[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 20 (Thursday, February 1, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1474-S1475]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise this morning to talk about the 
health care proposals President Bush mentioned in his State of the 
Union Address last Tuesday. For too long, our working families and our 
businesses have really struggled with rising costs and shrinking 
access, and Washington, DC, has virtually ignored that health care 
crisis.
  Now, with Democrats in control of Congress, the President is finally 
bringing some ideas to the table and saying he wants to be part of the 
solution. Well, I want to thank him for joining the debate, and I hope 
he is serious about working with us to address the challenges that have 
only gotten worse over the past 7 years. There may well be valuable 
ideas in his proposals. I want to get more details than we heard in 
just the State of the Union Address because there may be areas on which 
we can agree.
  However, I have to say, from what I have seen of the President's plan 
so far, I do have some serious concerns that his initiatives will 
undermine the employer-based health insurance system; may push people 
into the risky and expensive individual insurance market; may fail to 
provide coverage for our most vulnerable; and may divert funds for the 
health care safety net to experimental programs.
  My first concern is that the President's proposal will jeopardize the 
employer-based health insurance system. The most stable form of health 
insurance for America's working families today is through their 
employers. Mr. President, 155 million Americans receive health 
insurance today from their employers.
  One of the primary reasons why employers offer health insurance to 
their workers is because those benefits are

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excluded from taxable income. But the President's proposal, as I hear 
it, would take away that incentive by putting all forms of health 
insurance on an equal playing field. Even if employers choose not to 
drop health care coverage, they may be forced to do so in the future as 
the healthiest employees drop out of their employers' plans. If 
insurance becomes unaffordable, employers may be forced to stop 
offering health care benefits. I think many of my colleagues agree with 
me that we should be strengthening the employer-based health insurance 
system, not taking steps that will jeopardize it.
  Secondly, I am very concerned that the President's proposal will push 
people into the individual insurance market. Today, when workers cannot 
get coverage through their employer, they need to purchase health 
insurance in the individual insurance market. But as any small 
businessman or self-employed woman will tell you, the individual 
insurance market today is not a good alternative to employer-provided 
coverage. In many States, insurers can cherry-pick applicants to avoid 
enrolling those with high health needs, or insurance companies can sell 
different policies to high- or low-risk individuals. If you have a 
chronic disease such as diabetes--or even any health problem--good luck 
getting reasonably priced, comprehensive coverage in the individual 
market today. Any proposal to increase access to health insurance 
should support the ability of Americans to receive affordable and 
comprehensive coverage, not force people into expensive, barebones 
insurance plans.
  Third, I am troubled that the President's proposal will not increase 
access to health insurance for the uninsured. We have 46 million 
uninsured men, women, and children in this country today. That is a 
staggeringly high number, and those people face daily challenges trying 
to avoid getting sick and going into debt when something unexpected 
happens. Every day, I hear from people in my home State of Washington 
who struggle to pay for their health care costs. Unfortunately, the 
President's proposal will not help those people because they do not pay 
enough money in taxes to benefit from this tax deduction he is 
proposing. That really makes me question whether the President's plan 
will actually reduce the number of uninsured Americans.
  Finally, I am very concerned that the President's plan will further 
chip away at our health care safety net because it would divert 
critical Medicaid dollars into an experimental grant program. Now, we 
do not have a lot of details yet, but it appears he is proposing to use 
Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments to give States the 
ability to experiment with health care reform. Those DSH payments keep 
the doors of our public hospitals open. Public hospitals are the 
foundations of our communities. They not only provide emergency care, 
but they train our doctors, they support rural health care, and they 
are the first lines of defense against pandemic flu or bioterror 
attacks. I am very concerned that his proposal could seriously 
jeopardize my State's Medicaid funds and, therefore, undermine those 
critical services.
  I want to give an example of how these proposals could exacerbate the 
worst parts of our health insurance system.
  Last week, I received a letter from my constituents Alice and Michael 
Counts. They live in Vancouver, WA. Their son Wesley was diagnosed with 
a kidney condition at age 16. Their family's personal health insurance 
insisted that his kidney disease was preexisting, and the insurer 
refused to pay for the medical tests that diagnosed his condition. His 
parents appealed to our insurance commissioner, and they won, but the 
insurer raised its rates far beyond the reach of a self-employed 
individual. So later, when Wesley was going through dialysis and a 
kidney transplant, his employer dropped insurance coverage because it 
had become too costly.
  Throughout all these medical and financial ups and downs, Wesley has 
worked and has now graduated from Clark College. Thankfully, his 
parents have been able to help him navigate a health care system that 
failed him.
  Wesley's parents wrote to me, and they said:

       We would rather pay higher taxes that give everyone 
     affordable health care than live with the fear of losing 
     everything through catastrophic illness.

  Wesley's story shows just how risky the individual market is and how 
people with serious health problems can be severely affected when an 
employer is forced to drop coverage. No patient--no one--should have to 
live in fear that their next dialysis treatment will not be covered by 
insurance.

  What Wesley deserves--and what all Americans deserve--is access to 
affordable, dependable, comprehensive health care. The President's plan 
does not guarantee that. It does not even come close. It just makes the 
health insurance market more unstable and more risky and leaves more 
people like Wesley vulnerable. He deserves better than that. I think 
all Americans do.
  So, as I said at the beginning of my statement, I welcome the 
President's attention to the health care crisis we are facing in this 
country. Last year, on the Senate floor we devoted 3 days--3 days--to 
health care. The President probably spent even less time talking about 
health care. So this is an improvement. We desperately need a serious 
and a very thoughtful debate about how we increase access to health 
insurance.
  My colleagues and I have put forward a number of good ideas about how 
to increase access to health care. One of the first things we can do is 
reauthorize and strengthen the State Children's Health Insurance 
Program--that is the SCHIP program--that provides quality health care 
to millions of uninsured children. Congress should give States the 
funding and the flexibility to cover more of our kids.
  Secondly, we have to fund community health centers so they can 
continue to provide quality health care to our uninsured.
  Third, I agree with the President, we should help States devise new 
ways to increase access to health care. My home State of Washington, 
like a lot of States, is working on innovative initiatives to expand 
coverage. But we can accomplish this in ways that do not chip away at 
the foundation of our public hospitals.
  Finally, we can expand health insurance for small businesses and the 
self-employed by creating Federal and State catastrophic cost pools in 
ways that will help us lower costs and still protect our patients.
  I look forward to working with Chairman Kennedy and Chairman Baucus 
and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and the President on real 
health care reform. There are people like Wesley across the country in 
every one of our States who are crying out for change, and we owe it to 
them, in this body, to finally make the progress that is long overdue.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania is recognized.

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