[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 84 (Monday, June 8, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6232-S6233]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, when it comes to health care, Americans 
are looking to Washington for real reform. Americans are rightly 
frustrated with the ever-increasing cost of health care, and many are 
concerned about losing the care they already have. Americans also 
believe that in a nation as prosperous as ours, no one should go 
without the health care they need. All of us agree reform is necessary, 
that we must do something to address the concerns Americans have on 
this issue. The only question is, What kinds of reform will we deliver?
  Will we deliver a so-called reform that destroys what people like 
about the care they already have or will we deliver a reform that 
preserves what is good even as we solve the problems all of us 
acknowledge and want to address?
  Unfortunately, some of the proposals coming out of Washington in 
recent weeks are giving Americans reason to be concerned. Americans 
have witnessed a government takeover of banks, insurance companies, and 
major portions of the auto industry. They are concerned about the 
consequences. Now they are concerned about a government takeover of 
health care--and for good reason.
  What Americans want is for health care to be affordable and 
accessible. What some in Washington are offering instead is a plan to 
take away the care people already have--care that the vast majority of 
them were perfectly satisfied with--and replace it with a system in 
which care and treatment will either be delayed or denied.
  Last week, I offered some examples of real people in Britain and 
Canada who were denied urgent medical treatment or necessary drugs 
under the kind of government-run system those two countries have and 
that many in Washington would now like to impose on Americans, whether 
the American people like it or not. This afternoon, I will describe how 
government-run health care systems such as the one in Canada not only 
deny but also delay care for weeks, months, and even years.
  By focusing on just one hospital in one city in Canada--Kingston 
General, in the city of Kingston, Ontario--we can begin to get a 
glimpse of the effect that government-run health care has on the 
Canadians and the long waits they routinely endure for necessary care.
  I have no doubt that the politicians in Canada never intended for the 
people of that country to see their health care denied or delayed. I am 
sure the intention was to make health care even more accessible and 
affordable than it was. But as we have seen so many times in our own 
country, government solutions have a tendency to create barriers 
instead of bridges. The unintended consequence becomes the norm. That 
is what happened in Canada, and Americans are concerned it could happen 
here too.
  A medium-sized city of about 115,000, Kingston, Ontario, has about 
the same number of residents as Lansing, MI, to its south. But while it 
is not uncommon for Americans to receive medical care within days of a 
serious diagnosis, at Kingston General Hospital wait times can be 
staggering. Take hip replacement surgery, for example. A couple of 
years ago, the wait time for hip replacement surgery at Kingston 
General was almost 2 years. A lot of people were understandably unhappy 
with the fact that they had to wait more than a year and a half between 
the time a doctor said they needed a new hip and their surgery to 
actually get it. So the government worked to shorten the wait. Today, 
the average wait time for the same surgery at the same hospital is 
about 196 days. Apparently in Canada, the prospect of waiting 6 months 
for hip surgery is considered progress. That is hip replacement 
surgery. What about knee replacements? At Kingston General, the average 
wait is about 340 days, or almost a year, from the moment the doctor 
says you need a new knee. How about brain cancer? In Ontario, the 
target wait time for brain cancer surgery is 3 months--3 months. The 
same for breast cancer and for prostate cancer. And for cardiac bypass

[[Page S6233]]

surgery, patients in Ontario are told they have to wait 6 months for 
surgery Americans often get right away.
  The patients at Kingston General Hospital in Kingston, Ontario, have 
been understandably unhappy with all the waiting they have to do. Fran 
Tooley was one of them.
  Two years ago, Fran herniated three disks in her back and was told 
that it would take at least a year before she could consult a 
neurosurgeon about her injury which had left her in constant pain and 
unable to sit or stand for more than a half hour at a time. According 
to a story in the Kingston Whig-Standard, Fran's doctor referred her to 
a neurosurgeon after an MRI scan showed the herniated disks were 
affecting the nerves in her legs. The story went on to say that 
patients in Ontario can be forced to wait for up to 2 years and 
sometimes even longer for tests, appointments with specialists, or even 
urgent surgery.
  Americans don't want to end up like Fran Tooley. They like being able 
to get the care they need when they need it. They don't want to be 
forced to give up their private health plans or to be pushed into a 
government plan that threatens their choices and the quality of their 
care. They don't want to wait 2 years for surgery their doctors say 
they need right away. And they don't want to be told they are too old 
for surgery or that a drug they need is too expensive. But all of these 
things could be headed our way. Americans want health care reform, but 
they don't want reform that forces them into a government plan and 
replaces the freedoms and choices they now enjoy with bureaucratic 
hassles, hours spent on hold, and surgeries and treatments being denied 
and delayed. They don't want a remote bureaucrat in Washington making 
life-and-death decisions for them or their loved ones. But if we enact 
the government-run plan, that is precisely what Americans can expect.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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