Send your spirit to empower us to live worthy of your great name. Guide our senators as they confront the struggles of our times, bringing them confident assurance that your purposes will prevail. In the hectic pace of their living, help them to slow down long enough to hear your still, small voice of wisdom. Eviscerate the tensions that pull them apart and keep them from being whole. Lord, you know us better than we know ourselves so have your way in our world. We pray in your holy name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Mcconnell the democratic leader. Mr. Reid the republican leader is on his way. I ask that the quorum begin to be called. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding o
Harry reid is calling it a career after five terms in the u. S. Senate. He announced today that he will not seek election to a six term. He released a statement that said, i have had time to ponder and to think and got to be more concerned about the country. The senate and the state of nevada than about us. As a result, im not going to run for reelection. Heres a look at portion of his video announcement where he talks about his plans for the remainder of his term. This accident has caused us for the first time to have a little downtime. I have had time to ponder and think we day that we have to be more concerned about the country, the senate, the state of nevada and us. As a result of that, i am not going to run for reelection. My friend senator mcconnell, dont be too elated. I will be here and i will be doing the same thing i have done since i came to the senate. The National Republican Senatorial Committee did not take long in reacting. On the verge of losing his own election and lo
These are the goals that the secretary announced. Really focus on the dark circle on the page. The dark circle is the percentage of medicare fee for Service Payments in the alternative payment models. In 2011, they were zero. No medicare payments in the model. In 2014, at the end of 2014, about 20 of the 362 billion of the medicare feeforService Payments, excluding Medicare Advantage. But the numbers are similar. 20 were alternative payment models. The goal is by the end of 2016 30 of the feeforService Payments will be in the new alternative payment models that work and 50 by the end of 2018. So this is the first time in the history of the Medicare Program that we have set Broad National goals, and what is critical to understand is its not just a medicare project. This past wednesday at the white house, you may have seen president obama picked up something called off something called for health care learning Action Network where we have convened a commercial payers medicare organizatio
We are seeing both development and review times decreased significantly with exciting new therapies entering the marketplace much sooner for the patients who need them. Last year we approve the most new drugs in almost 20 years. And more orphan drugs than ever before. 41 of these new drugs were first in class products, resulting in a breathtaking array of truly Innovative New therapies for patients, and the majority of these new drugs were approved using some kind of expedited pathway. Today, contrary to what many would say, fda approved drugs faster on average than all other advanced nations, and the vast majority of the time, the u. S. Is the first country in the world to approve important and novel medicines. And substantial improvements are being made in the efficiency of medical devices used as well. Moreover, we have accomplished this while remaining the worlds Gold Standard for safety and effectiveness. Yet we all recognize that despite the successes, too many diseases still awa
That we understand . Early onset disease is defined by the age of onset, but we have learned in recent years that it is probably the same underlying disease process. Having said that, a person who was affected with alzheimers disease in his armor 50s versus somebody in the 80s may have different contributions to the clinical picture. They look the same. They are forgetful and they develop problems with thinking and activities with daily living, but in the older person, there is that tangles and some other pathologies and vascular disease. In the younger onset person, it is more likely to be a few are a pure form of the disease i think both of them are comparable. Treatment that are likely to be used for onset early on can be used for later on. There might be a slight predilection toward a genetic as with most diseases. When they occur earlier in life they are more genetically noted that later in life. The biology of the disease is quite comparable with early onset and late onset. Senat