[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 16, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6611-S6612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, every day, like every Senator, I get mail 
from men and women across my State. People still write letters. It is 
not all over the Internet. People still send handwritten letters, lots 
of them. People offer advice, criticism, suggestions, and stories. They 
are making sure their representative democracy works the way they 
believe it should. Anyone who is watching at home and wondering whether 
the representatives you send to Washington actually read these letters, 
I can tell you that we do.
  I can tell you that on no other issue have the letters my 
constituents have sent me underscored the urgent need to act more than 
the health care nightmares they have shared with me.
  For example, Lisa lives in Gardnerville, NV, a beautiful place, right 
under the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is very scenic and beautiful. She 
lives in Gardnerville with her two daughters. One is 10 and one is 7. 
The youngest little girl suffers seizures, and her teachers think she 
has a learning disability. Because of her family history, Lisa, the 
mom, is at high risk for cervical cancer. Although she has been told by 
her doctors that she should get an exam every 3 months, she now goes 
once a year because she doesn't have the money to go every 3 months. 
When Lisa lost her job recently, she lost her health coverage. Now both 
Lisa and her daughters miss out on the tests and preventive medicine to 
keep them healthy. Her long letter ended with a simple plea: ``We want 
to go to the doctor.''
  Braden lives in Sparks, NV. The 55-hour weeks he works to support his 
family just barely cover his bills. He doesn't have enough money to buy 
health insurance for his family, so he doesn't buy it. Braden owes a 
hospital $12,000 for a trip to the emergency room--the only place he 
could go because he has no health care. Braden is brave, though. In his 
letter, he doesn't dread the debt he carries or grumble about how hard 
he works, but he does fear, ``If I was seriously sick or injured, I 
would lose it all.''

[[Page S6612]]

  Alysia is a 21-year-old woman from Las Vegas. She needs surgery for 
the kidney disease with which she has suffered since she was born, but 
because she recently lost her job, health care is not part of her life 
anymore. Alysia has done everything she can to try to get help. 
Medicaid tells her she doesn't qualify because she isn't pregnant, 
doesn't have children, doesn't have disability insurance. Insurance 
companies refuse to cover her, calling her kidney disorder a 
preexisting condition. Everyone else calls this a tragedy.
  These stories are as real as they come. The letters are written by 
people who play by the rules and don't understand why the health care 
system doesn't play by the rules. They are written from the heart, and 
many are written through pain, tears, and uncertainty. Sadly, though, 
they are not unique. Many Americans like Lisa skip routine medical 
checkups or, like Braden, live one accident away from bankruptcy or one 
sickness away from bankruptcy or, like Alysia, fear for the worst as 
they fight through the redtape.
  Our Republican colleagues like things, obviously, just the way they 
are, the status quo. They have committed themselves to a strategy of 
misinformation and misrepresentation. I heard it again on the radio 
this morning--government health care. In fact, one Senator said that if 
he heard a Republican Senator say anything other than ``government 
health care''--and he instructed them not to use ``public choice'' or 
``public option''--he jokingly said they will have to put some money in 
the kitty.
  Misinformation and misrepresentation is not where we should be. This, 
together with their attempt to delay, is only going to hurt people like 
Alysia, Braden, and Lisa.

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