James H. Boren Quotes

I had, in my legal practice, often encountered really shocking examples of the devastating impact of the costs of long-term medical care on meager incomes. And, just before I was elected, I had my own personal experience in paying very considerable bills for my mother's terminal illness.

The average man with a need for an operation cannot afford a first class hospital …My medical pills run $400 to $500 a month and hell, I feel pretty good … Costs must be tempered..

People say that the most expensive piece of medical equipment is the doctor's pen. It's not that we make all the money. It's that we order all the money.

A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running.

Uninsured care happens in this country, and here's the problem. It's not properly accounted for. The people who pay for uninsured care at the moment are the hospitals and the doctors and all of the medical providers.

Costs for liability insurance are higher than costs for many procedures. There is a need to reform liability laws to stop out-of-control health care costs.

Most of us would never consider getting our car repaired without first receiving an estimate of the charges, but this is exactly what we do when we need to go to a hospital for treatment.

American families, families back home in Minnesota, know only too well that out-of-pocket expenses for health care have been rising at an astonishing rate.

Many of us are alarmed at the skyrocketing cost of medical care, including patients, who are the consumers. However, medical malpractice is not the reason for these increasing costs.

In this most powerful nation in the world, lack of access to health care should not force local and state governments, companies and workers into bankruptcy, while causing unnecessary illness and hospitalization.

Liberal that I am, I support health-care reform on its merits alone. My liberal blood boils, for example, when I read that half of the personal bankruptcies in this country are brought on, in part, by medical expenses.

Medical costs are of concern, both in developing and developed countries.

Not having insurance not only destroys your life, it destroys your fiscal life. It breaks up marriages. You cannot functions anywhere unless you have good health.

When I told my doctor I couldn't afford an operation, he offered to touch-up my X-rays.

Today, all patients accepted for treatment at St. Jude's are treated without regard for the family's ability to pay. Everything beyond what is covered by insurance is taken care of, and for those without insurance, all of the medical costs are absorbed by the hospital.

We can all agree that no American should lose their life savings or their home because of illness or injury and that the rising cost of health care severely burdens individuals, families and businesses.

Long gone are the days when hospital stays and surgeries made up the bulk of seniors' annual medical expenses.

I know that some things are beyond our control, some illnesses are beyond our control, we get sick, we don't know why. But let's pledge to do whatever we can to avoid those high medical bills.

If you're not paying for it through the health plan, you pay for it in the emergency room.

Even families with health insurance are quite vulnerable to a severe economic reversal if someone gets sick.

The Republicans want to turn Medicare into a voucher plan that will end guaranteed coverage of medical bills for the elderly.

The answer was that in Burundi, having a clean bill of health has taken on a very particular meaning: unless and until you have paid for your hospital treatment, you simply can't leave, you are in effect a captive.

No doctor should ever have to call an insurance man to ask permission to treat a patient who is standing right there.

Doctors no longer charge patients, patients no longer pay doctors, and neither determines what is medically necessary.

The biggest pressure towards bankruptcy is health expenses … an unexpected health problem is the biggest driver.