[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 22 (Thursday, March 3, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 3, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          HEALTH CARE FOR ALL

  Mr. MITCHELL. Madam President, today and tomorrow, the Senate 
Republicans will attend a meeting on health care. Senator Dole asked me 
to adjust the Senate schedule to accommodate their meeting. I was happy 
to do so. Democrats have had many such meetings on this issue and will 
have many more. I commend Senator Dole and other Republican leaders for 
their attention to this critical matter. There is no issue more urgent, 
no concern more pressing to American families than the need to reform 
our Nation's health care system.
  While there are many points on which we disagree, Democrats and many 
Republicans share a commitment to assure that every American has 
private health insurance that cannot be taken away.
  Nearly 40 million Americans have no health insurance, millions of 
others--in fact, nearly all Americans--fear losing coverage if they 
become seriously ill or lose their job.
  Many Americans have the most basic decisions of their life dominated 
by concerns about the cost of health care. Whether to marry. Whether to 
have children. Where to work. Where to live.
  These fundamental decisions of life should not be dictated by 
concerns about health insurance. But in the current system, for many 
Americans they are.
  In 1960, the United States spent $27 billion on health care. This 
year health care spending is expected to rise to $950 billion.
  Those numbers are so staggering that they bear repeating. From $27 
billion a year in 1960 to $950 billion a year this year.
  These costs are unsustainable for Federal and State governments, for 
businesses, and for American families.
  President Clinton has proposed to reform the system. Every Member of 
Congress knows that reform must come. And the American people are 
demanding reform--reform which will assure them the security of health 
care insurance that is permanent, guaranteed, can never be taken away.
  There has been much debate about the merits and the shortcomings of 
specific provisions of the President's health care plan. There has been 
less but similar debate about other health plans which have been 
introduced by Senators Chafee and Dole and by Congressman Cooper and 
Senator Breaux, among others.
  It is time we put aside our differences and look to our common goals, 
rather than concentrating our effort on only those provisions on which 
we disagree. It is time that we refocus on the fundamental need for 
legislative action this year. The problems have not gone away, rather 
they have gotten worse. No plan is perfect, but we cannot allow the 
perfect to be the enemy of the good.
  Nearly every industrialized nation in the world provides health care 
to its citizens. Each nation's plan is different, based on the economic 
needs and the social customs of its people. None of these systems is 
without problems. Each of these nations struggles to control its health 
care costs. And many continue to revise their health care systems in an 
effort to meet the changing health and economic needs of its people.
  The lesson for the United States must be a commitment to develop a 
way to assure to every American the security of having private health 
insurance that can never be taken away. We must develop a plan that is 
fundamentally an American plan, one that will work for us. We cannot 
allow ourselves to be deterred from this critical objective because it 
is too difficult, because there is no perfect plan, because some will 
have to change their business practices or because the way health care 
is delivered will have to be changed. Maintaining the status quo ought 
not to be an option. Tinkering around the edges ought not to be an 
option. Neither will address the fundamental problems of full coverage 
for all Americans and controlling costs.
  I believe that we can--I believe that we must--work together to 
achieve our common objectives during this Congress.
  We can reform our health care system. It will be done so long as all 
of those involved remain focused on our common goal to provide 
affordable health care to all of our citizens and not be distracted by 
those things on which we disagree.
  So I wish the Republicans well during their health care meeting and I 
hope they will return from that meeting with a commitment to work with 
Democrats to enact comprehensive health care reform legislation this 
year--legislation which includes the one essential element for all 
Americans, health insurance for every American that is permanent, that 
is guaranteed, and that can never be taken away.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.

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