[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 101 (Thursday, July 28, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


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

 
              FEARS OF RATIONED HEALTH CARE NOT JUSTIFIED

  (Mr. STRICKLAND asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of scary talk about 
the possibility of rationing in a reformed health care system. That is 
just a political ploy to appeal to people's fears.
  Let me tell you about the real fear a family in my district felt when 
an insurance company--operating under our current system--tried to 
ration care.
  A young wife and mother had severe liver problems. Doctors were left 
with one last hope--a transplant. The physician started to plan the 
procedure, the family began to prepare itself.
  Enter the insurance company.
  They said ``no.''
  ``No, we will not cover the cost of this operation.''
  If not for a caring physician, who very strongly took the company to 
task, this woman would be dead, her husband a widower, her young 
children without a mother. That set of circumstances is scary, and it 
happened under our current system.
  Mr. Speaker, we are not going to pass a bill that rations care. We 
will pass a bill which restores some of the humanity which some in the 
insurance industry have forsaken in the name of higher profits.

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