[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 111 (Wednesday, July 22, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H8561-H8562]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I also rise tonight to discuss the issue 
of health care. And again, we've just heard remarks which are part of a 
campaign really to try and, I believe, and I say this respectfully, 
mislead and scare people about what it is that the committees of this 
Congress are taking up and deliberating on. I'm on one of those 
committees, the Education and Labor Committee. And what my message 
would be here tonight is that Americans should not be alarmed. In fact, 
they should feel reassured about the fact that we are finally, in a 
serious, coherent way, trying to address a broken system. I know it's 
broken. I come from the State of Connecticut. Earlier this week, on 
Monday, there was a hearing at the State of Connecticut Department of 
Insurance where Blue Cross/Blue Shield came in asking for a 32 percent 
rate increase for its individual health insurance policies that they 
sell in the State of Connecticut. That's the status quo. That's the so-
called patient-driven health care system that we have right now. 
Thirty-two percent increase. You can't blame that on Barack Obama. You 
can't blame that on a government-controlled system. That's the 
marketplace that exists today, and it is bankrupting individuals and 
families at an alarming rate. Twelve thousand Americans a day are 
losing their health insurance. What the bill is that we are offering 
and as part of this effort which the President will be talking about 
tonight is a way of trying to control those costs and to try and create 
some sort of stable system for individuals and American families.
  Let me give you an example. For a single woman, working at a 
convenience store, earning about $25,000 a year, if she went out today, 
before the 32 percent rate increase that Blue Cross is asking for, and 
tried to buy an individual insurance policy in Connecticut, it would be 
$381.22 a month for a premium through the Blue Cross plan. It has a 
$1,500 deductible, 20 and $30 copays for primary care and specialist 
physicians, respectively, and an annual prescription drug benefit of 
only $500. The bill that we're working on, which was reported out by 
the Education and Labor Committee on Friday, for an individual who's 
earning $25,000 a year, their monthly premium would be $158, less than 
50 percent of what an individual is paying today, and that's without 
some kind of outrageous skyrocketing premium increase which Blue Cross 
is asking for today under our broken system.
  How do you do this? Well, the answer is very simple. And Members of 
Congress can answer it better than anybody because they should just 
look in the mirror and see the system that we have today for Members of 
Congress. We have the opportunity to be part of a purchasing exchange, 
a purchasing allowance which allows millions of Federal employees 
across the country to spread risk, to spread cost, and to offer a 
broader range of choices, private plans which Members of Congress have 
that opportunity to pick from. And that moderates, it stabilizes the 
cost of the system and allows the system to operate without these harsh 
pre-existing condition exclusions which if a person has a heart 
condition or a diabetic condition, which today in the individual market 
completely and totally excludes them from buying insurance at all.
  Now if you ask your Member of Congress about their health insurance 
plan and the cost of increase which took place over the last year, you 
could ask a Member from Ohio, where the minority leader comes from, and 
what it would show is that there were increases from 2008 to 2009 of 
only $10 a month for many of the plans. One of the Ohio plans which was 
offered to Members of Congress actually reduced its monthly payment. 
And this is because it's just a basic market principle, and that is 
what the Democratic plan is proposing for all Americans, which is that 
we will create a large purchasing exchange which will spread risk, 
which will protect individuals from pre-existing condition exclusions, 
and which will moderate and stabilize premium costs so that you would 
not face the 32 percent rate increases that insurance companies like 
Blue Cross are asking for back home in my State, the State of 
Connecticut.
  We also add a public option as one of the choices that can be 
selected by Americans who participate in this purchasing exchange. 
Private plans and a public option as a way of keeping the system honest 
and making sure that we get every efficiency possible. But no one has 
to choose that public option. And no provider, no doctor, or hospital 
has to participate in it.
  You would think, from the descriptions on the other side, that people 
are going to be marched at gunpoint into a government plan. The 
opposite is completely true. There will be open choice. There will be 
private plans that will be offered under that purchasing exchange and 
it will, again, allow people the benefits of spreading risk and 
spreading costs just like Members of Congress have today. Every 
taxpayer and every citizen of this country should ask that question of 
their Member when the time comes to vote: Are you prepared to stand up 
and vote for a plan which will give us what we give you?

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