[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 14 (Friday, February 6, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S675-S677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NEWS UPDATES

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I want to make a few comments on the news, 
and give a quick update on the events that have happened in my own 
mailroom earlier in the week.
  First of all, just a few minutes ago, this morning, with regard to 
the employment situation, we have been given very good news. The 
unemployment rate is at 5.6 percent, which was little changed, but the 
nonfarm payroll employment increased by 112,000, with job gains in 
construction and several service-providing industries. Indeed, that is 
very good news. That is 112,000 new jobs in January.
  If we look back to last August, we have seen a creation of 366,000 
payroll jobs. These numbers are very good news. It demonstrates we have 
turned the corner. But, clearly, we have a lot more work to do as we go 
forward. So there is very good news today on the job front; the trends 
are in the positive, right direction. But, again, we have a lot more 
work to do.
  The economy is doing well. I say that very quickly, and say we have a 
lot more work to do in job creation. But, again, that figure of 112,000 
is very good news.
  Mr. President, on another front but timely in terms of the news 
itself, I am delighted to report we are ahead of schedule in getting 
Senators back into their offices here on the Capitol grounds. As 
everyone knows, in response to the attack on my office with what is a 
deadly poison by the name of ricin, we immediately focused on the 
safety and welfare of the staff throughout the Capitol complex. Through 
a very comprehensive plan, a comprehensive response, even though I know 
it has not been handled just perfectly, and there are a lot of 
frustrations, I am delighted to report nobody has been hurt, everybody 
is safe, and that includes people here in my office, in the Dirksen 
building, the Senate office buildings, the Capitol complex, and, 
indeed, the postal system in this country.

  All testing has been negative, with the exception of the testing 
right around where the discovery was made. The Russell Senate office 
building has been opened now for 2 days. The Hart Senate office 
building opened yesterday. The Dirksen office building we will be 
making announcements about over the course of the day.
  On a third issue, Mr. President, I am delighted to see the response 
to the

[[Page S676]]

Medicare legislation we passed has been very positive in a number of 
ways. According to press reports, over 100 companies, agencies, and 
organizations have filed or are filing applications to participate in 
that prescription drug card that will be available to all seniors this 
summer.
  To me, that demonstrates a real interest and a fierce sign of 
competition and a lot of people participating in addressing the issue 
of health care, health care costs, prescription drugs, and making 
prescription drugs more available to our seniors. This is a strong 
indication there will be a very positive and broad interest that this 
full benefit, once it is available, will be taken advantage of.
  Also, earlier in the week we saw Medicare HMOs are, in response to 
this bill, slashing their premiums, making these premiums come down, 
therefore lowering that burden that falls on the senior in terms of 
out-of-pocket costs. At the same time, they are increasing their 
benefits in response to this bill, and expanding their service to more 
and more seniors, with the opportunity for more and more seniors to 
participate in integrated health care plans.
  This is a real stark contrast to what we had seen in the past where 
there were shrinking choices. Now there are going to be expanding 
choices. We are already seeing that take place.
  We began this Congress making the promise we would bring about 
strengthening the Medicare system and expanding the choices within the 
Medicare system and lowering the burden in terms of out-of-pocket 
expenditures and costs to individual seniors, and we have delivered on 
that promise. We made the promise that seniors would have access to 
better health care, and we have delivered on that promise by providing 
preventive care and prescription drugs for the first time really in 
Medicare today.
  So the plan is working. The new discount cards will be available for 
our seniors later on this spring.
  Mr. President, on a related issue, I want to comment on a silent 
epidemic that is in this country and that affects a lot of people who 
are listening to me right now--my colleagues and others who are 
watching through the various media. It has to do with an epidemic that 
a lot of people don't recognize that is occurring that can affect your 
health care and my health care and that of our colleagues and our 
families. It can be brought to focus by a single question that I want 
to ask every American; that is, are you positively sure that you don't 
have high blood pressure right now? If you can't answer that question 
yes or no, then you need to find out. Are you positively sure that you 
don't have high blood pressure?

  High blood pressure is hypertension. If you can't answer that 
question, just listen to me for a couple minutes on this important 
issue. The American Heart Association calls hypertension, or high blood 
pressure, ``the silent killer.'' We call it hypertension, and it is 
high blood pressure just like the pressure in a tire. If you are 
pumping up a tire with too much air, a bicycle tire or an automobile 
tire, it gets higher and higher. And literally, when they put that 
blood pressure cup on your arm and they measure to get those two 
numbers, the one and the slash and then the other number, it tells you 
how much pressure is in your body.
  The higher the pressure in your body, once it gets out of a certain 
range, the more likely you are to die, whether that be from heart 
disease, because it causes hardening of the arteries, or a stroke. It 
is as simple as that.
  When a person's blood pressure is too high, the heart is having to 
pump too hard. The heart is a pump. You have the rest of the body and 
the resistance of the blood vessels themselves. If it gets too high, it 
is like too much pressure in a tire. Or you can think of taking a thin 
coffee stirring straw and you are trying to blow through that as hard 
as you possibly can and the pressure that builds up strains the heart, 
which is a pump, and the blood pressure. If that pressure builds up 
over a period of time, because it is that way all throughout the course 
of the day--heartbeat after heartbeat, day after day--it damages 
everything that is downstream from the heart and the blood vessels--the 
brain and all of the organs. That is my physiology lesson.
  The point is, it is widespread. This is not just a few people. There 
are about 50 million people in the country today who have high blood 
pressure. Remember, if you have high blood pressure, you are going to 
have heart disease or a stroke or myocardial infarction, coronary 
artery disease, or atherosclerotic heart disease.
  The interesting thing about that is that a third of those 50 million 
people don't know they have it. That is why I am taking time on the 
Senate floor to address it. Because if it is 50 million and a third of 
them don't know they have it, all you have to do is put a blood 
pressure cup on your arm and then we have treatment for it. We can save 
thousands of lives if people will just act.
  I also want to relate that to what I just mentioned about Medicare 
itself. As legislation comes through this body, it is important for us 
to think like that, to take every opportunity to improve the 
legislation, if it can be as direct as that in terms of saving lives.
  With the Medicare prescription drug bill this body passed, that the 
President signed in December, for the first time in the history of this 
great Medicare Program, once you hit 65, that blood pressure cup and 
that physical exam becomes part of the program. That is amazing to me.
  Traditionally, people who came into Medicare didn't get that physical 
exam because it was not provided in the program. It is today. It was 
not 2 months ago. Thus, if you had hypertension throughout your life 
and you hadn't gone to the doctor because you hadn't been in a motor 
vehicle accident or you didn't like doctors, when you got to be 65 and 
on Medicare, at 70 and 75, and you have hypertension, it is never 
diagnosed. But in this Medicare bill, we included an entry physical 
exam so you make the diagnosis. That is step No. 1.

  Also in this Medicare bill for the first time in the history of 
Medicare--a wonderful program, 40 years we have had this fantastic 
program; I just told you diagnosis is there for the first time--there 
is the treatment. Never before in the history of Medicare have 
prescription drugs, which is the way you treat most hypertension today, 
been available through the Medicare Program itself. Yet that benefit, 
that better health care, because we passed this prescription drug bill 
and Medicare bill, is available.
  So those two things: Diagnosis is going to be made. Remember, 16 
million people in the country don't know they have it. So we are going 
to make the diagnosis. And then after the diagnosis, we don't leave 
people high and dry. We give them help. We don't give them all their 
prescription drugs. We never promised we would give them all their 
prescription drugs, and we shouldn't give them all their prescription 
drugs. We probably can't afford it. But we have helped every senior who 
has hypertension who didn't have access to prescription drugs to get 
prescription drugs. We have helped every single one and low income. We 
have really helped.
  We see why this Medicare bill was important. People argue $400 
billion is too much, or it is too little. Everybody is getting it from 
both sides. The point is, for the first time we have preventive care, 
we have early detection, and we increase the likelihood that a senior 
can get treatment for this life-threatening disease.
  I should also mention that African Americans, of that 50 million 
people with hypertension, are disproportionately affected. So they have 
this additional benefit both in terms of diagnosis and treatment. Look 
at hypertension and high blood pressure today. African Americans are 
disproportionately affected.
  I am gratified for this major advance in the Medicare bill. There are 
lots of things in the Medicare bill such as this that we didn't talk 
very much about on the floor of the Senate, but because we made reforms 
like that to Medicare, lives will be saved. More Americans are going to 
get the care that they deserve, and more Americans are going to get the 
treatments they need. That is what is in this bill. Hypertension is a 
good example. More lives will be saved.
  Let me go back to the question I asked: do you know what your blood 
pressure is? What is it? I know what my number is. I am a physician. I 
think about it all the time. But you need to be able to know. Is it 
high or low? No. 2, if you haven't had it

[[Page S677]]

checked recently, go have it checked. It is as simple as having a blood 
pressure cup put on your arm. Thirdly, if you are over the age of 65, 
because of the President's Medicare bill, you are going to receive more 
help to get the prescription drugs you need if you need them to help 
save your life. Are you positively sure you don't have high blood 
pressure?
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________