[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 153 (Wednesday, October 21, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H11558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              AMERICANS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE ARE DYING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Grayson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GRAYSON. Madam Speaker, I pointed out 2 weeks ago that a Harvard 
study published in a peer-reviewed journal established that 44,789 
Americans die every year because they have no health insurance.
  I was surprised to see the reaction in some quarters. On talk radio, 
people said, I don't believe it. It simply isn't true. Somehow, ``I 
don't believe it; it simply isn't true,'' passes for logical, 
intelligent thought these days. But it is true. Just a few days ago, a 
U.S. Senator said that he wasn't sure whether it's true that 44,789 
Americans die every year because they have no health insurance. Well, 
if it were me and I wasn't sure, I would err on the side of caution.
  Be that as it may, since the health debate now turns upon whether we 
are willing to change things in order to make America a better place to 
provide useful, affordable and comprehensive health care and to stop 
this terrible national tragedy where 122 Americans die every single day 
because they have no health insurance, I make the following modest 
proposal.
  I think it dishonors all of those Americans who have lost their lives 
because they have no health coverage--by ignoring them, by not paying 
attention to them and by doing nothing to change the situations that 
led them to lose their lives. So I make this simple proposal:
  I propose that we identify them. I propose that we honor their 
memories by naming them. They, themselves, can no longer speak, but 
their families, the ones who love them, can speak. So I've established 
a Web site called namesofthedead.com.
  I invite to it all of those people who've suffered the terrible 
tragedy of losing a loved one, whether it be of a son or a spouse or an 
uncle or a mother or a father. For all of us who've lost somebody close 
to us because they had no health coverage, because they had no health 
insurance and because they died, I propose that we all go to this Web 
site, namesofthedead.com, and that we name them, that we honor them, 
that we cherish their memories, and that we show our respect for their 
memories by simply naming them.
  I also make the following modest proposal: that we all look forward 
to a day not too far in the distant future when we honor them further 
in this way, that we honor them further by making sure that no more 
names are added to this list, that we close it out for all time so 
that, in the future, it will be a historical artifact and so that no 
one will ever die in America because one can't see a doctor.

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