[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 80 (Wednesday, June 22, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
           CONGRESS SHOULD PASS HEALTH CARE REFORM THIS YEAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Frost] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I want to take a few minutes to share with 
the House my experience yesterday in a hospital waiting room. It is 
helpful for Members of Congress every so often to have a reality 
check--to see the world through the eyes of the average person. 
Yesterday was just such a reality check for me.
  It underscored for me the need for Congress to act this year on 
health care.
  My youngest daughter, Camille, was operated on in a Dallas hospital 
for an elective procedure. Fourteen years ago she was born with a cleft 
lip. Yesterday's surgery was the third in a series of three operations 
designed to minimize any lasting scar. It was elective surgery but it 
was very important to the emotional well-being of a very important 
person in my life.
  I am fortunate. I have health care--the same health care provided to 
all Federal employees. I pay about one-third of the premium and my 
employer, the Federal Government, pays the other two-thirds. All three 
of my daughter's operations have been covered by insurance.
  This same daughter had some emergency abdominal surgery less than a 
year ago to correct a condition which could have been life-threatening. 
We consulted three doctors before her condition was properly diagnosed 
and treated. Clearly, I appreciate the importance of being able to 
choose your own doctor and to have multiple consultations. If I had 
been forced to go through a gatekeeper without the right to find my own 
specialist, my daughter might not be alive today. So I understand there 
are limits to what we should legislate.
  While I was in the waiting room yesterday, I had the chance to visit 
with a husband and wife from Houston who were at the hospital for 
surgery for their 14-year-old daughter who had been born with a severe 
cranial-facial deformity. She has faced numerous surgeries and probably 
will need more in the future. She is an otherwise intelligent child who 
was born physically deformed.
  I asked them about their health insurance. Did they have adequate 
coverage? They explained that a number of years ago the husband had 
changed jobs and his primary concern was not salary but what type of 
health insurance his new employer offered. He couldn't go to work for a 
firm that had a preexisting condition clause in its health insurance 
policy because his daughter would not have been covered.
  Fortunately for him, he went to work for a French company with an 
office in Texas that had insurance which covered preexisting 
conditions. Had he taken a job with an American company, the chances 
are his daughter would not have been covered and he would have faced 
the cruel choice of either foregoing necessary surgery for his child or 
risking financial ruin. No American worker should face that choice. And 
no American should have to take a job with a foreign company in order 
to get adequate health insurance.
  Health care is a complicated question with many facets. Clearly we 
need to act this year to set in motion coverage for all Americans. The 
details are complicated and controversial and Congress should be 
flexible as we approach this subject. But it would be wrong for us not 
to act.
  If we don't do it for any other reason, do it for our children. They 
deserve a future with the opportunity to lead full and productive 
lives.
  Let's put aside our partisan differences and let's start down the 
road now. We can do it. I know we can.

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