[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 28, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


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

 
                 THE ROWLAND-BILIRAKIS HEALTH CARE BILL

  (Mr. PENNY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENNY. Mr. Speaker, there is truly a need for bipartisanship in 
the health care debate. The Rowland-Bilirakis bill offers us a way out. 
The bill currently has 68 cosponsors, 34 Democrats and 34 Republicans, 
and it borrows ideas from other proposals on the table already.
  It borrows from the Clinton plan, the Cooper plan, the Chafee plan, 
the Michel plan, and the Nickles plan. It takes areas which are in 
consensus in all of these various proposals.
  For example, the Rowland-Bilirakis bill covers preexisting 
conditions, guarantees insurance portability, and restricts rate 
increases. It standardizes forms and reduces administrative redtape, 
reforms our antitrust laws by allowing small businesses to form 
purchasing groups. It has malpractice and liability reform.
  In addition, it increases the self-employed tax deduction for health 
insurance costs from 25 percent to 100 percent, and uses existing 
Medicaid funds to make health care for the poor more accessible at 
community health clinics.
  These are real reforms that enjoy bipartisan support. We should pass 
this package and give the American public the reform it seeks.

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