[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 36 (Friday, March 25, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, there is an item I want to mention here 
this evening that has received very little public attention. We have 
now been talking for over a year about massive reform for health care.
  The President and First Lady have come forward with a very broad, 
sweeping change in the current health care system. For the last year, 
there has been enormous speculation about whether or not this would be 
successful and what were the fortunes of the President's proposal. 
After the address he gave to the joint session of Congress, the numbers 
swelled in terms of support for that proposal. But since that time, 
with each passing day, each passing hour, support for that plan has 
begun to diminish.
  Why is that? Well, one gentleman--I will leave him nameless this 
evening--who has been an advisor from time to time to the President and 
First Lady, said that in the final analysis, the reason people were 
moving away and stepping back from this plan was because of its 
complexity. There are 1,346 pages, I think. It talks about massive new 
Federal Government regulation and expanded costs. But the most 
important ingredient, according to this gentleman, was the fact that it 
was terribly complicated and left everybody wondering: What in the 
world does that mean to me?
  The specific event to which I am referring occurred within the last 
10 days: The Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health recently took a 
vote--we have had a lot of votes over there in these health committees. 
This, I think, received about four lines in the Washington Post at the 
bottom of the article. If you are a headline reader, you are never 
going to get to this news.
  In fact, you have to be a very thorough reader to get to it. But they 
had a vote on the President's proposal for health care reform in the 
Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health. There are six Members of the 
President's party, six Democrats on that committee, and four minority 
Members, four Republicans.
  I just found the vote absolutely breathtaking. The vote in that 
subcommittee was this: every Member of the President's party refused to 
vote on the President's proposal, and the four Republicans voted 
against it.
  So in a vote on the President's proposal for health care reform in 
the Subcommittee on Health not one Member of the President's party 
would vote for it.
  Now why? Mr. President, that is a remarkable public statement, 
absolutely remarkable.
  I would suggest that the reason is not unlike the adviser. The reason 
for this vote is because people are perceiving that that plan for 
reform destabilizes too many people. It takes a program that everybody 
agrees has significant problems and problems that need attention, but 
instead of focusing on those problems, instead turns the lights out on 
health care in the United States, turns all the lights out and tries to 
create a new program and turn the lights on in an entirely new way.
  Everybody gets asked a lot of questions about health care reform, and 
I am no different from the rest, but I always point to this analogy. I 
do not know anybody who has never confronted a leak in their roof. 
Everybody has had a leak in their roof. It is serious. No one ignores a 
leak in their roof. I have never seen anybody that did. You are running 
around trying to salvage an important heirloom table, your 
grandmother's table, your new drapes you just put up are being soiled, 
the water is coming near an electrical socket that is going to create a 
fire. It is a serious problem, and you do something about it and you do 
it quickly. You know, Mr. President, I have never met an American yet 
who tore his or her house down to the foundation and rebuilt it to fix 
a leak.
  Mr. President, everybody I know fixes the gable or maybe they need 
new shingles. Maybe they need to remove the wood rot. But they target 
right in on what needs attention. No one tears the house down and 
starts over.
  Mr. President, I personally believe too many of the proposals do just 
that. They have been written and designed by people who have never been 
in the medical system, never been a doctor, never had to confront some 
of the issues directly, and as a result we get suggestions that simply 
are not pragmatic.
  I would suggest to you, Mr. President, that that is why this vote 
that we did not hear near enough about because it is a very important 
one, every Member of the President's party refused to vote on the first 
real test on that plan.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor to the distinguished senior Senator 
and colleague from South Carolina.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Exon). The Chair recognizes the Senator 
from South Carolina, [Mr. Thurmond].

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