House Proceeding 03-30-09 on Mar 30th, 2009 :: 2:09:25 to 2:13:25
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2:09:21 to 2:09:41( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: a blue star day as individuals and corporations to raise awareness of the importance of screening. i thank you for this time and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas, ms. granger, yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from louisiana, mr. scalise, reserve the balance of his time. the gentleman om new jersey, mr. pallone.

2:09:25 to 2:13:25( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Patrick J. Kennedy

2:09:42 to 2:10:03( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: mr. pallone: i yield three minutes to the gentleman from rhode island, who has also been kennedy. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from rhode island, mr. kennedy, is recognized for three minutes. mr. kennedy: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to congratulate representative granger for her leadership on this issue and thank her very much for her outgoing effort to bring this issue to the floor.

2:10:04 to 2:10:26( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: this is simply a matter of public awareness, and like so many issues it is a matter of getting the word out. screening is what it's about. obviously with respect to colorectal cancer it's the stigma. no one wants to talk about it. so as a result no one gets screened and when people finally get screened it's too late and they die.

2:10:27 to 2:10:49( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: it's the reason -- it's the second leading cause of death, cancer death in this country. and while the rates of death may be about the same for men and women, there is an enormous, an enormous in the rates of death between minorities and whites in this country. and the reason for that is

2:10:50 to 2:11:11( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: there are huge disparities in the access thealth care between minority populations and the rest of the population -- general populion. and that shows among the greatest disparities and disparity outcomes in this country. so for the african-american community, this is an enormous issue. this is an enormous issue

2:11:12 to 2:11:32( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: because it's affecting the death and mortality rates for the african-american community and the hispanic community over and above the general population by an enormous amount. so colorectal cancer is something that everybody needs to pay attention to and wak up because it's affecting. and why is it so important that we have the scre

2:11:33 to 2:11:54( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: pay for the screening? because there's no health insurance out there. that's why we need health insurance reform. and that's why kay granger is such a champion, because she stepped up to the plate and signed on to legislation saying it's good to talk about it, but unless we start talking about paying for it, it's not going to do us a that's what we need.

2:11:55 to 2:12:15( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: we need to pay for screening. and she says as she pointed out, the evidence backs us up. if we screen we save medicare money. because you can imagine trying to take care of someone with cancer is very costly,ostly ing. now, first of all, we should do it because we don't want to see

2:12:16 to 2:12:38( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: someone suffer. that should be good enough for all of us in congress to want to pass this screening effort. but if it's not everybody enough to want to having to go through cancer treatment, the want to do it because it saves dollars.

2:12:39 to 2:12:59( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: dollars because when detected early you don't haven't to spend all that money treating people for chemo therapy and radiation and all that we have a sick care system, not a health care system. and we can do better in this country by taking care of people before they get sick if we screen them. and that's what we should do

2:13:00 to 2:13:20( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: with colorectal cancer, screen people. sign on to 1189, h.r. 1189. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from rhode island's time has e the gentleman from new jersey reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from louisiana, mr. scalise. mr. scalise: mr. speaker, i y time.

2:13:21 to 2:13:26( Edit History Discussion )

Patrick J. Kennedy: the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from louisiana yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new jersey.