[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 101 (Wednesday, July 8, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H7747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. WU asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, a few years ago on a Mother's Day Sunday, my 
daughter got a cut on her face and was bleeding. So I took her to the 
emergency room. She got a Band-Aid and some antiseptic cream. It was a 
$350 bill.
  A couple years later, I took my son to Central Oregon with me on a 
conference. He jumped from the bed to the fireplace in the hotel, 
missed his landing, split his lip. I took him to the emergency room. He 
got three stitches. He got good treatment. The bill was for $850.
  Why do three stitches cost $850 or a Band-Aid $350?
  Those 49 million uninsured people in America, we are already paying 
for their health care; but it's through the dumbest way that we can, 
through expensive products for some of us, even though I have 
insurance. And what we do need now is change in our health care system 
so that we cover those uninsured because it's not only the right thing 
to do; it is the smart thing to do so that we don't have $350 bandages 
and $850 stitches.

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