[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 54 (Wednesday, March 28, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H3265]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        HEALTH CARE: THE BIGGEST DOMESTIC CRISIS FACING AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pomeroy). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the biggest domestic crisis facing 
America today is health care. Every 30 seconds, an American files for 
bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem. So says a 
recent study from Harvard University. And that is just one of the 
chilling new statistics that should compel Congress to act.
  Every Band-Aid has been tried and has not solved the problem. 
Instead, the crisis of health care has been allowed to fester like an 
open wound. We cannot continue to tinker around the edges.
  Today, the health care system is increasingly dysfunctional. America 
is fast becoming a nation of haves and have-nots, those wealthy enough 
to afford comprehensive health care coverage and the vast majority of 
American people struggling to maintain coverage.
  It is time to provide universal health care for every American, and 
the only delivery system that works is a single-payer health care 
system, which is what I propose in H.R. 1200. We don't need to change 
the way health care is delivered. We do need to change the way we pay 
for it.
  Today's health care system is pockmarked with inequities, 
overutilization and uncertainty. We don't get the benefit or the cost-
savings of a risk pool that includes every American. Instead, we have 
wildly different programs, costs and outcomes across this country.
  The casualties are mounting and spreading. America's health care 
crisis is fast becoming America's economic crisis, especially for small 
business, the backbone of the U.S. economy.
  Data compiled by credible organizations reveals the depth of the 
crisis. We are spending over four times as much on health as we are on 
national defense, yet 47 million Americans are defenseless because they 
don't have any health care coverage at all. We are spending over $2 
trillion a year on health, an average of $6,280 per person, and it is 
too much.
  A Harvard study found that 68 percent of the people filing for 
bankruptcy had health insurance, and they also had an average of 
$12,000 in health-related debt. Unpaid medical expenses play a role in 
half the bankruptcies in this country.
  America is better than that. People don't deserve to fall into 
financial ruin in the richest nation on Earth because of an illness or 
an injury.
  We tried everything else except the only effective solution, a 
single-payer system that guarantees every American has a minimum set of 
health care coverage benefits, decisions made locally in their own 
town, closest to the patient, in a universal system that covers every 
American.
  We do this for essential programs and services across America, from 
national defense to local police and fire. It is a tried and true 
system that protects everyone by involving everyone working together 
for the common good.
  We have to take the pragmatic approach contained in H.R. 1200 for the 
good of the American people and the U.S. economy. Big business 
confronted an 8 percent increase in health expenses last year. Small 
businesses saw expenses rise by more than 10 percent. The average 
premium for an employer to provide health insurance to cover a family 
of four was $11,500 a year, and employees typically paid $3,000 of that 
bill.

                              {time}  2130

  These costs are only going to go higher in the current dysfunctional 
system.
  Uncontrolled business expenses like these are unsustainable. At least 
one respected business consulting group projects that health expenses 
will overtake profits in many American businesses next year, 2008. This 
is not something 40 years down the road, it's next year. More Band-Aids 
won't stop the bleeding. America's health care system is failing the 
American people and business.
  Affordable health care coverage should be a right, not a privilege, 
in America; but that's not the way it really is. Those who profit most 
by the inefficient, bloated and broken system in place today will spend 
millions of dollars on ads trying to scare you into believing that 
paying them more and more is in your best interest.
  Remember Harry and Louise, that baloney in '93? You're going to see 
it again. Every American deserves affordable health care coverage. H.R. 
1200 will do just that. We have waited too long, and we can't wait any 
longer.
  It is time to act and pass H.R. 1200, universal health care coverage 
for all Americans.

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