[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 76 (Thursday, June 16, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONSUMER CHOICE HEALTH SECURITY ACT

 Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, the American people are strongly 
opposed to the idea of a big-government, one-size-fits-all health care 
plan. But President Clinton and many Members of Congress are not 
listening. Already a key congressional committee has reported a 
Clinton-style plan and others are poised to do the same. The 
President's health care proposal includes too many taxes, too much 
bureaucracy, too little quality, and too little choice.
  The President's plan relies on more Federal control and regulation of 
a trillion-dollar industry that represents one--seventh of our entire 
economy and provides the highest quality health care in the world.
  The Clinton plan outlaws virtually all current plans and substitutes 
a one-size-fits-all program which would cost the average family about 
$6,000 per year.
  As the true cost of the President's health care proposal becomes 
clearer to Congress, key Members supporting the central themes of the 
plan have felt compelled to call for new ways to fund the plan's 
mandated health package. The Senate Labor Committee recently completed 
action on a health plan that contains all the bad components of the 
President's plan, plus more.
  Overpromised and underfunded, these programs contain onerous employer 
mandates and excessive payroll taxes which will prove devastating to 
the Nation's economy.
  As the economy continues to grow and more individuals are insured, 
fewer and fewer Americans are calling for a complete overhaul of the 
health care system. I believe we must be cautious in our attempt to 
reform the health care system. We must insist that any changes do more 
good than harm. We have the highest quality health care in the world, 
we can't sacrifice that.
  I have come to the Senate floor today to introduce a series of 
changes to the Consumer Choice Health Security Act, which now has 25 
cosponsors, which I believe will improve this legislation by further 
enhancing consumer choice, expanding consumer freedom, and lowering 
potential consumer choice.
  As originally drafted, the Consumer Choice Health Security Act 
contained a requirement that the States establish programs to identify 
individuals who fail to purchase a minimum level of health benefits and 
enroll them in a comparable health care package. As we received input 
from the States, it is my belief that this individual mandate should be 
dropped from the legislation.
  States will still be given reprogrammed funds from the Medicaid 
Disproportionate Share program to provide assistance to low-income 
people who fall through the cracks of the health care system. This 
program is aimed at ensuring that low-income citizens pay no more than 
5 percent of their adjusted gross income for health care expenses.

  I believe that with the strong incentive implication, the tax credit, 
combined with the assistance and flexibility given to the States, 
Americans who wish to purchase insurance to protect themselves from the 
perennially high cost of an illness will do so, without a mandate. The 
removal of the tax penalty, which was the loss of the personal 
exemption, is consistent with this goal.
  After cost analyses by Lewin-VHI and other prominent actuaries, it 
has been noted that the minimum catastrophic plan required in the bill 
in order to obtain a tax credit may prove to be too expensive for many 
Americans and too intrusive on their health care choices.
  To lower the cost of this basic package, the deductible limits of 
$1,000 for an individual and $2,000 for a family have been deleted. 
Further, as originally written, the bill would limit out-of-pocket 
expenses for both insurance premiums and medical services to $5,000. 
This section has been modified to set the limit at the higher of $5,000 
or 10 percent of a person's gross income.
  In a subsequent effort to keep the minimum benefits package as 
affordable as possible, we have decided to drop outpatient prescription 
drugs as a necessary feature in order to be eligible for the tax 
credit.
  While protecting all Americans from financial ruin because of medical 
bills, these changes will increase consumer choice and protect society 
from people who would irresponsibly shift their medical costs to 
others.
  In order to preserve the bill's budget neutrality, we moved the 
effective date back to January 1, 1998. We also indexed the tax credit 
ensuring that the credit will not grow at a greater rate than that of 
private health expenditures.
  These changes ensure that our program comes down on the side of 
families and individuals. It provides every American with access to 
quality, affordable health care, preserves the health choices Americans 
now have and that the Clintons will take away and provides new 
opportunities for health care that the Clintons deny; all without 
increasing taxes or creating new bureaucracies.
  Health care reform is a complex issue. The President is wrong to 
think that the problems we face in health care can be solved by 
invasive big-government surgery. Americans need a plan which seeks a 
straightforward solution by protecting what is right about the current 
system--quality and choice--and knocking down the barriers that deny 
many American access to affordable health care.

                          ____________________