[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 AMERICAN PEOPLE NEED A HEALTH INSURANCE GUARANTEE

  (Mr. HINCHEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, as we begin to review competing health care 
plans, we have to keep in mind that our goal should be to assure that 
every American has good health care coverage at an affordable price. We 
should not be satisfied with anything less than that. We should not be 
satisfied with a promise of mere access. We should not be satisfied 
with a plan that merely allows people with modest incomes the 
opportunity to buy private coverage they cannot afford. And it seems to 
me that that is all that the Cooper plan offers.
  Its focus is not on the needs of individual American families, 
families who need health insurance or better coverage. Its goal is 
protecting the structure of today's health care industry. That 
structure has not served us well. We need to have the courage to try 
something that will work.
  I say to my colleagues, ask your constituents what Government 
programs, they depend on the most. If they are like mine, they will 
tell you ``Social Security and Medicare.'' Social Security and Medicare 
do not offer access. They provide guaranteed coverage. Social Security 
and Medicare do not rely on networks of private insurers. They rely on 
mandates. And they work. Let us give the American people an equally 
solid guarantee of health insurance for themselves and their families.

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