[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 14 (Friday, February 11, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

  (Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, a great deal of attention 
has been paid to the findings of the CBO report, ``An Analysis of the 
Administration's Health Care Proposal.'' In that report CBO Director 
Robert Reischauer argued that the money the President's mandate on 
businesses raises should be included on-budget. This, however, is not 
the most important finding of the CBO report. Of course there is the 
$131 billion difference between the administration's assertions of $59 
billion in deficit reduction and the CBO finding of $74 billion in 
deficit spending. But even this, in my opinion is not the most 
important finding of the report.
  I believe the most important aspect of the CBO report is found in 
chapter 5, title ``Other Considerations.'' I commend this chapter of 
the report to my colleagues for their serious review. It highlights the 
extreme uncertainty of the CBO analysis. In that section of the report 
Reischauer points out, and rightly so, that the assumptions used in 
their analysis are questionable for a variety of reasons. The 
assumption that underlies his entire report is that the President's 
plan will be implemented in the timeframes proposed and work exactly as 
he predicts it will work.
  Is that assumption valid?
  The CBO report points out that of the five responsibilities the 
National Health Board must carry out, not one of them has ever been 
shouldered before by either Government or private sector organizations. 
The report further comments that for an established agency to carry out 
just one of these responsibilities would be a formidable task. For a 
newly established agency to carry out all of the responsibilities 
within 3 years is incomprehensible.
  The body of the chapter goes on to detail the realistic problems with 
believing that a global budget can be implemented, that premiums can be 
set, that the responsibilities various parts of the new system will 
have to take can, in fact, be carried out. As we consider health care 
reform, it is you who must judge for yourselves whether the assumptions 
behind any plan are valid and whether the outcomes are predictable so 
we can develop a reform framework that will rely on realistic goals and 
realistic assumptions.

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