[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 48 (Thursday, April 28, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         THE HEALTH CARE DEBATE

  Mr. BONIOR. Madam Speaker, we are fast approaching a crucial time in 
the health care debate. In the next 3 to 4 weeks, three major 
committees are expected to report out bills. After they finish their 
work, within 2 weeks, another seven committees are expected to send 
health bills to the full House.
  The next 6 weeks will be a period of very intense activity. And from 
time to time, as often is the case, we can expect passions to rise. 
Debate will get heated. Words will be exchanged, and some of us may say 
things that we later will come to regret.
  I hope for the most part we can keep the debate focused on the task 
at hand and not sink into launching personal attacks against any person 
or any industry. I hope we can continue to work together to pass the 
best health care reform bill we can.
  Having said all that, Madam Speaker, I regret to say that last week I 
did not even take my own advice. I said some things about insurance 
companies that were less constructive and more personal than they could 
have been. I think it was that great statesman, Yogi Berra, who once 
said that when you come to a fork in the road, you should take it.
  Well, I am standing here tonight as a middle-aged Congressman in a 
white starched shirt saying that I took the wrong road last week. I 
regret having done that, Madam Speaker, because I think there is a 
strong enough case to be made for health care reform without launching 
into personal attacks.
  The facts is that today without reform, small businesses are forced 
to pay between 35 and 40 percent more than larger firms for coverage, 
or the fact that 85 percent of the people who do not have coverage 
today are people who are working full time or part time, or the fact 
that three out of every four Americans, an amazing 133 million people, 
have health insurance policies with lifetime limits that cut off 
benefits when you need them most.
  Certainly, those facts are bigger grounds for concern in and 
discussion and should be the focus of our work. Indeed, Madam Speaker, 
I believe we are making progress in some of the questions that confront 
us every day.
  As I mentioned, three major committees, Education and Labor, Energy 
and Commerce, and Ways and Means, are making progress on health reform 
every day. They are working to have bills reported out of committee by 
Memorial Day.
  On the issues that are of great concern to the American people, 
issues like the impact on small business and the cost to working 
families, we are making great bipartisan progress that will not only 
make health care insurance more affordable but will make the system 
work better. We are starting to achieve some consensus on the best ways 
to achieve universal coverage, which is a goal I think nearly everyone 
has concluded must be a part of the final bill. And we are working with 
many concerned organizations who have stopped fighting us on health 
reform and begun working with us to strengthen what is right about our 
health care system, while fixing what is wrong.
  And we are doing it the only way we know how, the only way we have 
made progress in this great democracy for over 200 years, by debating 
the issues that face us, by working out the differences that divide us 
and by coming up with a bill that will improve the lives of all 
Americans for generations to come.
  It is not easy and sometimes it is not pretty to watch, but by 
staying above the fray and focusing on the task at hand, we are making 
great progress. It has been nearly 50 years since Harry Truman first 
proposed national health care reform. But the American people have 
demanded health care reform. They voted for it. And we are responding 
to that call.
  In 1994, that is going to be the year that we provide all Americans 
with guaranteed private health care insurance that can never be taken 
away, not if you get sick, not if you lose your job, not if you change 
your job, not if you have a preexisting condition, it is going to be 
there for you. It is going to provide you with the peace of mind and 
security that the American people do not have today.

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