[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 91 (Thursday, July 14, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 14, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. THOMAS of Wyoming asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMAS of Wyoming. Mr. Speaker, national columnist Robert 
Samuelson had this to say about the drive to reform health care in 
Congress:

       The best thing Congress could do now on health care is to 
     start over next year. The most important social legislation 
     in a quarter century should not be approved as a last-minute, 
     poorly-understood patchwork. From the start the debate has 
     suffered from Clinton's wild promises that they could achieve 
     universal coverage with very little extra cost. This has 
     produced five inconsistent congressional bills that all, in 
     one way or another, fantasize a health care future that will 
     never happen.

  I have been one who believes and continues to believe that we need 
fundamental reform in health care. We need fundamental reform that 
leaves health care, one-seventh of the economy, in the private sector 
for delivery.
  I am one who believes that we could do this in Congress. However, if 
it is the Democrats' position to politically insist, and their 
political insistence keeps us from curing the ills of the health care 
system without killing the patient, the Democrat partisanship that kept 
a bipartisan solution from reaching the floor. I think we should have 
fundamental reforms. If President Clinton is going to insist on his way 
or the highway, then Mr. Samuelson may be right. Nothing will be done. 
I hope that is not the case. We need fundamental reform for a private 
care system that stays in the private sector.

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