[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 58 (Wednesday, May 1, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H4370-H4371]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] is recognized for 5 minutes.

  [Mr. BURTON of Indiana addressed the House. His remarks will appear 
hereafter in the Extensions of Remarks.]

[[Page H4371]]



URGING HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP TO DROP CONTROVERSIAL PROVISIONS IN 
                PROPOSED HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM MEASURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, as health insurance reform goes to 
conference between the House and the Senate, I want to stress again 
tonight in the 5 minutes that I have that the Republican leadership 
needs to drop controversial provisions that I think are likely to 
scuttle this very important health insurance reform. Of course, the 
most important aspect of this, the most controversial provision, the 
one that I think really needs to be dropped, is what we call medical 
savings accounts; the tax breaks, if you will, for the wealthy and the 
healthy.
  Mr. Speaker, last week the Senate passed the Kennedy-Kassebaum health 
insurance reform bill unanimously, 100 to zero. But the Senate bill, 
unlike the House bill, does not include these divisive provisions that 
doom the chances of this very important health insurance reform from 
becoming law.
  The so-called medical savings accounts are essentially tax-free 
savings accounts from which participants could pay for everything but 
catastrophic health care costs. The problem with these accounts is that 
they would be a good deal, again, only for the healthiest and 
wealthiest people in our health care system, those who do not have high 
health care costs on a regular basis.

  But health insurance costs would then increase for the average 
American, because essentially when we talk about health insurance, it 
all involves a health insurance risk pool which has all kinds of people 
in it. If we take out all the healthiest and the wealthiest people, we 
are essentially leaving in the pool the people that are the highest 
risk, that need the most attention or health care, so we destroy the 
whole basis for the health insurance pool and drive up the costs, 
essentially, for those who are left after those have been taken out of 
the pool.
  Mr. Speaker, some people have asked me, why is this happening? Why is 
Speaker Gingrich, why is the Republican Presidential candidate, talking 
and so insistent about including the medical savings accounts? 
Basically, it is a financial windfall for the Golden Rule Insurance 
Co., whose top executive has given Republican political committees over 
$1 million in contributions in the last 4 years.
  What I am saying, Mr. Speaker, is let us forget about the political 
contributions. Let us forget about Golden Rule Insurance Co. Let us do 
what is right for the average American.
  Mr. Speaker, again, I wanted to point out that medical savings 
accounts are designed to accompany the purchase of very high-deductible 
catastrophic insurance policies. They offer a myriad of tax breaks for 
those who can afford to save up money to pay the vastly increased out-
of-pocket costs caused by an out-of-reach deductible.
  I think that three questions have to be asked. Every American 
basically should ask the Republican leadership or every Republican 
lawmaker three questions with regard to these medical savings accounts: 
First of all, who wins if they are incorporated in this insurance 
reform; who loses; and why the Republican leadership insists on 
continuing to push for the medical savings accounts.
  Who wins? The answer is simple. The wealthy win. They are the only 
ones who can afford to contribute thousands of dollars to a savings 
account. In fact, less than 1 percent of all people who might use 
medical savings accounts earn less than $30,000 a year, even though 
these families account for nearly half of all American taxpayers.
  Who loses? Everyone else who relies on standard insurance. In fact, 
if medical savings accounts are available, some businesses could make 
it impossible for many families to even afford adequate health 
insurance.

                              {time}  2000

  The cost for premiums of regular health insurance could increase by 
more than 60 percent. Our goal at all times should be to try to 
increase the amount of Americans that have health insurance and to try 
to make health insurance more affordable.
  We will do exactly the opposite with these medical savings accounts. 
We are creating tax breaks for the wealthiest and the healthiest among 
us and we are making costs less affordable, and we are probably making 
it so that fewer people in the long run would have health insurance. It 
makes no sense.
  The only thing I can say is that I have to hope that over the next 
few weeks, it was mentioned earlier this evening by the gentleman from 
Texas [Mr. DeLay] that we may go to conference on the Kennedy-Kassebaum 
bill later next week. The conference has been held up essentially 
because there has been an effort to appoint a lot of conferees on the 
part of the Republican leadership who would favor these tax breaks for 
the wealthiest and the healthiest among us.
  What I hope is that that position will change over the next week, 
that we can appoint conferees, and that this conference will quickly 
accede to the Senate version of the bill which does not include these 
tax breaks for the wealthiest and healthiest among us. What we need is 
a clean Kennedy-Kassebaum bill. Why? Because it will provide for 
portability and it will provide coverage for those with preexisting 
conditions.
  The whole point of this health care reform this year, and it was 
stated by President Clinton in his State of the Union address, is that 
we must get to those people who change a job, who lose their insurance 
because they change jobs or become self-employed, and we must get 
health insurance for those people who have preexisting medical 
conditions. Let us deal with those problems now. Let us forget these 
other controversial provisions.

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