[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27824]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    BRINGING DOWN HEALTH CARE COSTS

  (Mr. YARMUTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, critics of the Affordable Health Care for 
America Act have said we're not doing enough to control costs. In fact, 
a great deal of what we have done in this legislation is aimed at 
reducing costs in the system--not just costs to Medicare and Medicaid, 
but also to the private system as well.
  For instance, one of the things we do is move toward standardized 
forms, standardized billing forms. One estimate is that this could save 
the system $30 billion a year. That's just one of the things that we 
put into motion to try and change the cost structure of health care in 
this country.
  As my colleague from Minnesota mentioned, we're talking about 
changing the way we pay physicians so that we pay for the quality of 
care and not the quantity of care. In addition, we move to reduce 
readmissions to hospitals, because this is one of the greatest factors 
in high medical care costs.
  Time after time in this bill, from comparative effectiveness research 
to investments in health care information technology, we do things that 
will bring costs down in health care, and that is our commitment to the 
American people. We will bring down costs and make health care 
affordable for every American.

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