[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 88 (Friday, June 14, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6260-S6261]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I want to go back, if we might, to this 
issue we are confronted with on health care reform. The situation we 
are in is this. There are three motions that must be approved in order 
to get the conferees selected, and they are all debatable and can be 
filibustered. The Senator from Massachusetts has suggested to us that 
the filibuster would be put into play.
  So, in a sense, he is blocking the ability for a conference to come 
together and deal with legitimate health care reform.
  It has not been mentioned here this morning, but it needs to be 
mentioned that the administration has a hand in this, too. The 
administration, for whatever reason--and the Senator from Oklahoma is 
just as baffled as I--does not like medical savings accounts.
  We know that medical savings accounts will lead to an increase of 
those insured among the young. As the Senator from Texas said, young 
people sometimes feel immortal, and the cost of health insurance is 
very high, taxes are high, savings are down and people look for things 
they can do without. Young people feel, ``Well, this is something I can 
do without.''
  So by putting a product such as the medical savings account into the 
marketplace, we know that what will happen is that many of these 
uninsured will take advantage of this opportunity, this unique product.
  The other point I want to make about MSA's is for a large number of 
people who use them, they will increase their disposable income, 
because those premiums that are not utilized for health purposes are in 
the checking account of the person, not somewhere up here in the bowels 
of the Treasury or in an insurance company's coffers. It is in the 
family's checking account. So they have access and will have access to 
financial resources that they can use to pursue their own dreams.
  Here we have a situation where the President and First Lady came 
forward with a massive takeover of medicine by the Government. It would 
have created the largest entitlement in world history, which I have 
always found puzzling, because it was right at the same time all of us, 
including the President, was being told that entitlements are out of 
control. We have had a report that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, 
Federal retirement, and the interest only on our debt will consume 100 
percent of the U.S. Treasury within a decade. And their response to 
that was to create a new entitlement, the largest one.
  America took a look at that--new entitlement, massive Government 
spending, new taxes, more intrusion by the Government, more dominance 
over our lives on very personal matters--and they said, ``No, we don't 
want that.'' And it went down in flames.
  Frankly, there is a lot of conjecture about what the 1994 elections 
were all about. I, frankly, think it was a referendum on that health 
takeover by the Government. I think that had as much to do with the 
change in the Congress. Americans said, ``Now, look, we're not for a 
greater Federal Government. It is already too big.''
  Then we come to the 104th Congress, and in response to that, 
recognizing there are issues that need addressing in health care in our 
country, we put forward a new proposal.
  We eliminated job lock to allow workers to move from one job to the

[[Page S6261]]

other without losing their insurance. We have addressed the absolutely 
incredulous situation where an employee who works for a company has 
their insurance premiums deducted, but if they happen to work for 
themselves, they cannot. What kind of nonsense is that? So we corrected 
that.
  We created these medical savings accounts so more people would have 
access to the marketplace of insurance, so that they could save money.
  We allow tax deductions for long-term health care, and we fight fraud 
and abuse. It is a very, very sound proposal that accomplishes the fact 
of letting more people keep their insurance, more people get their 
insurance, and we create a friendly workplace for insurance.

  There comes the third point. The principal advocates for Government 
health insurance do not want this to become law, they do not want 
medical savings accounts--the administration and the Senator from 
Massachusetts--something that 80 percent of the American public want, 
so they are going to filibuster it. They are going to block it. I guess 
they are hoping that maybe fortunes will change and they will have 
another opportunity to come back and foist that big-Government-health-
run program on America again.
  These elections do have consequences. I think this proposal that is 
hung up by the opposition of Senator Kennedy and the White House is 
exactly what America is asking for. I think America will take note of 
blocking this opportunity.
  I see, Mr. President, we have been joined by the Senator from 
Arizona. I believe he has asked for up to 20 minutes. So I yield 20 
minutes to the Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. KYL. Thank you, Mr. President. I thank the Senator from Georgia.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.

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