Phil Roe

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Yes.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. That's correct. And the solution should come the other way, from the grassroots up. Absolutely. In addition, they, the bureaucrats would create a system so complex that today's system would look like a walk in the park. And then to put the framework in place for government-run health care, the plan called for creation of a government-run insurance company, the so-called public option, which would, over time, bleed out the private insurance industry, because it would be mandated to pay rates less than the cost of care. In my district, the First District of Tennessee, they call this socialized medicine, and they've sent me here with a very clear message to deliver. Please defeat this bill. People in my district want health care reform. They really, really do. I talk with people all the time who hate insurance companies, and in my time as a doctor, as you all have, I've often spent more time on the phone getting an insurance company to approve a procedure than I did actually doing the procedure. I also talk with people all the time who believe that reform is possible and that results in them getting the same care for less money. And I tell them it's possible, if we focus on rooting out waste in the system. But even with this desire for reform, people in my district are clear that increasing Washington bureaucrats' roles in health care is not the direction they want our health care system moving in.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Well, the patient, Dr. Cassidy, is here and here. These are the patients over here. And this person right here, whoever this may be, will be one of the most powerful people in the U.S. This will be a health care commissioner who will decide what is adequate and not adequate insurance coverage. This bureaucrat right here will be very much in those health care decisions.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Yes.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Thank you, Dr. Cassidy. This evening members of the GOP Doctors Caucus want to talk to you about health care solutions. All of us are physicians who ran for Congress, in part, because we saw challenges in our health care system and wanted to be part of a debate on how to improve it. This is my first term. And when I first arrived I was energized by the opportunity to reform how the health insurance industry works and help make health care more affordable, which are probably the two biggest complaints about today's system. I quickly realized, however, that the House Democratic majority had a radically different vision of how health care should be delivered. Rather than allowing patients and doctors to make health care decisions, House Democrats' plan is to have Washington bureaucrats decide what is and is not allowed based on its cost effectiveness.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. That is correct. And one of the things, Dr. Cassidy, I think that's very important, that I've heard, and I've got some other comments in a minute. But I think it's very important when you hear about the cost of this health care plan. This plan's somewhere around $1 trillion over 10 years, which doesn't start paying any money out in the plan till 2013. So really, it's $1 trillion over 5\1/2\ years. Now, let me just explain why that is an extremely low number.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. If the gentleman will yield, I have a letter that I received from a constituent which was given to me this past week; and I think it's worth passing on. It says: ``Dear Dr. Roe, ``My wife Missy and I are aware of the struggle you face on Capitol Hill over government-run health care. We wish to offer you our personal story of how the current system saved our son, Robby, to use as you see fit to put a human face on our side of this issue. Robby suffers from unbearable pain that began when he had a severe infection he contracted September 2007. It began one Saturday. He went to bed feeling a little off and woke up the next morning with a severe ear ache. Within 5 hours, his eardrum ruptured. In spite of several courses of antibiotics, this infection continued to spread into every cavity of Robby's head, and it began to attack his nervous system and his brain. The pain was torturous. Robby was admitted to the Knoxville Children's Hospital for over a week. The infection finally stopped with I.V. antibiotics, but the damage had been done. Robby lost the ability to walk. He also developed a motor vocal tick associated with constant shooting pain in his head. We researched Robby's symptoms and found doctors at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where Robby was treated by the head of pediatric neurology. We were able to visit these doctors and receive treatment for our son only because our private health insurance gives us the flexibility to do so. In the last 18 months, Robby's been hospitalized six times, including most of this March. Pain medicine, including morphine, PCA, hydrocodone and Demerol gave no relief. He had to be sedated for over a week until the pain subsided. There is still no definitive diagnosis. In spite of this, Robby has had multiple exploratory procedures, MRI, CT, et cetera, and tried nearly 20 medications. We finally found the medicine that helped 4 months ago. This has eased his symptoms significantly. He is doing much better but is still not able to return to school. Throughout this ordeal, the medical system has been helpful, responsive, timely and accessible at all levels. We were always around to be a part of the decision-making process in our son's care from medicines and procedures to which doctors and hospitals treated him. We recently learned of another boy in our area who was about Robby's age that suffered from similar symptoms. He died. We believe competent, fast, flexible care that would be impossible under a government-controlled system saved Robby from this fate. Missy and I lived under a government health care system in the Army. I grew up in an Army family. I remember sitting for hours in the military emergency room with a broken arm.'' He goes on, ``and we had no recourse. You can't sue the government. We are not wealthy people. We make well below the median income and have had to pay thousands of dollars out of our own pocket to get Robby where he is now. It has been a struggle, but we would gladly pay any amount to ensure the timely care and freedom of choice needed to treat our son. It is true that under a government-controlled system we wouldn't have had these medical expenses. We believe they would have been funeral expenses. Please feel free to use our story. We would be glad to testify or do anything else you feel would be beneficial.'' This is Rob and Missy Mathis from Newport, Tennessee.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. That's correct.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. The Empowering Patients First Act that you just talked about does not contain, as Dr. Broun just described, these mandates, these taxes.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Would you yield?

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. That is correct. And when you empower consumers, as I've said, how many of us have driven across four lanes of interstate to buy gas 3 cents a gallon cheaper? Americans are great shoppers, and they will look after it, as opposed to--when they're spending their own money, they are very careful with it, as opposed to the government up here which is not careful with their money.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. And guess what the empowered person does? At the end of the year, they've been healthy, they've taken care of themselves, they keep that money. But let's say they have an illness or a wreck or something happens to them. Anything above that deductible is paid 100 percent. So you have catastrophic coverage, but you're in control of the first dollars. And by doing that, again, I think as you pointed out in our Education and Labor meeting, that particular type of insurance protection is 30 percent lower than standard.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Yes.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. In our own practice, we had traditional health insurance, as most people did, 80/20 cost. As Dr. Fleming was saying, costs were continuing to go up, and about 3 years ago we introduced this plan for the physicians. There are 11 of us in the group, and all of us decided to go on this plan. And 2 years ago, we have a group that has 294 employees that elected to get their health insurance through our plan at the office: 294, 70 providers, doctors, and extenders. Eighty-four percent of those, of our people, our employees in our office, chose this plan because it put them in control of the dollars. Let me explain to you how that is. If you believe in wellness and prevention--and the way our plan worked was you had a $5,000 deductible. That scares everybody to death. But our group put $4,200 per person in there.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Well, here, Dr. Cassidy--and then I'll turn it over to John--if you'll look at this--and it's so complicated that it's almost comical--the problem with it is that this is how your health care is going to be administered. I do want to say for every physician in this room and in this Congress, both Democrat and Republican, and this is truly from the bottom of my heart, it has been a privilege to be a physician and to be able to provide care for people and to administer to them. I believe, and I think every Republican and Democrat believes, that health care decisions should be made between a family, a patient and the doctor. Now, having said that, if you take a look at having to go through this, you're going to have a Benefits Advisory Committee--and I don't mean this funny, but when the Lord got tired, a committee built a moose, anything that ugly. Basically, this here is going to be deciding what's adequate here as administered by this down here. You'll have the Bureau of Health Information. We'll have comparative effectiveness outcomes. I want to tell you the other thing. The people who really need to be fearful are senior citizens when you start looking at getting rid of Medicare Advantage and when you start talking about carving as much as $500 billion out. I don't think our seniors right now feel like too much is being spent if you'd talk to them and see what their supplementals cost. Well, do you know what that means when you spend less money? You're going to provide less care, and there's no plan in the world that can provide more and more care for a lot less money.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Well, actually, what happened, just to go over that a little bit, over that period of time, in Tennessee, it was a noble goal to cover as many of our people in our State as we could. But over a short period of time, 45 percent of the people who got on TennCare had private health insurance. Our Governor is a Democrat, Governor Bredesen. As you all know and as everyone in this Hall knows, in a single-payer system, the way costs are controlled is by rationing care. Well, what we did in Tennessee was, about 200,000 people were removed from the rolls, and what did a significant number of those people do? They went back on their private health insurance. There is another thing that, I think, you have to ask yourself. By tripling the amount of money you spend on health care, what kind of outcomes will there be? Ultimately, that is what you're really interested in. What we ended up with in Tennessee was the highest per capita prescription drug use in the Nation, and number two, we were 47th in health outcomes. I yield back.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a great American who also happens to be a member of my staff. Mr. Speaker, we all know the vital role our staff members play in our individual offices and in the U.S. Congress as a whole. My scheduler and office manager, Amber Aimar, was instrumental in getting me, a new Member, off the ground and running. I found out firsthand that success of the first few weeks has a huge impact on the months to follow. We succeeded, and it was due in large part to Amber. Amber has been essential to me, but her contributions have reached far beyond the confines of my office. Numerous times constituents have called with an urgent problem; and, because of Amber, they have found a solution that saved the day. She began her career working with my colleague and friend, Joe Wilson from South Carolina. Amber was just as instrumental in South Carolina's Second District, and I was very fortunate to get her into the Tennessee delegation. Amber and her husband, Allen, and their son Alexander are moving to Ohio. This move will begin a new chapter in their lives. We wish them only the best and look forward to their future success. Mr. Speaker, we will all miss them greatly.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, the Democratic leadership is reportedly trying to find a compromise on health care reform. The only problem is they're compromising with themselves rather than with Republicans. Democrats have been trying to blame their failure to find broad consensus on health care reform on Republicans, but this ignores the facts. The facts are three committees and the House Democratic leadership sat down and drafted a bill with no Republican input. These same Democratic leaders have then made changes to the bill based on concerns raised by other Democrats. Now, Democratic leaders are continuing their negotiation with a different group of Democrats in an attempt to secure 218 votes in their own caucus. Since Republicans aren't invited to these negotiations, here's some free advice from the House floor: If you're having this much trouble getting the majority of your conference to support your bill, then you're going to have an even bigger problem with the American people, particularly when they find out that this bill undercuts the President's promise to allow them to continue their health care if they like it. Republicans have many ideas on how to reform health care and make insurance more affordable for small businesses and families and reduce costs across the system. Let's scrap this partisan plan and start over with what we all agree on and get health care right for the American people.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, last night President Obama addressed the American public and urged Congress to pass health care reform. As a physician who has seen the shortcomings of our system, I am glad he strongly urges reform. I want to correct something he said about why Republicans oppose this plan and support other measures. First, he said a public plan was needed to keep insurance companies honest. Republicans don't oppose insurance reform. We wholeheartedly embrace it. We oppose the public plan because it's a backhanded attempt at moving towards a government-run system where care is provided not because it's the best but because it costs the least or, worse, it's rationed. Second, he said the wealthiest Americans should shoulder the burden for everyone's health care with a surtax. What he didn't say is that those same wealthy Americans are many of the same people we're relying on to create jobs and help reduce the staggering unemployment rate. You can't have it both ways. We can't dramatically increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans to some of the highest taxes in the world and then turn around and expect job creation. We support ensuring patients can get the care they need from their physician, reforming the insurance industry, making health care more affordable through cost containment and tax credits. Let's get these ideas, sit down and hammer out a bipartisan compromise.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a great landmark in Sevierville, Tennessee--Sims Barber Shop. Often referred to as an unforgettable, Sims Barber Shop has been a landmark in the community and a family tradition since the 1930s. Sims upholds a reputation for taking care of their customers and helping folks feel comfortable when they visit Sims Barber Shop. To give you a little bit of history, Mr. Conley Sims started Sims Barber Shop on Bruce Street in Sevierville Tennessee in 1932. In the 1960s, Mr. Conley Sims moved the shop directly across the street, who was later joined by his son Johnny Sims in the family business. Mr. Conley Sims cut hair 6 and 7 days per week. Conley and Johnny cut hair together until 1992 when Conley retired. Conley passed away two years later, but his legacy is kept alive today--at Sims Barber Shop in Sevierville.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, with the national unemployment rate nearing 10 percent and Tennessee's own unemployment rate at over 11 percent, people are outraged that not more is happening in Washington to help them find work. So far, this Congress has provided those who find themselves out of work extended benefits, but it insisted on taxing those benefits. Worse, the majority has not done enough to stimulate the economy and to produce jobs, the best benefit of all, which is a job. Despite all of the promises of a green job revolution and the millions of jobs that would be saved or created because of the economic stimulus package, the number of jobs since President Obama took office has gone off a cliff. Republicans have called for an immediate end to the tax on unemployment benefits, which would surely help those who have been hurt by this recession. We have also called for tax relief for small businesses who can use that money to create jobs. These measures can improve our economy immediately. American small businesses are the most innovative in the world and will pull us out of this recession if we allow them, but Democrats seem determined to prevent any recovery from occurring. In the past month, they moved to bludgeon our economy with a national energy tax and tax on small business to finance massive new health care entitlements. Enough is enough. Create jobs.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate and thank Appalachian Christian Village for 55 years of excellence and care. As the first retirement community in Johnson City, I applaud all the amazing things they've accomplished throughout these very special years. Life at the communities of Appalachian Christian Village offers exceptional opportunities for new experiences, new friendships, and a new way of life. Madam Speaker, this community has become one of the most favorable places to retire in the country in terms of the crime rate, cost-of- living, and access to excellent medical services, among other components. I am so thankful to have this wonderful community in Washington County. Their presence is a tremendous contribution. I wish all of those at Appalachian Christian Village another successful 55 years. I am proud to represent all at Appalachian Christian Village in Congress, and I will continue to protect the values of the constituency while I am in office.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Well, one of the things when I got to Congress here and I began to hear the plan, I said, Well, we tried that already in the State of Tennessee. This is nothing new. It failed. And can you say failed? It was a disaster. And the Governor ran in 2002--our Democratic Governor--his platform was fixing TennCare. Fixing what 6, 8 years later was a mess in the State of Tennessee. Now there are good parts of this plan, as we pointed out. Things we will agree on. And I do want to show the public one thing. I almost broke my printer in the office this afternoon. But this is the bill that came out this afternoon, just to give you an idea what we're going to talk about in the next couple of days.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. One hundred-sixteen for me.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. No, this is an elective replacement.