[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 23, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H7090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                THE ECONOMIC CASE FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Connolly) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to highlight 
the economic need for health care reform. Indeed, as my friend from 
North Carolina just indicated, there are a lot of misleading statistics 
on health care. In fact, we just heard a few from her.
  We have heard a great deal about the human costs of failing to reform 
health care. Forty-six million Americans lack health care insurance. A 
child without insurance, for example, is 5 times more likely to die of 
appendicitis than a child that has access to health care insurance.
  The loss of any life is truly incalculable. However, there are those 
who would rather avoid talking about that child. They prefer to discuss 
the dollars and cents of health care. For those who worry only about 
the cost of reform, I would like to discuss the tremendous economic 
cost of doing nothing.
  We know the cost of doing nothing. Without reform, small businesses 
will pay $2.4 trillion in health care for their employees over the next 
decade. Reforming the system and controlling costs could save those 
small businesses $800 billion by 2018 and save 168,000 jobs, unless we 
do nothing.
  Currently, 46 million Americans lack health insurance. We know the 
economic costs of that. In 2008, Federal, State and local governments 
paid $442.9 billion to reimburse the uncompensated costs for visits to 
health clinics and hospitals by the uninsured. That places a tax burden 
on every American of $627 a year, Madam Speaker. If we continue doing 
nothing, the tax burden in inflation-adjusted dollars will nearly 
triple by 2030.
  As health insurance costs continue to rise, and they will, and as 
more Americans find themselves unable to afford insurance, and they 
will, those reimbursement costs will, of course, skyrocket. We know the 
cost of doing nothing, and we cannot afford that cost.
  Americans have the most expensive health care system in the world. 
True, the quality of care at the highest levels is second to none. 
However, the dramatically rising costs each year render more and more 
people unable to access that quality care.
  As chairman of Fairfax County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors, one 
the primary concerns I heard from county retirees was the rapidly 
rising cost of health care. Senior citizens and those on fixed incomes 
were especially concerned that the ever-growing premiums were forcing 
them to choose between health care and other necessities. Private 
industry is also feeling that pinch. Companies such as IBM have begun 
to eliminate retiree health care benefits altogether, precisely because 
of rising health care costs.
  In 1960, health care costs in the United States were 5 percent of our 
Gross Domestic Product. Today, they represent 18 percent, and if we do 
nothing, the costs will rise to a staggering 34 percent of our entire 
GDP by 2040. Madam Speaker, our children will be paying seven times 
more for health care costs than we paid in 1960. That level of cost 
increase is unconscionable and unsustainable.
  Workers currently receiving employer-provided health insurance are 
increasingly faced with two devastating scenarios; either the level of 
care they receive is reduced to counter the costs, or their health care 
costs rise each year, far outpacing their rise in wages. For many 
workers, they see both in a double whammy of paying more for less. This 
is evident in the growth in the average employer-sponsored health 
insurance family deductible. In just 7 years year, Madam Speaker, from 
1999 to 2006, the average deductible grew 50 percent. For firms with 
less than 50 employees, the deductible increased from roughly $1,300 in 
1999 to over $2,000 in 2006.
  Currently 43 percent of those smaller firms offer their employees 
health care coverage. As costs continue to rise, this number will 
shrink and more Americans will find themselves uninsured and unable to 
afford affordable options. If we can continue to do nothing, government 
spending on health care will suffer equally. Spending on Medicare and 
Medicaid, currently 6 percent of GDP, will rise if we do nothing to 15 
percent by 2040.
  Studies have shown that slowing the cost growth in health care by 1.5 
percentage points a year will result in dramatic decreases in the 
Federal budget deficit. By 2030, Federal deficits would be 3 percent of 
GDP smaller than it otherwise would have been, saving us hundreds of 
billions of dollars a year, something my friend from North Carolina 
just indicated she was concerned about. If we do nothing, we condemn 
our future to rapidly increasing budget deficits and a dearth of 
funding available for other essential government functions.
  Madam Speaker, I support comprehensive health care reform.

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