[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 72 (Tuesday, May 12, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        INFORMED CONSUMER CHOICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, as we work to ensure every American has 
access to affordable choices of public or private health care coverage, 
we must also give them the tools to make informed choices about that 
coverage, to make sure that we will truly provide adequate protection 
in case they ever get sick.
  We have all heard stories, sometimes tragic stories, about Americans 
who thought their health care coverage was comprehensive, only to 
realize that it had huge gaps once they actually got sick. Take the 
story of Jim Stacey, from Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 2000, Mr. 
Stacey and his wife bought a plan with a lifetime maximum payout of up 
to $1 million per person. Then he learned he had prostate cancer. But 
the policy paid only $1,480 of the more than $17,000 in treatment 
costs.
  The simple fact is that right now, what you see is not what you get 
as a customer trying to decide on a health care plan. According to one 
recent study from Georgetown University, health insurance plans that 
look similar up front with similar copays, deductibles and so-called 
``out-of-pocket limits'' can actually result in drastically different 
out-of-pocket expenses at the end of the day. And yet because that 
information is buried in legalese, or simply left out altogether, the 
consumer cannot tell the difference before it is too late.
  Mr. Speaker, when we buy cars, computers, even cereal, we know what 
we are getting and how much it will cost. And yet when it comes to 
purchasing health care coverage today, families are too often kept in 
the dark about what kind of care their plan covers or what out-of-
pocket costs they may face in the case of a serious illness.
  Health insurance is one of the most expensive products Americans buy. 
Consumers and employers pay on average over $12,000 for it every single 
year. And yet we still expect them to make critical decisions about 
their health and well-being without all the information they need. You 
or I would never buy a car without first looking at its crash test 
ratings or knowing what kind of safety features it had. It is all laid 
out right on the sticker. Yet when it comes to health insurance, the 
most important information is simply not there.
  And in a system where costs continue to skyrocket, the consequences 
have been devastating. Bad coverage and hidden exclusions can bankrupt 
people. Sixty-one percent of working age adults who had problems paying 
medical bills or were paying off medical debt in 2007 actually had 
health insurance at the time the care was provided.
  That is why I plan to introduce the Informed Consumer Choices in 
Health Care Act to promote transparency in coverage and to provide 
crucial data to consumers and health care providers.
  The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart 
Association, Families USA, and the Campaign For America's Future 
endorse this legislation to promote consistent information standards, 
provide long-overdue data and resources for consumers and create a new 
Office of Health Insurance Oversight within the Department of Health 
and Human Services to administer accountability and transparency 
initiatives in coordination with State insurance regulators.
  It is a simple idea that better information makes better consumers, 
and in the end, healthier families as well. That is what the Informed 
Consumer Choices in Health Care Act is all about. I hope you will join 
me in empowering consumers to make the right choices for themselves and 
their families to make sure that they can truly count on their health 
care coverage.

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