[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 28, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
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 HEALTH CARE CHALLENGE

  Mr. WOFFORD. Mr. President, for months now this Congress has wrestled 
with the most difficult, and the most important, challenge of our time: 
how to extend to all Americans guaranteed, affordable, private health 
insurance that can't be taken away.
  During that time up in Pennsylvania--and here in our Labor Committee 
mark-up--I have been pressing a simple test for health care reform: We 
should extend to all Americans the same kind of guaranteed coverage and 
choice of private health plans that members of Congress have arranged 
for themselves.
  I find that this test has almost the same impact on people as the 
proposition I put to the people of Pennsylvania in 1991: that health 
care is a right, not a privilege; that if those accused of a crime have 
a right to a lawyer, then it is even more fundamental if your are sick 
to have the right to a doctor.
  That proposition reached and ignited people, like a self-evident 
truth. Similarly, the proposition that Congress ought to secure for all 
Americans the kind of guaranteed coverage and choice of private health 
care plans that Congress arranged for itself also has the power of a 
self-evident truth.
  This is not just another anti-Congress broadside. On the contrary, it 
is an affirmative, clarifying argument that helps cut through the fog 
of confusion that has been spread by those who want to block any 
effective health care reform.
  Nor is this just a symbolic point: the Federal Employees Health 
Benefits Program is a fact. It is real. It is available to all members 
of Congress--and millions of Federal employees and their families. It 
provides an actual, existing working model of how a reformed private 
health insurance system could work.
  Listen to what Congress gets. It is right in this booklet:

       A choice of plans and options so that you can get the kind 
     and amount of protection best suited to your personal and 
     family health needs.
       Guaranteed protection that cannot be canceled by the plan.
       Coverage without medical examination or restrictions 
     because of age, current health or preexisting medical 
     conditions.

  Everyone gets to choose for themselves from a menu of private health 
plans, from a full Blue Cross/Blue Shield choose-your-own-doctor plan 
to a lower cost HMO. The costs are reasonable. But members of Congress 
do not have to pay them all. Our employer contributes an average of 72 
percent of the premiums and the employee pays the rest.
  It is not government-run health care; it is a range of private health 
insurance options. It is not a one-size-fits-all system; it is a 
consumer choice system--more choice, in fact, than most Americans get 
from their employers today. That is, if they are lucky enough to have 
health insurance at work.
  Now people here in Washington are having an abstract debate about 
whether universal coverage means 91 percent or 95 percent or 98 
percent. Here is what I think it really means to people:
  It means a guarantee that if you have a job, you also have health 
insurance. And if you lose a job, you will not lose your health 
insurance. If you change a job, you will not lose your health 
insurance. If you are on welfare and you take a job, you will not lose 
your health insurance. And if you retire early from a job, you will not 
have your promised health benefits become broken promises.
  That is the practical meaning of universal coverage. It means filling 
the gaps that real people fall into every day in this country. These 
are gaps that any one of us in this body, who is not old enough for 
Medicare, might fall into if we lost our job--or that our children or 
parents might fall into at any time.
  Many of us in the Senate and the House have reached beyond party 
labels to achieve bipartisan consensus on how to fill those gaps and we 
have made progress on a number of key points that will be critical to 
any reform plan.
  At the same time, a minority of members in both Houses speak one way 
and act another when it comes to guaranteeing health coverage to all 
Americans. Some refuse even to discuss requiring employers to 
contribute to their workers' health insurance. Yet these same Members 
of Congress accept that same benefit from their own employers--the 
American people.
  That is a simple fact the American people need to know: While a lot 
of Representatives and Senators are arguing that individuals and 
families ought to bear the entire burden of health care costs, those 
very Members of Congress are requiring the taxpayers--to pay about 
three-quarters of their health insurance.
  Mr. President, I'm not one of them. Last week I announced that I'm 
returning the monthly contribution of $306.41 that the taxpayers make 
to my family's health insurance through the Federal Employees plan.
  Each month I will continue to return that employer's share to the 
taxpayers and will pay the full monthly cost of my family's plan until 
we take action to extend the same kind of opportunities for affordable 
private health insurance for all Americans.
  So I issue a challenge to those Members of Congress who don't think 
that employers should be asked to contribute anything to share the 
costs of their employees' health insurance: If you truly believe that, 
then practice what you preach.
  Pledge to give back to the American taxpayers the money they 
contribute each month to your health insurance. Give it back. Pay your 
own premiums until we take action to guarantee affordable, private 
health insurance for the American people.
  For me and any others who take this pledge, this is a symbolic act--a 
symbolic step. Over many years and many battles before I ever came to 
the Senate, I have found that sometimes we need to take symbolic action 
to spur us to change things in our country.
  I propose this action today to put some more heat under our feet, so 
we do not rest content until we have completed action for universal 
private health insurance. I know some of my colleagues won't much 
appreciate this pressure.
  They did not all appreciate it in 1991 when I said that it was wrong 
for Members of Congress to get free health care from the Capitol 
physician; that we should pay fair market rates for that kind of 
service. Now we do, and it is the right thing to do.
  For some Members this would pose a hardship on their families. But 
let us think about the hardships of millions of American families who 
will continue to be forced to pay for their health insurance out of 
their own pockets or continue to go without insurance if some in 
Congress succeed in blocking real reform.
  Let us think of the parents who already have to sit at the kitchen 
table at night trying to decide between paying for health insurance for 
themselves and their children or paying the mortgage. Think of the 
senior citizens who have to choose between food and the prescription 
drugs they need. Those are the people who sent us to Washington. They 
need our help--and they need it now.
  Some in Congress have said it would not hurt them if we do nothing on 
health care reform this year. I can understand why. They are among the 
lucky ones with affordable health insurance guaranteed at their work.
  But you who oppose employer's sharing the cost of health insurance, 
it is time to put your money where your mouth is. If you think American 
families should shoulder the burden of health care costs on their own, 
so should you and your families. Give back the share now paid by your 
employers, the American people.
  Or, there is a better way--as our fictional TV friends Harry and 
Louise, of the Health Insurance Association of America TV ads, would 
put it.
  Yes, there is a better challenge: Let us work together in these next 
months to extend to every American the kind of guaranteed, affordable 
coverage and choice of private health care plans that Members of 
Congress have arranged for themselves.
  Meet that challenge, or give it back. That is the test being put to 
you. Let us pass that test, together.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has consumed 8\1/2\ minutes.
  Mr. WOFFORD. The Senator has finished his presentation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator yield the remainder of his 
time?
  Mr. WOFFORD. Yes.

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