[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 8, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5676-S5677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HEALTHY AMERICANS ACT

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, our friend and colleague, Senator Bennett, 
and I have joined together in the first bipartisan legislation to 
guarantee quality, affordable health care for all Americans in more 
than a decade. I could have no better partner to deal with the premier 
issue here at home than Senator Bennett, who, of course, is a senior 
Member of the Senate Republican leadership and widely respected on both 
sides of the aisle. In the days ahead, together, we are going to be 
talking with Senators of both parties and discussing this legislation 
on the floor with one specific goal in mind; that is, Senate action to 
fix health care in America in 2007.
  Now, of course, the popular wisdom is that something like this simply 
could never, ever be done. All the Washington, DC, beltway pundits say 
fixing health care is something we can't do right now and that it will 
be the job for the next President and the next Congress and everybody 
ought to expect that maybe 2 years from now, in the spring of 2009, 
Congress will get around to dealing with the principal domestic issue 
of our time.
  I and Senator Bennett don't believe we were given election 
certificates to sit around for 2 more years, when the American people 
are saying they cannot afford for the Congress to wait on fixing health 
care. It is the top issue here at home. It has been studied, studied, 
and studied. It has been poked and prodded for an awfully long time. It 
is time for the Senate to act and act now.
  Our citizens are staying up late worrying about how they are going to 
be able to afford quality health care. I don't see how Members of 
Congress can explain going home at night without addressing our 
citizens' concerns, and say we will talk about this again in a couple 
of years. The country wants action, and Senator Bennett and I are going 
to do everything we can to make sure they get it.
  Yesterday, the CEOs of five major companies joined our push for 
action on health care this year. They focused on a handful of important 
principles. The principles pretty much mirror the Healthy Americans 
Act. I am very pleased the CEOs yesterday joined those who have already 
come out in support of the Healthy Americans Act: the business leaders, 
the labor leaders, the public health advocates, the advocates for 
consumers, and those who want to have dignity for folks at the end of 
life. They have already come out in support of the Healthy Americans 
Act, and I was very glad to be able to join the CEOs with Senator 
Bennett yesterday to talk about why it is important for Congress to act 
and to act now.
  The Healthy Americans Act is based on a handful of key principles. 
The first is that if you are going to fix health care, you have to 
cover everybody. If you don't cover everybody, what happens in American 
health care is that those who are uninsured shift their costs to those 
who are insured. So all the people who have private policies end up 
picking up the costs of those who are uninsured.
  Second, we believe we ought to build universal coverage around 
private choices, while protecting current Government programs. Our 
legislation, for example, keeps in place the basic structure of 
Medicare and veterans programs, making improvements in Medicare; for 
example, creating incentives for prevention, particularly under Part B, 
what is called the outpatient portion of the program. We build the 
future of American health care around quality, affordable private 
choices, while protecting current Government programs.
  The third area we address is fixing the Tax Code. We have 180 million 
people essentially getting health care in America by a historical 
accident. Back in the 1940s, there were wage and price controls. It 
wasn't possible to get quality affordable health care to our citizens, 
and it was essentially put on the backs of the employers. Then the Tax 
Code came along to support that decision. Now, more than $200 billion 
goes out the door in a way that disproportionately favors the most 
affluent and also promotes inefficiency. If you are a high-flying CEO, 
you can go out and get a designer smile and write it all off on your 
tax bill, but if you are a hard-working woman in a furniture store, you 
get virtually nothing out of the Tax Code. So Senator Bennett and I 
think it is time to fix something in the Tax Code that might have made 
sense 65 years ago but certainly doesn't make sense today.
  Then, we propose to cut the link between employers and insurance. 
There is no reason why we ought to say--at a time when our citizens 
change their job something like seven times by the time someone is 35, 
and we live in a society where people want portability, the ability to 
move quickly from job to job and take their benefits with them--there 
is no reason to say the future of American health care ought to require 
the employer to continue to be the focus of how health care is 
delivered. Certainly, at a time when our employers are up against 
global competition--and not competing with somebody in Denver or Texas 
but in global markets--it makes no sense to dump all this onto the back 
of the employer. So Senator Bennett and I would cut the link between 
health insurance and employment.
  We have put a special emphasis on creating a new culture of wellness 
and, in a sense, dealing with the fact that America doesn't have health 
care at all. What we have is ``sick'' care. Medicare will spend 
thousands of dollars under Part A for senior citizens' hospital bills 
and virtually nothing under Part B for prevention to keep people well. 
So we make those voluntary incentives part of Medicare so that if a 
senior, for example, in Montana were to lower her blood pressure or her 
cholesterol for the first time, that senior in Montana would be able to 
get a lower Part B premium and actually see, on a voluntary basis, why 
good health pays off in terms of the premium costs seniors face.
  Finally, our judgment is we are spending enough money today on health 
care. We are not spending it in the right places. To put it into 
perspective, this year we are going to spend $2.3 trillion on health 
care. There are about 300 million of us. If you divide 300 million into 
$2.3 trillion, you could go out and hire a personal physician for every 
seven families in America and pay that doctor $200,000 a year, and then 
we would all have quality, affordable health care. Picture that in the 
State of Montana or in another part of our country: Seven families, for 
the amount of money we are spending today, could have their own 
personal physician who would get paid $200,000, and their job would be 
to take care of seven families. Whenever I bring that up to the 
physicians groups--I am sure my colleague from Montana would see this 
as well--whenever I bring it up to physicians, they say: Ron, where do 
I go to get my seven families? It sounds pretty good. It would be 
pretty good to be able to practice medicine again today rather than 
being a bean counter and an administrator and somebody who has to 
shuffle through all the paper and bureaucracy.
  We are spending enough; we are not spending it in the right places. 
So that is why we have to say the first thing we are going to do is 
spend what is being allocated by American health care today more 
wisely.
  The Lewin Group is sort of the gold standard of doing health care 
analyses. They analyzed the Healthy Americans Act and the President's 
proposals and proposals from various States, and they have found that 
under the legislation that Senator Bennett and I are working on in the 
Senate, it would be possible to save $1.45 trillion--that is with a T--
on health care spending in the years ahead, the first proposal to 
actually lower the rate of growth in health spending. So the facts are 
indisputable. People who are insured today--and you often ask why 
should they support changes--are picking up the bills of those who are 
uninsured. As Senator Bennett has often said, we have universal 
coverage already today. That is the way it works. Those people are 
going to get care; it is just not going to be done in a very efficient 
fashion.

  So the facts are not in question. Medical costs are gobbling up 
everything in sight. Our employers are at a disadvantage when it comes 
to U.S. competitiveness. There has been a huge increase in chronic 
illness. A tiny percentage of the Medicare population, for

[[Page S5677]]

example, consumes most of the Medicare dollars, essentially as a result 
of problems relating to heart disease and diabetes and a host of other 
illnesses that could be prevented. Of course, it is well understood by 
every Senator that there is a demographic avalanche coming with many 
more older people.
  So with the facts not in dispute, with the country saying act now, 
don't put this off for another 2 years, the Senate has an opportunity 
to work in a bipartisan way.
  Senators on my side of the aisle have made it clear--correctly in my 
view--that we have to get everybody covered. It is not right for this 
country to be the only western industrialized nation that cannot figure 
out how to get everybody under the tent. It is important to get 
everybody covered.
  Senator Bennett and others on the Republican side of the aisle have 
been correct in saying the public doesn't feel comfortable with the 
idea of having Government run it all. The people in my State voted 
against what is known as a ``single payer plan'' in 2002 by a 3-to-1 
majority.
  What Senator Bennett and I have put together, for the amount of money 
that is being spent today, is a bill that will save close to $1.5 
trillion over the next 10 years. It is legislation you can explain at 
any townhall meeting in Montana, Oregon, or anywhere else, and that is 
that every citizen would have access to a private health policy at 
least as good as their Member of Congress has. It is very simple to 
understand.
  I have a Blue Cross card in my pocket. I was able, during the period 
of open enrollment, which the Senator from Montana experienced when he 
came to the Senate, to make choices, make an evaluation of the various 
private health policies that were offered to me. As a result, my 
children and I have that private health coverage. I want that same set 
of choices and set of opportunities for those whom I represent and the 
people of this country.
  My good friend Senator Bennett has joined me on the floor. I am going 
to yield soon for him to speak.
  I think the debate in the Senate has reached the critical moment, at 
least for this session of Congress. We know we have to get action on 
major issues in 2007. We are going to spend a lot of time next year 
electing a new President. You probably don't have to have the President 
actually sign a piece of legislation in 2007, but you have to get 
serious action. Senator Bennett and I believe there is an opportunity 
today that we have not had in years and years, and that is to bring 
Democrats and Republicans together to work for universal coverage.
  My friend Senator Bennett has made the point very eloquently that we 
are already paying for it today. We are just not, in many respects, 
getting our money's worth. So we have spent a great deal of time 
listening to folks in the private sector, in business, and labor, and 
Government, Democrats and Republicans, and we want to bring the Senate 
together.
  I also point out that the Healthy Americans Act, which Senator 
Bennett has agreed to be the lead Republican sponsor on, mirrors the 
letter that 10 Senators--5 Democrats and 5 Republicans--sent to the 
President earlier this year, indicating we want to work with him. 
Health care has been studied and studied. The time for action is now. I 
am very pleased my good friend Senator Bennett is going to be joining 
me in this effort.
  I repeat to the Senate, this is the first time in more than a decade 
there has actually been a bipartisan piece of legislation to provide 
for universal health coverage in America. The last one, in fact, was 
largely developed by the late Senator Chafee, who sought to do much of 
what Senator Bennett and I are seeking to do.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Utah is 
recognized.

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