Thank you steve. Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to our dc members and or guests. It is wonderful to be here at the Detroit Economic Club. Organization is long attracted some of the nation his most distinguished thinkers and innovators. It is my privilege to introduce todays participants. Well engage us to the capitated rating discussion about the future of healthcare. The may begin by introducing our guest speakers, someone who ive known for monday years and consider him a mentor and a friend. Scott promises the president and ceo of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association National federation the source 36 independent communitybased and locally operated Blue Cross Blue Shield companies. Including Blue Cross Blue Shield of michigan. The Blue Cross Blue Shield system through his federation of insurers, covers one out of every three americans. I think this is the very important statistic. What else does this frankly. It serves every zip code in the united states. In every zip code in ame
Collins and other and i age leaders testify before House Appropriations subcommittee on funding and research efforts. This is about 21 2 hours. The subcommittee will come to order. Thank you very much and apologize for being late. They take on a life of their own. I wanted to say good morning, welcome back to labor hhs, appropriations subcommittee. Let me say thank you on behalf of of the subcommittee for hosting members of the subcommittee for the site visit at the nih campus last week. We had a wonderful opportunity to learn more about nihs work, we learned about researchers working to develop treatments for major depression, shrinkage free cancer tumors in children, we heard from participants whose lives have been changed by Clinical Trials so it was a moving and informative experience. Let me welcome our witnesses including the five Institute Center directors who joined us today and in addition, always a great addition doctor Francis Collins, director of the National Institute of h
Committee. This first portion is just under three hours. [inaudible conversations] the Senate Committee on health, education, labor and pensions will come to order. Today is a busy day. As we all know very important both will be taking place, republicans of knickers 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, if thats okay with folks. Let me begin by welcoming the ceos of Bristol Myers squibb, chris berner, we thank you for being here. Ceo merck robert davis, we thank you for being here. And the Seahawks Johnson johnson Joaquin Duato for being with us this morning. Thanks 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 democrats, republicans come i
[inaudible conversations] the Senate Committee on health, education, labor and pensions will come to order. Today is a busy day. As we all know very important both will be taking place, republicans of knickers 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, if thats okay with folks. Let me begin by welcoming the ceos of Bristol Myers squibb, chris berner, we thank you for being here. Ceo merck robert davis, we thank you for being here. And the Seahawks Johnson johnson Joaquin Duato for being with us this morning. Thanks 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 democrats, republicans come in the pesco conservatives, progresses could not be more u
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