This first portion is just under three hours. The Senate Committee on health education, labor, and pensions will come to order. Today is a busy day. Very important votes will be taking place. Democrats will be meeting in their caucuses, so people are going to be coming in and out. I also think that this hearing is important enough that we extend the time for questioning from the usual five minutes to seven minutes. Let me begin by welcoming the ceos of bristolmyers, chris verner, we thank you for being here. The ceo of merck, and the ceo of johnson and johnson for being with us this morning. Thank you very much. There is a lot of discussion in our nation about how divided our people are on many issues and that is absolutely true, but on one of the most important issues facing our country, the American People, whether they are democrats, republicans, independents, conservatives, progressives, could not be more united, and that is the need to substantially lower the outrageous prices of
Questions. Thank you. Chairman issa, Ranking Members cummings, members of the committee, thank you for an opportunity to be here. Cms strives to be as responsive as possible. I understand that we have already provided over 140,000 pages of documents to this committee. Transparency is important and thats why im pleased to be here today and have the opportunity to answer your questions. We will continue to produce documents. In the almost five years that ive had the privilege to work at cms, my focus has been on how we can best serve our beneficiaries, including seniors on medicare, adults and children on medicaid and chip andenrolli marketplace. I work ro to reduce cost, improve quality in ways that make a difference. Were making real and important progress. As of august 15th this year, we have 7. 3 million americans enrolled in the Health Insurance marketplace coverage. These are individuals who have paid their premiums. We are encouraged by the numbers of consumers who have paid their
Released a statement saying House Minority leader nancy pelosi had the following to say in a statement president obama also released a statement that reads later today, Terry Mcauliffe will be sworn in as virginias next governor. We will have live coverage of the inauguration ceremony beginning at 12 05 eastern on c span. The house ended the week by passing a bill that would require the federal government to report Security Breaches on its healthcare. Gov website. Members will be turning their attention to a shortterm spending measure this week that will keep the government funded past january 15, which is when expiresding authority for the federal government. The senate will continue to work on the bill extending Unemployment Benefits that expired in december for more than a million people. For more on those items and what to expect next week, we talked to a reporter covering capitol hill. As Congress Wraps up its first full week and gets set for another full week of legislative actio
Gunshots are the top cause of death for children and teenagers in the U.S. Fatal or not, the wounds reverberate through communities and the health care system.