[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 78 (Wednesday, May 20, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5866]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        NATIONALIZED HEALTH CARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the talk around town is universal 
health care for all Americans. This is a noble ideal and a great goal, 
but the real question is: Do we want universal health care run by the 
government or universal health care run by the private sector? That is 
the question to be asked and answered.
  Even though every Nation that has tried socialized public health care 
has proven it's unaffordable, doesn't work and provides inferior health 
care, those who want the United States Government to run every aspect 
of our lives still demand public health care. Let's look at a couple of 
examples of socialized, nationalized health care:
  Katie Brickell is a young woman who lives in Great Britain where they 
have government-run health care. When Katie was 19, she tried to get a 
test for cervical cancer, which is a matter of routine here in the 
United States. Katie was told that she had to wait until she was 20. 
When she tried again at 20, she was told that the age was moved to 25 
so the government could save some money. While waiting 5 more years 
because some bureaucrat told her that's what she had to do, Katie got 
sick and was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
  Now some bureaucrat is telling this young lady, who is just starting 
out in her adult life, that her disease is not treatable, all because 
some bureaucrat said it cost too much. Neither Katie nor her doctor 
made a medical decision, but this no-named bureaucrat made all of these 
decisions. This is the British example of government-run, universal 
public health care.
  Charlie Wadge lives in Canada where they have long waiting lines and 
rationed health care because they have a government-run system. Limping 
badly, Charlie was diagnosed with arthritis in his hip. When he needed 
his replacement surgery, the bureaucrats told him he'd have to be on a 
waiting list for between 18 months and 2 years before he could have 
that surgery. Charlie paid what we call a private medical broker, who 
negotiated a price for him to have surgery in the United States, in 
Oklahoma City.

                              {time}  1845

  He had to pay for the whole thing out of his pocket--and it's a good 
thing he had the money. At least he can walk. Left up to Canada's 
system of universal-run, government-rationed health care, he would have 
probably been permanently crippled by now.
  Now if we want an example of what health care run by the American 
bureaucrats looks like, we should examine Medicare, Medicaid, or even 
the VA. These government programs are now a disaster. They waste so 
much money, and they will probably completely go bankrupt if they're 
not overhauled.
  The Medicare program trustees just a week ago said the program has 
``unfunded liability'' of nearly $38 trillion. That's the amount of 
benefits promised to Americans but not paid by them through taxes. If 
we don't fix the waste and inefficiency in Medicare, Medicaid, and the 
VA, millions of people will not be treated properly. Taxes keep going 
up but these government-run health care services in the United States 
keep getting worse.
  The kind of government-run health care that is being considered right 
now will have the same sort of underpayments to doctors and hospitals 
that we see in Medicare and Medicaid. Even with the massive taxes that 
would come up with this government health care program, if people think 
health care is expensive now, just wait until it's free.
  The government underpaying for services will force the price of 
medical insurance so high to make up for the gap in what health care 
really costs that their employer will no longer be able to afford the 
health insurance.
  Studies have shown the kind of government-run health care being 
worked on by Congress tonight, right now, will end up forcing 120 
million Americans on the government plan for this very reason. 120 
million Americans who get their health care from their jobs would have 
to go into the government system because their employer cannot afford 
to pay for the high cost of insurance. That's half of the Americans in 
this country today.
  But the most frightening part of the government plans being 
considered is the rationing of health care for procedures based on 
cost, age, and survivability rate. Let me repeat: Health care will be 
rationed based on cost, age, and survivability rate.
  Somebody needs to explain to me how it's an improvement in our health 
care system for somebody in Washington, D.C., to decide that someone 
can't have a cancer treatment because it's too expensive, like is 
happening in England right now. Or that people can't have a medical 
procedure because some bureaucrat thinks it's too expensive because 
they're too old. The patient and doctor will be completely cut out of 
the decisionmaking process. And that is wrong.
  There's an alternative plan to put all Americans on universal 
coverage even without raising taxes. This idea would leave decisions 
about people's health care between their doctor and the patient, not 
the bureaucrats and the taxacrats in D.C. It's a plan to put everyone 
on private insurance plans. This deserves a close examination by this 
Congress.
  We'd better take a long look at the choices we have, Mr. Speaker. If 
we go down the road of government-run health care in America, we will 
destroy the best health care structure in the world.
  Mr. Speaker, the new government, nationalized, impersonal health care 
system will have the compassion of the IRS, the competence of FEMA, and 
the efficiency of the post office.
  And that's just the way it is.

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