pallone. mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. pallone: and, mr. speaker, i yield to myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pallone: thank you, mr. speaker. presently under medicare, pharmacies supply medicare beneficiaries with durable medical equipment or d.m.e. such as cains, crutches and diabetes testing strips. pharmacists not only provide access to these items but also provide critical services such as counseling on patient compliance and adherence which often results in improved health outcomes. in spite of the important and positive role that many pharmacists play in the medicare d.m.e. program, in the past there's been a lot of fraud and abuse that has occurred in the world of d.m.e. supplies. congress stepped in and applied new requirements on d.m.e. s

frank pallone jr.ns us who says the biggest hurdle is clearing up what he calls the misconceptions about the plan. good to have you with us. and congressman marsha blackburn from tennessee who says the biggest concern is the public option. max baucus, senator baucus, is expected to move ahead without support of the so-called gang of six bipartisan. congressman pallone, how will that affect your democrat colleagues in the house? >> the fact he's moving is significant. obviously, we would like to see movement in the house and senate. we have a bill in the committee in the house but not in the senate. i think it shows that we're going to move forward and that i think it has a positive impact on the house because now i think they'll be willing to take the bill to the floor. >> what do you think of your colleagues? they say they have not walked away in the senate. senatore senatore enzi, senator grassley. do they really make bipartisan legislation, those three? >> the way the senate operates, they feel they

pallone. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, secretary, to give us an update on the h1n1 situation. when the virus first hit it was devastating. it caused sickness it, generated fear it, caused panic and it caused many deaths and there were many unknowns about the virus. we did not know how the disease would present itself over time, how well it would respond to the antiviral medications on the market today or how quickly it would develop resistance to those drugs and we didn't know if and how quickly we would be able to develop and manufacture a vaccine. while we've learned more about the virus and we've made progress on a vaccine, it has spread worldwide across continents and hemispheres and now is a level 6 pandemic the highest warning level there is, it continued to spread in the summer months which is unusual to the influenza and re-enforces the fact that we still have to take it seriously. in my state 17 people have died since the outbreak and 570 have been hospitalized and we've yet to see the disease at it

pallone: to address the house for one minute, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. pallone: madam speaker, health care reform in the congress took a major step forward today with the announcement of the senate finance committee proposal. there may be differences between that proposal and the bills that we passed in the house, but the bottom line is that we are moving forward in trying to pass crucial health care reform. if you look at the senate finance proposal, it basically has the health exchange in an effort to try to provide choice and competition and provide affordability for those americans who either do not have health insurance now or are afraid that they may lose their health insurance because the costs continue to go up. the kaiser foundation came out yesterday with an analysis that showed that more and more employers now are passing off the costs of health insurance to their employees, either through higher costs that they have to pay or cost sharing or deductibility or co-pays. so we need -- something has

it is squeezing a blown -- pallone he would have pressure from wall street to figure out unique waysor them to do not care or shift more financial burden to consumers. >> without a public option is there any way we can control costs? cost of premiums? >> no. >> of some of the no. >> of some of the? >> absolutely. >> please go ahead. >> in your general question about why they would oppose the public option is because mr. carter referred to them as a cartel and it works very secret hidden practices that would possibly be disclosed they had to compete with a real competitor so the secret hidden methods for profit maximization would become more public. they could come to the table and say we would give up pre-existing conditions or rescission but only because they have refined the other math since behind the scenes and i have seen this case after case after case as the expert witness with all of the labor of finally getting documents@@@@@@ or the clothing industry? how would you compare and? from your analogy of the industry? >> the profit-margin higher, and i haven't compared of the oth

pallone: thank you, madam speaker.tching the senate finance committee yesterday and i was pleased to see that they were moving along in adopting health care reform and moving it out of committee. it is not -- it couldn't be too soon. the bottom line is that we've heard more reports about how more and more people have no insurance in this country and that insurance is increasingly becoming unaffordable. we need and i know that the democrats in both the house and senate and hopefully some republicans are moving forward with health care reform. we're trying to get it done by the end of this year, and it really is important. people need to have affordable insurance, people need to have choices. think i we need a strong public option as well because it will create competition for private insurance, bring down costs and allow more people to find affordable insurance. the problem is not getting any better. it's getting worse every day. and health insurance reform needs to be done here in the house, in the senate and sent to t