[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 40 (Friday, March 6, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H3057]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     GIVING EVERY AMERICAN THE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, yesterday President Obama had a health 
care summit which I attended, and I must say it was really a great 
bipartisan opportunity. Essentially on both sides of the aisle Members 
said that we need health care reform and that we need it now. There may 
be disagreement about how to achieve that, but everyone agrees this is 
not something that can be delayed, but needs to be addressed now.
  I would also mention there were many people from the business 
community there, many of those who you might think would not 
necessarily be interested in reform on this subject. There were 
insurance companies. There were representatives from NFIB and some of 
the other business groups. So there is no question in my mind that 
there is consensus about the need for health care reform.
  One of the ways that was stressed to achieve that was through cost 
efficiency. There is actually too much money being spent in many ways 
in not an efficient way; wellness, prevention, comparative 
effectiveness, new ways of doing things like health information 
technology to be more effective and utilizing cost measures or 
efficiencies to bring costs down, and with that money, as well as a new 
source of revenue, to be able to expand health care so that every 
American has health insurance.

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