[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10433-H10434]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           AGAIN, CLINTON IS PROPOSING SOCIALIZED HEALTH CARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Stearns] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, those who ignore history are doomed to 
repeat it, so goes the saying, a careful reminder to all of us that 
history teaches us valuable lessons and that, if we learn from the 
past, we can avoid repeating the mistakes in the future.
  Yet despite this very warning, President Clinton and congressional 
Democrats are plotting a course plagued by controversy and opposition.
  The past few weeks have been strikingly reminiscent of President 
Clinton's first try at a nationalized Government-run health care 
system. The newspaper headlines of late are uncomfortably familiar. In 
fact, it is deja vu all over again. Recently in Florida, my home State, 
President Clinton announced the formation of a comprehensive commission 
charged with reviewing the health care system and making 
recommendations on how to improve the quality of care provided to 
patients and how to put in place more consumer protections. Does that 
sound familiar?
  Then he endorsed the notion of mandating what types of benefits 
health plans should provide and cover. Perhaps that sounds familiar.
  He then endorsed the notion that the Federal Government should get in 
the middle of the contract negotiations between private health care 
plans and private physicians. Of course that sounds familiar.
  The President is clearly headed down a road we have all traveled 
together before. Under the guise of consumer protection, he is very 
boldly unveiling the many pieces of his plan that was very familiar and 
soundly rejected by Congress and the American people only 2 years ago.
  Mr. Speaker, we remember President Clinton's Health Security Act. 
This was an aggressive plan developed by him behind closed doors by his 
experts. His experts, of course, knew what was best for the American 
people.
  We remember after months of secret discussion the experts had 
developed the ultimate answer to the rising health care costs. And of 
course, we remember, despite polls indicating that what the American 
people wanted most from health care reform was portability of coverage 
and protection for

[[Page H10434]]

preexisting conditions, which Republicans passed. The President instead 
proposed a complex federally controlled health care system complete 
with guarantees, comprehensive coverage, Federal price controls and 
other proscriptive rules regarding how employers and health care 
providers should all behave in the marketplace. This of course would 
mean waiting lines for all Americans, one-size-fits-all, dictated by 
bureaucrats.

  Remarkably, the President again is talking about commissions, 
entitlements, and government mandates which of course can only lead to 
price controls.
  First, entitlements. Mr. Speaker, Congress passed some very important 
legislation recently which gives the portability and preexisting 
conditions that we needed. And while the President proudly signed this 
piece of legislation, his campaign was eager to propose an additional 
initiative under which children and young adults would all be mandated 
with comprehensive health care by the government.
  While all agree that children are a most valuable resource, the 
President's proposal is merely the first installment towards a 
nationalized socialized health care system under which the government 
pays for all and provides health care to all Americans.
  A proposal has already been submitted to Congress to mandate that 
employers provide coverage to workers between the ages of 55 and 65, 
just prior to eligibility for Medicare. From here, it would only take a 
few steps to create an entitlement for the rest of the population. We 
should not be surprised that Senator Kennedy argues that socialized 
national health care system is the ultimate goal.
  Again, although the notion of federally mandated benefits was 
rejected during the Clinton health care reform debate, the President 
has already endorsed mandating a minimum length of stays in hospitals. 
Mandating the length of stay for illnesses such as flu. Mr. Speaker, 
what is next? Mandating the length of stay for cosmetic surgery?
  Following the years of double-digit increases in health care 
spending, the cost of health care spending has finally begun to 
decline. Health plan premiums paid by large employers increased, on 
average, by a record-low 1.5 percent last year, while the premiums of 
certain types of managed care plans actually declined.
  So here we are. We cannot guarantee that everybody gets all the 
benefits and all the coverages without putting in some kind of price 
controls. And that, of course, Mr. Speaker, is what President Clinton 
will propose next. Price controls, as we all know, just do not work. 
Quality of care will suffer as investment research and innovation 
declines. Jobs will be lost. Services will be rationed, and choices 
will decline. Eventually the government will have to take over the 
entire health care delivery system. Just think, government mandated, 
operated, and controlled health care with government doctors and 
nurses.
  Mr. Speaker, President Clinton has deliberately begun to reconstruct 
our health care system. It is deja vu all over again.

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