macroscopic level the registry is now providing a rich source of data that highlights ongoing needs to address disparities and care. this data on health care disparities with corner are disease is being reported in the new american heart association 2009 statistical update and published. before we can eliminate these health care disparities we must first measure and highlight them. it has permitted this study of health care is paris involving additional intervention's beyond the core per

no detectable increase in oral cancer rate, improvement in cardiovascular health, tobacco-related mortality in sweden is among the lowest in the developed world. but in our infinite wisdom in this austere body, we're getting ready to pass a bill that takes a product that sweden used to get people off of cigarettes, that sweden used to reduce lung cancer, that sweden used to bring down cardiovascular disease, that sweden used to reduce mortality by tobacco products, and we're going to eliminate it. and we're going to lock them into everything sweden is going to try to get rid of. think about this before you do it. for god's sakes, once you pass this, it's too late. mr. president, current cessation programs don't work. i said earlier, those products have a 95% failure rate. given current smokers an opportunity to migrate to a less harmful product, it is a public health initiative, not creating a pathway to reduced harmful products. it is not a public health bill. but those products are banned in h.r. 1256. senator hagan's and my amendment allow these products to be marketed and regulated. mar

tobacco-related mortality in sweden is among the lowest in the developed world. why? every member of this congress should ask: why? because the sponsors of this bill have said, this is what we're trying to do in the united states. so how did sweden do it? well, it's very simple, mr. chairman -- mr. president. sweden did it by allowing these products to come to market. as a matter of fact, swedish smokeless snoose is currently on the market in the united states. i'm not going to tell you the market share is big but i can tell you this, the risk of death or disease is less than 2%. but under h.r. 1256, which the senate may or may not adopt this afternoon, what we would do is we would eliminate swedish snoose and we would lock smokers into the categories that are currently on the market. all because of an arbitrary february 2007 date because somebody was too lazy to change the bill. think about that. that we would take something that sweden found over 25 years had been an incentive get people f of cigarettes and move towards other products to the degree -- to the degree

significant gaps or differences in the overall rate of disease incidents, prevalence, morbidity, mortality, or survival rates of the population as compared to the health status of the general population. the institute of medicine defines disparities as racial or ethnic differences in the quality of health care not caused by differences in clinical need, patient preferences or appropriateness of intervention. the landmark institute of medicine report in 2002 served as a significant data point in terms of tracking and analyzing issues related to health disparities. overall health status in the u.s. has improved significantly as demonstrated by increases in life expect expectancies for the majority of populations. however, in spite of the many improvements in health over several decades, gaps exist by race, ethnicity, gender and other related subpopulations. these gaps may be related in part to demographic changes in the united states, but according to census data, the population of the u.s. grew by 13 percent over the last decade but has increased dramatically and diversely at an even greate

so the mortality rates for normal people are very high but the mortality rates for pregnant women are even higher so i had a few amount of people coming back and forth from the maternity ward and one of them whom i saw on the first day that dr. conte left me alone and she was a young woman. she didn't quite know her age it was around 12 or 13 and she was pregnant. and she also had lassa fever so she had a lot of things going -- and she happened to be in the middle of africa with me as her doctor. [laughter] >> she had a lot of things going against her. [laughter] >> and one of the treatments for lassa fever, the only treatment for lassa fever is a drug. you can treat lassa fever if you know that the people have lassa fever essentially before they have symptoms. which is, of course, a bit of a paradox. but when people just have a fever, if you give them the drug they can do pretty well but once they get the full blown lassa fever symptoms where it's pretty obvious they have the fever, then it's too late to give the people the drug. unfortunately, the drug also can potentially have side

let's mitigate maternal mortality and all the other crises affecting women, not the killing of unborn babies. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey's time has expired. the gentleman from florida reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida. mr. hastings: i'm very pleased to yield two minutes to the distinguished the gentlewoman from new york, my good friend, ms. clarke. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york is recognized for two minutes. ms. clarke: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank you, my colleague, the gentleman from florida, mr. hastings. i rise in strong support of h.r. 2110, the foreign affairs authorization act. this authorization includes provisions that keep our country safe, advance human rights, and promotes gender equality across the globe. in the 111th congress i introduced -- 110th congress i introduced h.res. 554, linking drug trafficking to rising crime rates in caribbean nations. the measure calls for increased cooperation between the u.s. and caribbean officials to combat drug trafficking and promote counterterrorism. ka

money per capita almost twice as much as any other country and our health care outcomes in infant mortality and longevity, disease prevention is not as good as many other countries. the reason to my mind why russia has into the fact that our system is geared toward making money for the private health insurance companies so i do want to shock any of the viewers with but the function of a private health insurance company is not to provide quality health care to all people in a cost-effective way. is to make as much money as they possibly can and when you have that paradigm if that is what the goal of the system is you end up not only with 1300 in separate private health insurance companies but to end up with thousands of different benefit packages which cause enormous amount of money to administer so the bottom line is we are the most not only the most expensive but the most peer craddock and wasteful system in the world because we're spending hundreds of billions of dollars in administration, a profit-sharing for the insurance companies to profits have been doing well and giving exorbitant c

they might have identified that mortal originaters were paid by the volume and not by the ability of the barrower to repay. people had starlted to identify as a problem. taking away the board of directors or share holders and the ability to set compensation. we believe that is the soundest system to allow the corporation and its board to set the pace. jo you agree with this plan or disagree? >> it's in there. >> our market stability in portions of that. that's exactly what it is designed for, getting together and looking at behaviors. they begin to analyze how much these are going to other solutions. now, under this row vision. this group come together and begin to set entity. if you are going to have market integrity and have the marketplace be the prime marry regulater. then that has to go out to raise that company toll and looking at that behavior. you really end up with two regulators. you have the marketplace that is by far the best regulator you can have that particular security. >> you don't are the strirkt agencies saying we are comboing to ban or abolish that. yet making sur

we have the higher infant mortality rate than cuba does. >> how will a single pair plan remedy that? >> everyone will be on a single playing field. >> john, in new york city. what do you think? >> good morning thank you for c-span. the debate of healthcare is all over. nobody really talks about what prevention actually means. that is really what are we putting into our bodies. you think about all the packaged and processed foods. why would i pay for other people's habyits of not taking care of their bodies. >> thanks for your call. from democrats. what's your point? >> di definitely support single payer. it's an important thick that all the people ask themselves. which is more important? healthcare for people in this country or profits for insurance companies? if we could cut 30% off the cost of our healthcare, because they are draining off 30% of every dollar in our system. the worst part about it is it is self per pet ue waiting. the insurance companies can put under their healthcare. they can hire more people, which they have to turn around and create more profits. . >> i think we

performance and we are far behind many other countries in terms of such important indices as infant mortality, life expectancy and preventible deaths. in other words, we're spending huge amounts of money, but what we are getting for that investment does not compare well to many other countries that spend a lot less than we do. as the health care debate heats up near washington, we, as a nation, have got to answer two fundamental questions. first, should all americans be entitled to health care as a right and not a privilege, which is the way every other major country treats health care and the way we respond to such other basic needs as education, police, and fire protection? 100 or more years ago this country decided every young person, regardless of income, is going to get a primary and secondary education because that is the right thing to do and good for the country. but unlike every other major industrialized nation we have not come to that same conclusion that health care is a right. second, if we are to provide quality health care to all, the next question is: how do we accomplish that

what we know is that he, a mere mortal man, and the righteousness that symbolizes are far more powerful than any tanks or weapons. in conclusion, i would like to reiterate that justice is far more powerful than violence and that peace will triumph violence. our mission is to severely punish the corrupt officials in china, to end the chinese communist one party authoritarian regime and create the third republic. we firmly believe that we, the chinese people, will one day live in an era which respects freedom, democracy, and human rights. thank you very much. [applause] >> mr. kumar of amnesty international. you are here? could you come forward to the stage, please? kumar? kumar of amnesty international? >> i'm sorry, mr. kumar is not here at this time. may i ask mr. tashi. mr. tang to come forward now to read the statement of his holiness, the dalai lama. i know that they're here. they're just coming through the crowd now. . . . thank you, we will now have the statement from his holiness, the dalai lama be read in english by the vice-president of the international campaign for tibet. it

what we know is that he, a mere mortal man, and the righteousness that symbolizes are far more powerful than any tanks or weapons. in conclusion, i would like to reiterate that justice is far more powerful than violence and that peace will triumph violence. our mission is to severely punish the corrupt officials in china, to end the chinese communist one party authoritarian regime and create the third republic. we firmly believe that we, the chinese people, will one day live in an era which respects freedom, democracy, and human rights. thank you very much. [applause] >> mr. kumar of amnesty international. you are here? could you come forward to the stage, please? kumar?

the mortal thread of poverty, hunger, ill litssy, disease and warrant. so there are dreams of liberation still to be realized, commitments still too be redeemed. vows to the dead still to be kept. so we must be as if liberators for our day and our generation, too. today we are only halfway to honoring the pledges we made for a new world. we are only halfway away from these beaches to the shining future that truly global society to which they open the way. the beacon of hope that was lit with the liberation of europe must now lead us on. on to a world free of the danger of nuclear weapons, with all asshuring the mutual security of each against terror and war. lead us on to a world finally delivers from the evil of poverty and the sin of prejudice where intolerance is never tolerated, where no one suffers persecution or discrimination on grounds of race, or faith or differences of identity and nationality. the new world we reach for is not preordained or predetermined. just as victory at normandy could not be predicted or presumed, so too the success of ou

talking about european countries have superior out comes in terms of life expectancy and infant mortality. it seems to me we should be able to get this done on the money we are already spending. 45% is already coming from the private sector. we need to do it better and look at how much we pay brand new radiologist right out of school and things like drugs. and things we can do quickly. we choose not to do that. it is politically distasteful. one of the biggest problems that obama has is he is trying to boil the ocean. he wants to change the entire structure of the way we use energy. he is trying to deal with health-care all at once. he is trying to restructure the automobile industry. when you are dealing with all these powerful interest groups, you have to give them what they want. reform doesn't happen, you get a piece of legislation that spends too much money. last week obama said that the deficit keeps him awake at night. jerry bernstein gave him real numbers on the deficit as opposed to that base and a 4% growth race, he really would not be sleeping at night. host: the business secti

you get them in, then trade for mortal more talent. more talent. huston street has been a vital part of that rockies trade. >> reporter: colorado in a 2-2 game in the 6th. they won three in a row again after that 11-game winning streak. 2 balls and a strike to hill. tavarez has some kind of breaking ball tonight. >> rob that's a tough position he puts manny acta in. do you run him one more inning? because then you lose him for tomorrow. >> bob: villone pitched last night, although only a 1/3 inning and beimel, a full inning. the two lefties. top of the 12th inning. nats in extra inning for the 10th time this year. nice. >> bob: that ball made it way. see, mom, i told you if you let me stay. and here is the 2-2. right to ryan zimmerman. that's why you guard the line in the late innings. rolen in the 11th. zim here in the 12th. gonzalez, harris and bard coming up. ÷pñ)y . >> bob: on to the bottom o the 12th inning. scott red mopped, the starter. nationals have harris gonzalez, harris and bard. aaronharris' batting average is now at

america has higher infant mortality rates and their life expectancy rates than almost all other industrializedountries almost all of whom have a universal health care. it is the best in the world if you have the money to pay for, but there are still 60 million people uninsured and tens of millions more who are under- injured. it is a ludicrous system. we pay more per capita than any other country. we do not get our money's worth. the want a system who can afford to pay for super tech care for a few people while leaving tens of millions completely uncovered, or do want a basic standard of care for everyone? host: how with your health care in canada? caller: my care has been wonderful. it is not perfect. there are situations with we times, but not with anything urgent. i go to the doctor in show my health card, and that is the. it is paid for through taxes as schools are and a number of other social services that enlightened societies have determined are in everyone's interest to have a healthy population. host: do you know how much you pay in taxes for the health care? caller: i do not know the

he has that kind of resume that mere mortals only dream of. he graduated from the naval academy in 1971. shortly thereafter, began a distinguished career as a legal aviator. the most impressive thing is not the stress on his sleeve or the stars, if he were wearing a slightly different uniform, but it is that he is carried out 1200 arrested landings on aircraft carriers. he was the did the commander in thewing during the first gulf war, and he was the commander during visiting gulf war. in between, like all senior military officers, he has to do the additional penance, working in washington and a variety of jobs. i have had the honor and pleasure of working with him when he was the deputy j-3 during the 1990's. he then became, after his service, in connection with operation iraqi freedom. he became the director of the joint staff which is the critical position, as i am and most of the note, in making that remarkable organization work as well as it does things to his efforts and of the efforts of a lot of other people. he was then commander -- s

if you change the outcome measured to what is the measure of geography in explaining 30 day mortality, then that explains that 100%. the hospital is going to be very important for the first week. once your discharged from the hospital, then a bunch of other factors -- one short discharged from the hospital, then a bunch of other factors come -- once you are discharged from hospital, then a bunch of other factors come into play. we have, essentially, no preventative measures. in the paper, i alluded to this. if it were published, i could talk more about it. we look at the delivery of preventive services and we were able to assess that, on average, about half of the services look at the socio-economic status. blacks were going to doctors that treated more than provided lower quality care. then there was the residual that had to do with other issues. these were due to different treatments of black and white patients by the same doctor, things that we would argue are statistic anomalies. we are not seeing any evidence that this is within the doctor's office. it is all around the doctor's

only three developed countries in the world have higher infant mortality rates. our nation ranks 24th in the life expectancy among developed country. more than 1/3 vs are obese. we know that 75% of our health costs are spent on chronic disease. without reform, these problems only get worse. in 2008, we spent an estimated $2.40 trillion on health care. if we do nothing, by 2018, we will spend $4.40 trillion. today we spend about 18% of our gdp on health costs. doing nothing, those cost reach 34% gdp by 2040 and 72 americans will be -- sidney 2 million americans of the uninsured. the cbo has estimated that by 202525% of americans economic output will be tied in the health system, limiting all our other investment and priorities. there are many problems with the whole system today. there is also a reason for optimism. across this country, there are a lot of examples of hospitals and providers enter using new technology, cutting costs, and improving the quality of care. two weeks ago, i was an oin omaha, neb. at one the nation's first fully digital hospital. i saw ho

having delivered as many babies that you have in your practice, i am sure you are aware of the infant mortality rate. you mentioned social security and how the democrats were against privatizing. could you imagine what situation our seniors would be in if it had been privatized with our economic meltdown? you also refer to a government default plan. i do not see a private plan as being such. you discussed people with burning $50,000 -- with earning $50,000 to $75,000, $80,000. if you are trying to get private health care on your own, if you are not fortunate enough to have your employer pay in on the program, you are excluded. you cannot get health care with a pre-existing condition. the cost of the overhead with public insurers is 30 cents to the dollar. our public system -- with private insurers is 30 cents to the dollar. our public system is 3 cents to the dollar. our system was working very well. the medicare prescription plan was witten verbatim by the pharmaceutical companies. host: we will get a response to that. this tweet, "for bobbins are so correct, why do they need to smear the publ

performance and we are far behind many other countries in terms of such important indices as infant mortality, life expectancy and preventible death. so we are spending almost double what any other country on earth is spending. we've got 46 million without any health insurance. we have more who are underinsured. we have thousands who die because they can't get to a doctor. and then in many other health care outcomes, we are behind many other countries around the world, some of whom are spending far, far less per person than we are spending. now, it seems to me that as the health care debate here in congress heats up, we as a nation have got to ask two fundamental questions. different people will have different answers to it but here are the two questions i think we've got to ask. first, as a nation, should all americans be entitled to health care as a right? that's the first question. and honest people will have differences of opinion. some people will say, well, do you know what? hey, some people have big cars, some people have small cars. some people have big houses, some people have small

filming and when i was researching the book i went to a place, not the most improbable place as a mortal of the environmental stewardship which is, las vegas. one of the most impressive people i met andy runner of the south about a water authority. all those slightly over the top lagoons are decorated with a great hotels of las vegas is all recycled water. people are basking by the side of swimming pools that they better not ask whether water comes from. or they are perfectly purified, but las vegas-based citizens to take up solid and long. you can see trucks driving off people's lawns and backyard and replace them with succulent and cacti and gravel. pays them so much a square-foot. that melroy at the recent complaint about front yard and run off in places like albuquerque and phoenix and los angeles as being particularly wasteful and compounding an already difficult problem, and also intensely irrigated crops like alfalfa, for example. you would need such alfalfa if you didn't do industrial cattle raising. another of our campaigns which are about to start, but we all like you tonight,

it is an incredibly complicated analysis to tease out what results in mortality benefit or survival benefit. >> the status of california? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i wanted to quickly, i know this would have been a better question for mr. hummer, but i want to focus on the medicaid and medicare issue and the concern that we would need to point some costs savings through that. in california, new york, people get nervous about this, we looked at those costs. could any of you comment on that and whether or not -- she mentioned limiting itemized reductions for medicare and medicaid, that would be a place of picking up savings. do you have experienced enough, what are we talking about conlan and does that bring us to a question of whether the large states or small states, the competition is going to be such that both are paying essentially the same thing for that care which we know today is not true. >> if i understand your question correctly, let me answer it this way. it has been underway since the first of medicine reports and after a cooperative effort across the board in health-care to un

care costs, lost productivity, reduced independence, diminished quality of life and accelerated mortality. the n.e.i. leads our nation's efforts to prevent blindness and to save and restore vision. the n.e.i. has been a leader in both basic and translational research, its researchers have been able to society 1/4 of all genes discovered to date with eye disease and vision impairment. the n.e.i. has conducted more than 60 clinical trials that have resulted in treatments and therapies to save sight and in some cases actually reverse vision loss. the national eye institute estimates that over the decade of 2010 to 2020 the number of individuals over age 40 who experience blindness, low vision or age-related eye disease such as age-related mack lar degeneration, glaucoma, and cataract will grow from today's level of 38 million cases to 50 million cases. as a result, the national eye institute's leadership in directing vital vision research over the next decade will be more important than ever. i have been pleased to work on this resolution with my co-author, mr. sessions of texas, and he has

he had killed before and this was no sort of it -- it was revolutionary in mortality quest for the same, but he was not suicide. he ran like hell in order to kill again and he was drawn down by a motley group of policemen who was shot by emile henry with a pistol and save to buy not his badge and his wallet. and then a berber with the tools of his trade and several others to jump on him and then get him and take him off to the slammer. then he was in jail and he was guillotined in people's paris in may and 1894. after a magnificent declaration that was read by all sorts of working people in which he said why he had done what he.com it was this guy? what did he hit so much and why did he kill? while, had to become an anarchist? there are two interesting things about him which is part of the story. one is that he was not a marginal character like the infamous counterfeiter turn a murderer born in abject poverty who tried to -- who did the blood to the province trying to take revenging as magistrates. he was not a marginal at all. he was an intellectual. and secondly the target that he pic

we know that children who are breast fed have significantly lower infant mortality.we know that they have a much lower risk over their lifetime for many illnesses including asthma, diabetes, obesity and certain cancers. so when we look at all this, we have really just a huge win opportunity, a win opportunity for the strength of our families, breast feeding contributes a significant amount to bonding. certainly a win for the health of our children. it also is a win in term of many of the issues we're discussing in terms of prevention and in terms of cost of the health care system. usda study from 2001 found that if half the babies in the u.s. were breast fed for six months we would have savings of $37 6 billion on just three leading childhood illnesses. as many of you are aware, breast milk conveys some protection against certain viruss. it has some components within the milk which are very significant in terms of brain development. so it's a very, very important nutrient. this bill does two things. it lowers the hurdles that women face in continuing to pump milk whe

substantial reductions in morbidity and mortality rates among smokers, that's what we seek to achieve. so the great challenge that i have here that in the committee we are now looking at legislation with regard to food safety and drug safety. the f.d.a. is charged with approving medical products based on scientific evidence that based on the products outweigh the risks. tobacco products are inherently risk products that cause disease when used as directed. now, we're going to turn to the f.d.a. and say, we want you to regulate the tobacco product so we take the gold standard of the f.d.a. now and apply it to tobacco, and now there is this inference that somehow the f.d.a. has said -- now, tobacco is a safe product. that is something we should not be doing. it's why i sought to create a separate agency rather than the f.d.a., creating a mission that is counter to their present mission. you see, if you use a cigarette and follow the instructions and you do that every day it will kill you. now, think about that? it will kill you. we don't want the f.d.a. to create some time of inference

and that the infant mortality rate for african americans and american indian, and alaska natives are more than two times higher than that for whites. and so today, we have more and more, and you will hear more of these statistics from members of the tri-caucus. and we had decided that once again we will introduce our bill, the health equity and accountability act of 2009 because it will begin to close many of these tragic disparities that there was a report in 2002, unequal treatment, many of those recommendations which again our nation's leading health disparity elimination experts chickened. this was, remember, in 2002. we are now in 2009. so we're sending a very clear message that health care equity, disparities must be included in any health care reform bill that we debate and that we work on this year. because in the end, the inclusion and hopeful enactment of health care reform must leave no one behind. and that is what we are here to talk about today. so thank you again very much. i want to thank all of the members for their hard work on this bill because of this is in such a

terms of chronic care management and cancer outcomes are better south of the parallel, the baby mortality rates are lower in the united states. i would not suggest for a moment the united states is a perfect system, goodness, i've written an entire book but i would suggest looking to the government ration system and government managed system because inevitably those two things are the same would be a mistake for members of congress. thank you. >> i'm glad that we have other witnesses here. ms. jenkins, the california nurses found a way that was stimulus not underlying the insurance problem also several other means including the creation of 2.6 million new jobs. could you describe how you think a single payer health care system would act as a stimulus? >> well, we would be insuring another 47 million people so there would be an economic stimulus and creation of jobs. we did an economy study where you look at the ripple effect and how it translates into other areas of the economy, wages workers make and how they spend them and how that stimulates the economy and we not only found a single p