[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 116 (Thursday, September 15, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H7962]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SAVING LIVES AND DOLLARS IN HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. MURPHY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. Speaker, each week I come before Congress to remind 
my colleagues of areas of health care where we can save lives and 
money. This week I want to mention that timely prenatal care, or 
medical care for women before pregnancy, can also save lives and money. 
One million American women deliver babies annually without receiving 
prenatal care, and in the United States more than 250,000 low birth 
weight infants are born each year who may subsequently have higher risk 
for various handicaps, heart defects, respiratory illnesses, et cetera. 
Women who are diabetic or are depressed have higher risk for this. The 
average costs in investing to help save these risks can save us between 
$1 and $4 when providing prenatal care and reducing neonatal intensive 
care costs later. It is a good investment for America to continue, and 
public-private partnerships are a way of continuing to do this.
  I recommend Congress continue to look favorably on funding those 
programs that help provide prenatal care to continue to save lives and 
money.
  For further information, I suggest my colleagues go to my Web site, 
murphy.house.gov, to learn about this and other ways that we can save 
lives and dollars in health care costs.

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