Marion Berry

Mr. BERRY

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), for yielding; and I appreciate his leadership in this matter and also the leadership of the State of Texas. I believe they were the first State to actually deal with this on the State level, and it is a good thing. It is amazing to me, Mr. Speaker, that here we are, it is 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and we are doing special orders. That is not what the American people sent us here to do. They sent us here to deal with things like the Patients' Bill of Rights, prescription drug coverage for our seniors, many other issues that we need to be taking care of. Yet here we are basically shut down at 5 o'clock in the evening. Mr. Speaker, 80 percent of the American people have private health insurance plans. They are enrolled in managed care plans. In many cases, they are required to be enrolled in managed care plans because their employers have contracted with these companies to achieve cost savings. We need managed care. We know that we have got to control the cost of health care. But it can be done right. We must leave the health care decisions to our professionals, the people that know what they are doing when they make a decision. It should not be left to someone with no training and their only objective is to save the insurance company money. Unfortunately, because we are enrolled in managed care plans, patients are forced to battle with their HMOs when their only concern should be to recover from an illness. There have been many stories from people who have lost loved ones or had loved ones seriously damaged because someone behind a desk, not a doctor, made a bad decision. The Norwood-Dingell bill allows managed care, and it allows it to do what it is set up to do; and at the same time it protects businesses from unnecessary lawsuits and does the job that we are going to have to do to continue to have managed care in this country. Last October, the House passed a sound Patients' Bill of Rights, the Norwood-Dingell bill that gave the protection and rights to medical patients. While we delay passage of a strong bill, millions of American families needlessly suffer from the consequences of allowing HMO bureaucrats to make medical decisions. The American people deserve a Patients' Bill of Rights. This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. When you have a heart attack and you need to go to an emergency room, they do not ask you which party you vote in, which party you support. We need a Patients' Bill of Rights that ensures patients receive the treatment that they have been promised and paid for, that prevents HMOs and the other health plans from interfering with doctors' decisions regarding the treatment of their patients, ensures that patients could go to any emergency room during a medical emergency without calling their health plan for permission first, ensures that health plans provide their customers with access to specialists when needed because the complexity and seriousness of that patient's illness, allows HMOs to be sued or held accountable if a patient is denied care in States that choose to allow such suits. The American people are asking us to pass this legislation. Both Democrats and Republicans want this legislation to become law. Let us give the American people what they want. Let us do what we were sent here to do. We all need to take a stand for the rights of managed care patients and make sure they receive the high quality of health care they deserve. We need to pass a Patients' Bill of Rights that is meaningful and that provides real patient protections. I know with Democrats and Republicans working together, we can put together a strong bill in the conference committee that will give us the protections that will protect business, that will provide for an efficient system to provide health care for our people. It has been 4 months since the House passed this bill. It is time for the House to do something about this. It is time for the Senate to do something about this. The American people should not have to wait any longer. We need to get to work on finishing the job that the American people sent us to do.

Mr. BERRY

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a man who is a dear friend of mine, Jack Gibson, on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Jack Gibson has served the state of Arkansas and his country all of his life. After completing his secondary education in Louisiana, he became a naval aviator and flew in the carrier task force during World War II. After the war, he returned to the United States and finished college at Mississippi State University. He entered business with his father where they operated a farm, cotton gin, and an agricultural spraying business. Through his years in Arkansas, Jack has been active in state, civic and community life and has always worked to represent agriculture, the greatest profession there ever was. He is a former director of Chicot County Soil Conservation District and served as the president of the Southeast Arkansas Soil Conservation District. He was also chairman and the original member of the Arkansas Soil and Water Conservation Commission. He served as president and member of the Agricultural Council of Arkansas and president of the Arkansas Conservation Districts. Jack also served as president and CEO of two community banks in Southeast Arkansas and has been a member of the Farm Bureau since 1948. As State Senator from District 35 for 12 years, Jack held chairmanships on the Agriculture and Economic Development Committees, and the Legislative Audit. During his tenure in the Arkansas legislature, he was also a member of the Legislative Joint Budget, Legislative Council, and Revenue and Taxation Committees. He has been affiliated with the Farm Credit System for 39 years and served on both the PCA and FBL boards, as well as the Sixth District Advisory Board. Jack is currently the executive director of the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission. Jack Gibson resides in Boydell, Arkansas, the town where he was born. He has devoted his life to agriculture and Arkansas and the world is a better place because of his service. I am proud to call him my friend and I wish him a happy 80th birthday and many more years of happiness.

Mr. BERRY

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Allen). I want to also acknowledge his great leadership, not only for the United States Congress, but for the State of Maine. Of course, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner) and the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Shows) have done a great job also in moving this issue forward. We have heard a lot of stories here this afternoon. Who we are talking about is the greatest generation that Tom Brokaw wrote so eloquently about, the people that were born and grew up during the Depression fought World War II and then built this country into the greatest Nation it has ever been. They thought they were working hard, playing by the rules and going to be able to retire in a decent situation, but because of the incredible costs of prescription medicine only in the United States, they have been forced to deal with untenable situations in their own personal economics. Each day in our congressional office, we hear from more and more seniors that have to choose between food and medicine. I think we should make the point that the retail pharmacies are not making this money. The retail pharmacies have done heroic work in trying to provide this product to our senior citizens and to other Americans at a fair price. They have kept their margins down. Many times they have sacrificed not only their own profit but their own economic well-being trying to provide this medicine to the people that need it. Mr. Speaker, the prescription drug manufacturers are the people that are making this money. They are the most profitable companies in the world. They pay less taxes than any other business in this country. The American taxpayer pays for much of the research and development of the new products that we hear so much about. The drug companies will tell you if we lose these massive profits, we will not be able to develop new products. We have heard that story before. When generic drugs were made legal in this country, they said you are going to destroy us. They have more than doubled their investment in research and development, because they get a patent on their product. They have an exclusive right to sell it for 20 years. We know that that just simply is not true. The point that has already been made, and I thought made well, what good does it do to have a new product if you cannot afford to buy it? I think that is a very good point. Our seniors are put in that position every day where they cannot afford to buy the product that they need to keep them alive. Then the manufacturers chooses to sell these same products all over the world. You go anyplace else in the world, it does not matter, you can buy it for half as much as you pay here, or a third as much, sometimes a tenth as much. It is unbelievable to me that we would allow that to happen, that we just let that go on and on and on. Mr. Speaker, I am not against the drug companies making profits. I think we all want them to be successful. We want them to do very well. We want them to keep doing research and development. They do a great job of it. We want them to make money, but not by taking the food from the mouths of a senior citizen that has worked hard, played by the rules and deserves a whole lot better, and we promised them a lot better. It is time for us to do something about it. Seniors spend more on prescriptions than they do for hospital and doctor bills now. When Medicare was first brought into being, that was not the case, the great fear in health care was that you have a big hospital or doctor bill. But in the day of the world marketplace and in the Internet, it is unbelievable that we have laws in place in this country to give the prescription drug manufacturers a captive market. Only in this country do they charge these outrageous prices. Another point I would make is that inflation for prescription medicines is about 15 to 18 percent a year, 3 to 4 times as much as for the rest of the economy. And many of these prices that go up every year 15 to 18 percent are on products that were brought on to the market 50 years ago. They have been around almost as long as I have, some of them longer. We still keep raising the price and raising the price for no good reason, except that they can get by with it, except that we allow it to happen, because we do not have a competitive marketplace. Mr. Speaker, the seniors in the First Congressional District of Arkansas over and over ask me when are we going to get some relief. It is a heart-breaking thing, as my colleague from Maine can attest to, to have to face these seniors and say I do not know, we are working on it. That does not help these folks much when their drug bills are from $200 to $300 a month to over $1,000 a month, and maybe their Social Security check is $500; that does not do much for them. I do not blame them when they look at me, like what are you talking about? I need some help right now. It is time to do something. I am so pleased that the Democratic Caucus decided it is time to do something. We are going to sign those discharge petitions. We are going to do something about this. It is time for the United States Congress to do what is right, to move this issue forward and to treat our senior citizens with the respect and dignity and fairness that they have absolutely earned.

Mr. BERRY

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained for rollcall votes 11 and 12. Had I been present, I would had voted ``yes'' on rollcall vote No. 11, and ``yes'' on rollcall vote No. 12.

Mr. BERRY

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton).

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the motion to instruct conferees on H.R. 2990.

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge and express my appreciation for the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood), the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Ganske), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), and all the others that have worked on this bill, that have worked so hard to see that the American people get the kind of health care that they are paying for. A majority of the Members of the House voted for the Norwood-Dingell bill. Fifty-two Republicans voted for this bill. If we are not going to conference this bill now, when are we going to conference it? Mr. Speaker, it is time that we move forward with the legislation that the American people have said they want, that we move forward with the legislation that the House has said it wants, in a bipartisan way. It is time that we deal with this issue and take the politics out of it. If this resolution offends those that voted for it only 3 months ago, then they should express that today. This is their opportunity. If they thought it was the wrong thing to do, to support this bill, then this is their opportunity to say, I do not think we need the Norwood-Dingell bill, and we should know that. This is a good bill. It is time for us to do this for the American people. I urge every Member to vote for this resolution and bring this issue to conference. Let us get the job done that the American people sent us here to do. General Leave

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Ford).

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), who without his leadership we would not have passed this bill. He has provided the leadership to get this issue this far in the Congress and hopefully to serve the American people well very soon in their effort to obtain good health care.

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Ford).

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro).

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews). (Mr. ANDREWS asked for and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland). (Mr. STRICKLAND asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green). (Mr. GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining on each side?

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) who has done great work on this issue and continues to provide great leadership, to try to help the American people get health care.

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters). (Ms. WATERS asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson). (Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis). (Mr. DAVIS of Illinois asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella). (Mrs. MORELLA asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett).

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, could I ask how much time is remaining on each side?