[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 63 (Thursday, May 19, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
         IT IS TIME TO FIX AMERICA'S FAULTY HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

  (Mr. VISCLOSKY asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, as this Congress considers ways to fix 
America's health care system, it is easy to get caught up in the 
political process. Whose plan is up; whose plan is down--all the name-
calling and arm-waving that goes with any major piece of legislation. 
And sometimes, it is easy to forget what is really at stake here: 
millions of lives and billions of dollars.
  Just yesterday, two devastating new studies found that we're actually 
paying more for less, forcing millions of Americans into emergency 
health care that is the most expensive for us and the least efficient 
for them.
  These studies also found that millions of Americans are shut out of 
decent health insurance--and these unlucky Americans are two to three 
times more likely to die in a hospital as a result.
  Let us be clear: we are not talking about paperwork, or bureaucracy, 
or even high premiums; we're talking about human lives.
  In ont study, the New England Journal of Medicine found that in our 
cities, poor Americans have to rely on expensive emergency room care, 
because decent care simply is not available to them any other way. And 
we pick up the tab for that emergency care, often through higher 
premiums and higher taxes.
  Another sobering study found that children without health insurance 
are less likely to get treatment for potentially devastating medical 
conditions.
  What kind of health care system condemns poor children to suffer bad 
health just because they were not born into wealth?
  What kind of health care system forces people to rely on the kinds of 
medical care that are least efficient and most expensive, just because 
we do not have the courage to do something about it?
  And how can we, in good conscience, stand up for a status quo that 
can cost people their lives?
  When we take these powerful medical studies into account, there is 
really no alternative: It is time to fix America's faulty health care 
system, and make guaranteed, affordable health care the law of the 
land--instead of just a perk for the privileged.

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