[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 12 (Wednesday, February 9, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          THE REAL HIDDEN COST

  (Mr. SKAGGS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SKAGGS. Mr. Speaker, yes, we should be worried about a hidden 
cost as we debate health care reform. But it is not the one that some 
are talking about today. It is not an esoteric question about whether 
something is off or on budget. It is something much more fundamental.
  The hidden cost we should be most worried about is how our current 
health care system leads to all of us paying more than we need to.
  There is a hidden cost to all of us whenever somebody without health 
insurance neglects an illness until it is acute. Whenever a disease 
that could have been treated with a $50 doctor visit and a $20 
prescription becomes a week-long hospital stay. Whenever somebody who 
does not have a regular doctor gets treated in an emergency room 
instead of in a doctor's office. Whenever somebody without insurance 
cannot pay his or her hospital bill.
  Because that cost is paid by the rest of us. That is one of the 
reasons an aspirin in a hospital costs more than a movie ticket.
  There is a hidden cost when we spend over $100 billion each year to 
process 15,000 different types of insurance forms and to deal with the 
other requirements of an insurance system that is far too complex and 
too bureaucratic. Because every time any of us pays an insurance 
premium or a health care bill we're paying for that hidden $100 
billion.
  There is a hidden cost added to the sticker price of every American 
car to buy health insurance for auto industry retirees.
  There is an insidious cost to our entire economy whenever somebody 
with a preexisting condition stays in a dead-end job to keep health 
insurance, instead of moving to a more productive and rewarding job.
  Yes, there is a hidden cost to health care--the enormous waste in the 
current system. That's why we've got to simplify, streamline, and 
reform. I urge my colleagues to stop the bickering and naysaying and 
jostling for partisan advantage. This is the year to work with our 
President to straighten out our health care mess. The American people 
are running out of patience--and they are running out of money, because 
they're paying for a health care system that produces miraculous 
results often, but at excessive cost almost always.

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