[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 7 (Wednesday, February 2, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         NO HEALTH CARE CRISIS?

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I have been dismayed at the tenor of the 
health care reform debate. Some opponents of health care reform have 
abandoned substantive debate and have lapsed into a state of denial: 
``There is no health care crisis,'' they say.
  No health care crisis? Where have these people been? Who have they 
been talking to? Certainly not the same people I've been talking to. My 
office is flooded with calls and letters from people with real health 
care crises. Here is just one example:
  An elderly woman writes to me that her husband recently died of 
cancer, after a long illness. Before he died, he went through months of 
operations and chemotherapy for which the medical expenses were 
astronomical. Their insurance would not cover everything. She writes to 
me: ``I had nightmares during his illness because one does not know how 
much long-term care will be needed. Now I worry if or when I will be in 
that position.''
  This woman has a health care crisis. Her nightmares are caused by a 
health care system that is a nightmare. And, her nightmares are shared 
by 76 percent of insured Americans whose policies have lifetime limits. 
The Health Security Act will end lifetime limits on coverage and will 
allow people to sleep at night without worrying that one accident or 
one illness could cost them their lives' savings.
  Is there a health care crisis in America? Of course there is. The 
question is: Do we have the courage to face it and to fix it?

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