[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 25 (Wednesday, March 9, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


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

 
    SUPPORTING A BIPARTISAN SOLUTION TO THE HEALTH CARE REFORM ISSUE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
February 11, 1994, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Gekas] is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker and Members, today I have issued a letter to 
the entire leadership of the Congress on both sides of the Capitol to 
urge them to begin now to fashion a bipartisan solution to the health 
care issue. There are absolutely big pieces of evidence to the effect 
that the Clinton administration program is in a shambles. It is also 
true that the Republican plan on the Senate side and the Republican 
plan on the House side do not have enough votes to pass. The individual 
plans that individual Members of Congress have introduced over the last 
year or so are lacking in total support. The Cooper plan here and the 
McDermott plan there, I myself have introduced a plan, and there are 
dozens of others who have introduced bills to bring about change and 
reform in health care.
  But what do we do? If indeed we cannot find 218 votes for any single 
bill, is it not time to regroup and to produce a bipartisan plan? After 
all, there are pieces of my bill, for instance, that will fit 
handsomely in a bipartisan bill, like for instance, malpractice reform, 
raising the level of Medicaid to bring in more of the working poor and 
of the uninsured, joining up Medicare A and Medicare B for 
administrative purposes to save overlapping and the costs that go with 
it, and so on with every other kind of introduction that has been made 
of separate bills over the last 2 years.
  But here we have a chance to amalgamate the best thinking of all 
these bills in those issues which have a common denominator. Are we not 
all interested in removing preexisting conditions from insurance forms 
and insurance claims? Are we not interested in creating portability for 
any insurance plan to carry over from one job to another or from a job 
to no job? Are we not interested in making sure that every person in 
our country has access to health care?
  Well, all of these can be put into a bill where we find these common 
denominators and create a consensus.
  Do we have evidence of this occurring, that this is possible? All we 
need to do is we should look back just a few months to the passage of 
NAFTA. That was a bipartisan effort.
  NAFTA brought together different coalitions, created new partnerships 
among old enemies, and, unfortunately, created new enemies out of old 
friends in the making; but nevertheless a NAFTA package was produced, 
bipartisan.
  What we have to do in health care is create a HAFTA, H-A-F-T-A, to do 
a bipartisan HAFTA-type thing, with HAFTA meaning Health Action for 
Today's America. Health Action for Today's America, HAFTA; we have to 
do something about health care.
  We cannot do it on the individual plans introduced. No one plan will 
be able to garner 218 votes here in the House. So do we not have to 
``hafta,'' move to a bipartisan situation? My plan or the movement that 
I want to start here today, HAFTA, can do exactly that. That is what I 
have asked the leadership to do, to now call a halt to all the 
bickering about health care issues, bring the leadership together, put 
the best foot forward from every single plan, focus them down to a 
workable plan, and pass HAFTA because we ``hafta.''

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