[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 45 (Thursday, March 28, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H2968-H2969]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     DO NOT KILL HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, by adding these medical savings accounts to

[[Page H2969]]

the health care reform bill today, the Republican leadership is 
essentially killing health care reform. What they are doing is making 
it possible for the wealthy and the healthiest among us to get into 
these medical savings accounts and take away their contribution from 
the risk pool, so that what is left is that the average person's 
premiums are going to go up, because if someone is not wealthy and they 
are not healthy and they have to stay in the traditional health 
insurance pool, they are actually going to have to pay more, and the 
bill is going to be less affordable.
  Do not load down this bill. Just listen to this quote from Senator 
Robert Bennett, a Republican who says, ``The Republicans on the House 
side are going to turn this bill into the vehicle to attach MSA's and 
other things, and if they do that, it'll die.''
  That is what the Republican leadership is doing today, killing this 
bill with all this extraneous material that only helps wealthy people 
and exposes the rest of the country to higher premiums for their health 
insurance.

                          ____________________