[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 26, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1420
 
                     THERE IS A HEALTH CARE CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Lewis of Georgia). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior] is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, in the past 24 hours this Capitol has 
witnessed two of the most extraordinary events that we have seen in 
recent memory. The first was last night when the President of the 
United States stood there and talked to us and to the Nation in his 
State of the Union Address. In what I thought was an eloquent and 
challenging speech in this Chamber, the President laid out his plan to 
build upon the progress of the past year; to create more jobs and 
better jobs, jobs that people would be able to raise their families on; 
to reward work over welfare; to promote democracy abroad; and to 
reclaim our streets from drugs and violent crime.
  And above all, the President once again made a very clear and a very 
compelling case for health care reform, for ending the health care 
crisis gripping this country today and for passing a bill that 
guarantees to all Americans--all Americans--health care coverage that 
can never be taken away.
  But incredibly enough, there are still those who insist that America 
does not have a health care crisis.
  In his response to the President's speech last night, the 
distinguished gentleman from Kansas once again stated his belief that, 
``America has health care problems, but no health care crisis.''
  Let me say that one more time, in case you missed it. The gentleman 
from Kansas last night said, ``American has health care problems, but 
no health care crisis.''
  Well, let me be the first person to nominate that statement for the 
``out-of-touch hall of fame.'' I can just see it now on the wall; 1929, 
Herbert Hoover: ``Prosperity is right around the corner.''; 1991, 
George Bush: ``There is no recession.''; 1994, the Senator from Kansas: 
``There is no health care crisis.''; I think it fits right in.
  But those people who really believe there is no health care crisis 
should have been at the second great event this Capitol has seen in the 
past 24 hours. They should have been in room 50 of the Dirksen Senate 
Office Building to hear the testimony of ordinary American citizens who 
talked about what the health care crisis in this country has done to 
them and to their families.
  Mr. Speaker, last night in the President's speech we heard all the 
statistics about this health care crisis: The 58 million Americans who 
have no coverage at all for some time of the year; no coverage, 58 
million Americans; 81 million Americans with preexisting conditions 
will either pay more for coverage or they cannot get coverage at all; 
and, most astonishing of all, 76 percent of insured Americans, 3 out of 
4, whose policies have a lifetime limit that, as the President said, 
can leave you ``without any coverage at all just when you need it 
most.''
  Also, small business will pay 35 percent more in premiums than big 
business or Government for the same coverage.
  Last night we heard the numbers. But in room 50 of the Dirksen 
Building, we heard 50 Americans, one from every State of the Union, 
tell us today the human side of this health care crisis.
  We heard, for instance, from a Michigan man who was diagnosed with 
Lou Gehrig's disease 3 years ago while training for a marathon. Now he 
can barely walk. But he moved slowly across the room to a microphone to 
show us that he still can. And he said:

       I did everything right. For 28 years I had a perfect record 
     of attendance at my job. I never missed an insurance payment. 
     But after 28 years, when I got sick I had to hire a lawyer to 
     get the insurance company to pay the costs.

  And, further:

       I wonder what happens to people who can't afford a lawyer 
     or don't have coverage.

  Mr. Speaker, he thinks we have a health care crisis. Can he be wrong?
  We heard from a District of Columbia woman whose husband came down 
with Alzheimer's disease. These are two people who between them worked 
for 100 years. But now she is worried that she will have to file 
bankruptcy and go on welfare just to pay for treatment.

  Mr. Speaker, she thinks we have a health care crisis. Can she be 
wrong?
  We heard from a working woman who 4 years ago was diagnosed with 
cancer. She spent months in the hospital. And her employer told her she 
had a choice: Either quit or be fired. She was fired, she ran through 
her life savings, she lost her house, and she is now homeless. She said 
she is working in a mission to pay for her room. Then she said, by the 
way, ``My employer was one of the major hospitals in the United 
States.'' She thinks we have a health care crisis. Can she be wrong?
  In my own congressional district I was visited by five women who 
talked with me about health insurance. Four of the five were single 
mothers who had children at home. They all worked in a nursing home. 
Not one of them had health insurance, despite even belonging to a labor 
union.
  One woman told me, ``I go to bed every night and say a prayer that my 
son does not get sick.''
  How can this be? People who work in large hospitals have no health 
insurance; people who take care of the sick and our parents and 
grandparents in nursing homes, no health insurance. It is an absolute 
outrage that a country as wealthy as ours, as progressive--at least 
supposed to be progressive--as the United States could fall so far 
behind in these major necessities for its people.
  We heard from a man, a couple from Maryland, a working couple who had 
insurance. Their 9-year-old boy needed a bone marrow transplant. Since 
the operations, costs for his care have exceeded $800,000. But their 
insurance company would only pay for $250,000. Now they do not know 
where to turn. They said, ``We thought we were safe. We had insurance; 
but it wasn't there for us when we needed it.''
  Mr. Speaker, they think we have a health care crisis. Can they be 
wrong?
  Three-quarters of the insured people in this country, those who have 
insurance have those lifetime limits and could find themselves in that 
same exact situation.
  That couple thinks we have a health care crisis, Mr. Speaker; can 
they be wrong?
  How about the constituent that I represent from Port Huron, MI, a man 
of about 50 years of age who worked for 40 years, right out of high 
school, worked in a plant. Tough work, the kind of work that when you 
are finished there at the end of the day, you are dirty, tired, and all 
you want to do is go home, let some time go by and maybe have a soft 
drink or a beer and recollect your thoughts. Forty years in this plant, 
sweat, he poured his heart into his paycheck in order to take care of 
himself and his family. He retired, not 65, not eligible for Medicare, 
but he thought he was protected with the health care plan.

                              {time}  1430

  He got a pension every month, goes to the mailbox, $500 pension check 
in there.
  He said to me, ``Congressman, I went to my mailbox last week to get 
my check, and there was a check, all right, but it was for 32 bucks 
with a note that says, `That's all you're going to get because health 
care costs have risen, and we're offsetting your pension against the 
rising health care coverage.'''
  My colleagues, think about that. Here is a man who had planned for 
his retirement, who needed that $500 to exist, and it was wiped out 
like that.
  We have got a crisis in this country in health care. To suggest 
anything less is not being honest with the American people, and the 
American people know we have this crisis. They understand that in 1980 
an average family of four was paying $2,500 a year for health care. In 
1993, it was $6,500 a year. And, if we do nothing, if we think we just 
got a little bit of a problem and do nothing, or tinker around the 
edges, it will be $14,000 by the end of the decade.
  We have a crisis, and crisis requires courage, it requires 
leadership, it requires determination, and it requires the help, the 
support, of the American people to make sure that we get the job done 
for them so that they have the same type of affordability and 
opportunity for health care that we have.
  That is why this card is so important. We have got 7 months to get 
this done. We have a window of opportunity that comes along maybe once 
every 30 years. We did Social Security in the 1930's, we did Medicare 
1964-65, and now we have this opportunity. We have to grasp it, and we 
need the American people to lock arms, to embrace each other and to 
support us in our effort to make sure that we have comprehensive health 
care coverage, every American has a card and that the health care 
coverage that they have cannot be taken away from them whether they 
have a preexisting condition, whether they have their job or they lose 
their job, whether they change their job. It is going to be there for 
them.
  So, Madam Speaker, in conclusion let me just suggest that, as we 
engage in this debate over the next several months, we remember the 
couple from Maryland, the gentleman with Lou Gehrig's disease from 
Michigan, the nurses who worked in our nursing home that had no 
insurance themselves, and the countless other and millions of Americans 
who are insured but who live in fright because of a lifetime cap where 
they will not be covered when the necessity for coverage is there.

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