[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 143 (Sunday, October 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H10523-H10524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Gejdenson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that, if we go back before 
the battles that have raged in the last several weeks, there has to be 
a fundamental question of why we came to Congress.
  I grew up in the town of Bozrah, a town about 2,400 people. I knew 
that, oftentimes, those neighbors of mine could not compete when they 
were trying to deal with large corporations or an oppressive 
government. It seemed to me the obligation of an elected representative 
is to come here and be their voice, to fight for our friends and 
neighbors when they cannot do it on their own.
  What is our answer to what is happening to seniors on Medicaid HMO 
programs? What is our answer to the average family that lives in fear 
that the health care program they have paid for will not protect them 
when it is necessary?
  My wife went in for a 4\1/2\ hour operation. They removed a disk from 
her neck. They took a piece of bone from her hip. They put it back into 
her neck. A 4\1/2\ hour operation. She gets back to the hospital room 
around 5 o'clock.
  The doctor comes by 6:30 and says, you know, I would really like to 
keep you here, but I know the insurance company is not going to pay. 
But I am going to try. You will probably get stuck with a bill. She was 
all wired up with all the things that kill pain and what have you that 
you need after an operation. So she said fine.
  The next day, of course, the claim was rejected by the insurance 
company. That did not shock us, frankly, because we thought that was 
going to happen. What shocked us is what happened to the doctor. The 
doctor got a letter from the insurance company saying do not try to do 
this again. Do not worry about what your patient needs or what the 
long-term impact is. Just dump them out on the street.
  My wife would get along. We have got family. We would find a way to 
help her. But there is some people that do not have a lot of family. 
When we were going back for a checkup, we saw this woman. She could not 
have been 4-foot tall. She had a piece of metal in the front of her 
chin and two pieces on the back of her head. She had the marks from 
that halo when you have a serious neck operation.
  My wife said to her, ``What happened to you?'' She says, ``Oh, I came 
in for a hernia operation. I am 76 years old. It is same-day surgery, 
you know. As soon as I had the surgery, they sent me home. I walked in 
the door, passed out, and broke my neck. I spent the last 4 months in 
the hospital.''
  Most times, when we are dealing with an issue, it has such a limited 
impact that we have to seek out those who have been victims. We have to 
go out and hold hearings. These just come at us from our family and 
everybody else.
  My brother runs the family dairy farm. One night, Ike felt his entire 
right side of his face losing all muscle control. He is 40-some years 
old. That kind of thing scares people. I do not know if it would scare 
a doctor, but it scared the heck out of me.
  Ike thought it was serious. He drove down to the emergency room. The 
insurance company said, ``No, no, just because you lost all sensation 
in the right side of your face, that is not serious.''
  I am not a doctor. Again, I cannot tell my colleagues what would have 
happened to my brother's girlfriend had she had a real medical system. 
She was 38 years old when she died after they refused to look at her 
tumor, after they refused to test her tumor.
  What is this Congress doing? This Congress is sitting around here, 
and its leaders are fighting about whether you can fire or prevent the 
hiring of a former Democrat for a job downtown. Is it not wonderful, we 
have a fight where the Republican leadership is trying to tell public 
corporations they are not supposed to hire Democrats.
  If you have been a Democrat, the rule is you cannot have a job. Do my 
colleagues know what? If this was organized crime, we would call it a 
RICO operation. My colleagues are out there trying to deny people 
health care; and when people want to work here, they want some kind of 
sign-off from the Republicans.
  I am telling my colleagues this country needs health care reform. 
This is not about good politics, which it is. It is about people's life 
and death.
  The leadership of this Congress is spending more time trying to make 
sure somebody does not get a job downtown than taking care of the 
health care of people of this country.
  The same goes for education. The same goes in 100 different areas. We 
have not done the work we ought to do on pensions. In my district, a 
company closed, and the same day 100 people were notified they had no 
jobs. They found out their pension had been absconded with, been stolen 
or lost by the individual who managed it.

[[Page H10524]]

  We need to make some changes to make sure that will not happen again. 
But not this majority Congress. They are worried about whether Dave 
McCurdy, former Congressman, can get a job downtown.
  It started this way when they took over. The first thing they told 
people was fire the Democrats. They got rid of all the assets that poor 
people and workers had to gather information here. They want to 
represent powerful people, and that is just fine, but do not kid the 
American people. Do not go into that well and tell me you care about 
health care.

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