[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 132 (Thursday, September 17, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S9490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, over the past few months, the 
American people have been sending us a clear message on health care. 
They want reforms that make health care more affordable and more 
accessible, that increase choice, and that keep government out of their 
health care decisions. What they don't want are so-called reforms that 
cut seniors' health care, force Americans off private health plans they 
have, cost hundreds of billions of dollars, raise taxes, and put 
government bureaucrats in charge of health care. But that is exactly 
what they would get under the plan released by the chairman of the 
Senate Finance Committee just yesterday. So while I appreciate the hard 
work of the senior Senator from Montana on this legislation--and he 
certainly has spent enormous amounts of time on it--I am extremely 
disappointed that it does not reflect the concerns Americans have been 
expressing for weeks about health care reform. That much is very clear.
  Now it is time to let the American people study the bill themselves. 
Before we bring any legislation to the floor, we need to make sure the 
American people and all of our colleagues, every single one of them, 
have the time to carefully read it and evaluate its potential effects 
on our health care system and the economy in general. Americans got 
rushed on the stimulus. They will not be rushed on health care--not on 
an issue that affects every single American. Before we discuss or vote 
on any plan, we need to know what it does, how much it costs, and how 
it will be paid for.
  Here is what we know now about the Finance Committee plan.
  First, the Finance Committee proposal would cut hundreds of billions 
of dollars from seniors' Medicare benefits to pay for new government 
programs. America's seniors want us to fix Medicare, not take money 
from it to pay for a new, untested, trillion-dollar government program. 
This bill would also break the President's promise to seniors that they 
will not be required to change the coverage they have. Right now, 11 
million seniors are enrolled in Medicare Advantage, a program that 
gives them more options and choices when it comes to their health care. 
Ninety percent of these seniors are satisfied with their plan. The 
Finance Committee bill would make massive cuts to Medicare Advantage 
and force some seniors to give it up, something that even one of our 
Democratic friends just yesterday called ``intolerable.''
  Senators from both sides of the aisle are concerned about the new 
burdens this bill would impose on States in the form of Medicaid 
expansion. Unlike the Federal Government, many States are 
constitutionally--in fact, I think virtually all of them are 
constitutionally required to have balanced budgets. This means that if 
politicians in Washington force them to increase spending on Medicaid, 
they very likely will have to cut services or raise taxes right in the 
middle of a recession.
  The Finance Committee bill would kill jobs by forcing employers to 
provide insurance, regardless of whether they can afford it. While 
advocates of the bill say it does not contain an employer mandate, 
their claims just do not square with the facts. If you tell an employer 
that they either have to provide insurance or pay a penalty, that is a 
mandate.
  The Finance Committee bill contains approximately $350 billion in new 
taxes, and some of these taxes, such as those on medical devices 
ranging from MRIs to Q-tips and new taxes on insurance plans, will 
drive up insurance premiums and make health care even more expensive 
for American families. If there was one thing we thought everybody 
agreed on, it was that any reform should not make health care more 
expensive. Yet this Q-tip tax would actually increase health care 
costs. That is why Senators from both parties have warned that it would 
put thousands of jobs in jeopardy and actually deter innovation.
  The Senate Finance Committee bill also contains a co-op, which is 
just another name for a government plan. It still gives the government 
far too much control over our health care system. It cuts seniors' 
benefits, spends hundreds of billions of dollars, and raises taxes to 
pay for another trillion-dollar government program. And it still does 
not contain the kind of commonsense reforms the American people support 
and Republicans have consistently recommended, such as meaningful 
reforms to get rid of junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals and 
reforms to level the playing field when it comes to taxes on a health 
care plan.
  There is no question that Americans want health care reform, but they 
want the right reforms and they want us to take the time we need to get 
it right. During the month of August, the American people sent us a 
clear message on health care. I am disappointed that many of my 
colleagues apparently were not listening.

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