[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 113 (Friday, July 24, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H8796]
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 Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, just a moment ago I heard the minority 
whip profess interest in working with the Democrats to reform the 
health care system. Yet, I'm sad to say that the minority whip, the 
minority leader have been part of an effort to deal with fear and 
misrepresentation, attacking bipartisan legislation that would have 
done precisely that, reform the health care system.
  Sadly, Mr. Speaker, there are some here who simply are not expressing 
the sense of urgency that most of us feel from the American people, a 
sense of urgency about fixing a broken health care system that costs 
too much, that produces wildly uneven results, and leaves too many 
outside the system of coverage, and others, with health insurance, at 
risk. We cannot continue along this path. Americans are not getting the 
help they need, even if they have insurance coverage. I was, I must 
say, disappointed, to say the very least, to see the attack on 
bipartisan legislation that we have worked on to help reform the health 
care system.
  In a statement from the minority leader, and with the whip, and Mr. 
McCotter, there is an allegation that somehow there is legislation in 
the health care draft that may place senior citizens in situations 
where they feel pressured to sign end-of-life directives that they 
would not otherwise sign that may start us down a ``treacherous path 
towards government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law.''
  Well, Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. Had the 
minority leader, and his whip, and the conference Chair bothered to 
check how that legislation came to be enacted into our health care 
legislation, they would have found out that it was work of a bipartisan 
group of Ways and Means Committee members. There were Republicans 
cosponsoring it along with Democrats. We had spirited discussion 
dealing with the fact that too often senior citizens and their families 
are not given the information they need to be able to cope with the 
most serious situation any of us will ever face as we have a loved one 
move into the end of his or her life.
  We discussed how Medicare would pay for tests to hook people up, to 
poke them, to run them through machines, to have them on ventilators, 
to do all sorts of things; but it will not pay a health care 
professional to sit down with that patient, with that family, and let 
them know what they expect, answer their questions, help them know what 
their choices are. We had examples of committee members talk about 
their loved ones, and I would say, Republican committee members talk 
about how their loved ones didn't get that type of help at the end of 
life and actually were subjected to things that they thought were not 
in the best interests of their loved one. If they had a choice, they 
wouldn't have done it over again, and it didn't prolong their life, it 
actually made them less comfortable.
  We're seeking to change that, to be able to adjust Medicare so that 
it speaks to the needs of American seniors and their families, that 
they're given the attention they need to prepare for this difficult 
period of time. There's nothing in this legislation that would force 
people to have consultations. There's nothing that would force them to 
sign advance directives. It's not going to choose a health care 
professional by the government and force it on them.
  It's the type of sad, inflammatory rhetoric that suggests that people 
aren't serious about health care reform, not serious about meeting the 
needs of American families, but, rather, they're playing political 
games. Mr. Speaker, I can't tell you how disappointed I was to see this 
type of reaction to a carefully crafted piece of legislation that we've 
been working on for more than 6 months that is bipartisan and that 
speaks to the needs of American families.
  The American public, especially our senior citizens, deserve our best 
efforts to meet their needs, not treat them like political footballs. I 
hope the Republican leadership will reconsider, and that we'll be able 
to enact provisions like this to help our senior citizens.

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