[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3393]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE NEW LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, today Congress returns from a 2-week break, 
and the Republican majority leader has announced what he calls a new 
legislative agenda for this Congress. But in fact it is the same old 
Republican agenda, dressed up with some new rhetoric. Their agenda 
still fails the fundamental test, which is helping working middle-class 
families cope with the challenges that they face in their everyday 
lives.
  When I was home during the recent break, I met with constituents in 
my district who feel that this Congress is simply not doing the job 
that working families need.
  Consider just two issues, health care and pensions. The House passed 
a health insurance reform bill that should have addressed, I repeat, 
should have addressed, the problems faced by the millions of Americans 
who cannot get health insurance because they suffer from a preexisting 
condition.
  I have a preexisting condition. I am a survivor of ovarian cancer. 
There are not too many businesses that want to include me in their 
insurance policy because of my prior illness. It would raise the cost 
of premiums for everyone. So I understand this problem of preexisting 
condition.
  Millions of Americans cannot get health insurance because they suffer 
from a preexisting condition, or they fear losing their coverage if 
they lose or they change their jobs. When Congress took up this bill, 
we had a real opportunity, a real opportunity, to help families in this 
country by modestly reforming the health insurance industry and meeting 
the needs of working families.
  I was in Wallingford, CT, not too long ago, where I met with a group 
of construction workers. One of the gentlemen there said to me that he 
was very, very much concerned about the downsizing of businesses all 
over the country. He has a child with a terminal illness. He said, ``I 
stay up nights worrying that if I lose my job, I lose my health care. 
What do I do about my child's illness and her health care?''
  We had an opportunity, and, unforturnately and sadly, the bill that 
passed the House is a bad bill. It let the American people down, and it 
will make the health care problem worse.
  We had a bipartisan bill sponsored in the Senate by Senator Kennedy 
and Senator Kassebaum, and in this body, in the House, by Congresswoman 
Marge Roukema of New Jersey, a bipartisan bill that took the first 
steps toward addressing these two very serious problems. Instead of 
passing that legislation as it is and as the authors thought it best, 
what happened was that under the banner of reform, the House passed the 
bill which includes extraneous provisions that raise costs, hurt 
consumers, and will increase the number of uninsured in this country.
  For example, they added medical savings accounts, which are 
expensive, destructive and bad health care policy. Instead of helping 
working middle-class families, our Republican colleagues continue to 
cater to the special interests. The medical savings accounts are a 
creature of the Golden Rule Insurance Co., headed up by J. Patrick 
Rooney, who, not by my description, but by the description of a variety 
of others, including the Wall Street Journal, has indicated that he is 
the third largest contributor to Republican campaigns.
  Medical savings accounts have been added to this bill, causing an 
enormous problem. Medical savings accounts will take the healthy out of 
the traditional insurance pool, provide them with a tax break, and 
leave the insurance pool with only those who are frail and sick, 
thereby driving up premiums for everyone else. With the rise in those 
costs of premiums, people will no longer be able to afford them, 
thereby increasing the number of uninsured.
  The American Council of Actuaries, not a liberal group by any stretch 
of the imagination, indicated that there would be a 61 percent shifting 
of costs with the medical savings account to those who are now 
currently insured in a traditional insurance policy, a 61-percent shift 
in cost.
  Working Americans know very, very well, very well, about cost 
shifting in health care. When people are not insured, that does not go 
begging, it does not fall into a black hole. Everybody else who is 
insured picks up the cost. We had an opportunity, and we missed it.
  Watch carefully and listen carefully. Do not buy this new rhetoric. 
Understand what is going on here.

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