[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 3 (Thursday, January 27, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 27, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I thank the Chair. That is the second 
health care onslaught we have had here today in the middle of this bill 
on foreign policy. I do not want to get into a huge debate about health 
care, but I am not going to stand here and just let the 
characterizations go by that were made.
  I do not happen to be a sponsor of President Clinton's health bill. I 
am still working through a lot of the parameters of it, as well as 
other alternatives. But I know enough to know that the President's bill 
is not what the good Senator from Texas just described. What the 
Senator from Texas just described is a classic example of what is going 
to happen in America and what is already happening. It is called: Scare 
Americans. Scare them away from change. Scare them by using words like 
``collective,'' ``Government takeover,'' ``lose your choice.'' That is 
not what is in the bill. It is a private system. You may not like the 
structure of the private system, but it is not the Government. They are 
private hospitals and consortia are going to compete, and people will 
make the choice whether they want this one or that one. There will be 
competition. I am glad the Senator says he wants people to have choice, 
because most workers in America today do not have choice. They cannot 
choose their doctor. They are told by their insurance company what 
doctor they will go see. So let us be realistic about this bill and not 
scare Americans.
  He said he wants quality and he wants choice and he wants freedom. 
Well, every single one of those are both the goals and the principles 
on which the Clinton plan--which I do not yet support--is based. You 
have choice. You can choose which one you want to join. They are hoping 
that the quality will remain the same. I am not convinced of that, 
actually, so I am looking hard at it, because I do not want to diminish 
it. I hope this debate does not get reduced to the old sort of 
stereotypical scare tactics where we lump everything into these scary 
words like ``Government takeover'' and ``loss of freedom'' and 
``collective,'' and so forth. ``Talk to a doctor instead after 
bureaucrat,'' he said. Come on. There is nothing in this that says you 
are going to talk to a bureaucrat. You are going to go to a doctor, the 
doctor of the program that you sign up with. Nobody is prevented from 
hiring any doctor they want in this country to do anything for them 
that they want.
  So, again, this is not the time for this debate, but I think the 
American people realize this is reducing it to cliches, particularly 
scare tactics.

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