[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 157 (Tuesday, October 27, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10750-S10756]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           Health Care Reform

  Mr. KIRK. Madam President, as the Senate prepares to debate the 
critical reform of our Nation's health care system, I am privileged to 
stand at the Massachusetts desk from which the voice--that 
unmistakable, booming voice--of the most effective legislator of our 
time was heard throughout this Chamber that he loved for nearly a half 
century.
  The voice of Senator Edward M. Kennedy called out against injustice, 
denial of opportunity, and needless suffering of every kind. Sometimes 
with humor, sometimes with indignation, he spoke skillfully and 
tirelessly as a champion of working families, the poor, the disabled, 
and those engaged in a constant struggle for economic and social 
justice.
  Of all the issues on which he led the Senate and our Nation, the one 
Ted Kennedy called the cause of his life was the battle for affordable, 
quality health care. He saw the need as universal--made real by 
experiences deeply personal. He was the father of three children who 
faced serious illnesses and received the finest health care in the 
world.
  He understood firsthand the anguish of a parent who learns that a 
child is gravely ill. He found it unacceptable that some Americans 
receive quality health care while millions of others do not.
  For almost 50 years, his voice thundered in this Chamber and across 
the Nation with a clear and compelling message: affordable, quality 
health care must be a basic right for all, not a privilege for the few.
  In Senator Kennedy's own maiden speech in this Chamber, he noted the 
conventional wisdom that freshman Senators should be seen and not 
heard. But he felt compelled to speak out on the Civil Rights Act of 
1964 because it was the defining moral issue of that time.
  As the newest of freshman Senators, who is honored to stand briefly 
in his place, I have no doubt about my obligation to Senator Kennedy, 
to the values and friendship we shared, to the citizens of 
Massachusetts, and to the country we love. So I am grateful for this 
opportunity to speak out at another defining moment for our Nation, on 
what I and Senator Kennedy believe to be the moral issue of this time.
  At this moment, we are closer to realizing the long-held dream that 
all

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Americans have access to quality, affordable health care than at any 
time in our Nation's history. By seizing this moment, we will, at long 
last, put America on equal standing with other nations that long ago 
assured their citizens quality, affordable health care as a matter of 
right.
  Despite the urging of Republican and Democratic Presidents alike, 
from Theodore Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, the United States remains the 
only industrial Nation that has yet to guarantee health care for all 
its citizens.
  It has been 40 years since Edward Kennedy gave his first speech on 
this issue. In an address at the Boston University Medical Center, he 
declared the time had come to establish a national plan to provide 
affordable and quality health care for every American.
  Rough estimates at the time suggested 25 million were without any 
coverage. Today we have 46 million uninsured Americans.
  In the four decades since Ted Kennedy issued that challenge, despite 
the expenditure of trillions of dollars and a passing of a generation, 
millions of Americans worry each day whether their health insurance 
will be there for them and for their children. They fear their 
insurance company will drop them if they are sick or set limits on 
their coverage that will leave them destitute. They wonder if their 
insurance will be adequate and if they are but one serious illness away 
from bankruptcy.
  They ask why insurance companies are permitted to charge higher 
premiums for women than for men. They are afraid, if they lose their 
jobs, they will be unable to get new insurance because they have a 
preexisting condition. Worse, tens of millions of our fellow citizens 
go to bed each night praying their children will stay well because they 
have no insurance at all. They work hard, they play by the rules, they 
do everything possible to provide for their families, but they need 
every penny to put a roof over their heads and food on the table. In 
the end, they simply cannot afford health insurance.
  After decades of falling short of the mark, quality, affordable 
health care for all Americans is, at long last, within their reach. 
Thanks to the leadership of Senator Reid, Senator Dodd, Senator Baucus, 
and others, in combining the bipartisan work of the Health and Finance 
Committees, and thanks to similar work being done in the House of 
Representatives and the leadership and support of President Obama, we 
are closer than ever to fixing our broken health care system.
  Yes, there are issues yet to be resolved. In the days ahead, I, too, 
will advocate for a public option because we need to stimulate 
competition and reduce costs in the health care marketplace.
  I will also speak for the so-called CLASS Act, a voluntary, self-
funded, self-insured, deficit-reducing plan that will protect millions 
of Americans against the crushing cost of long-term services and 
support so necessary in their senior years.
  But as this debate moves forward, we who are privileged to serve in 
this historic body, on both sides of the aisle, have the opportunity 
and the obligation to take the long view, to put aside partisan 
politics and come together to seize this unique and critical moment in 
our history.
  Bipartisanship works for the people. Only 3 years ago, with Senator 
Kennedy's guidance, Democrats and Republicans in Massachusetts worked 
together to adopt a health reform plan approved by a Democratic 
legislature, signed by a Republican Governor, and implemented with 
essential support from a Republican President.
  The experience of Massachusetts was bipartisan. It has helped to 
shape the legislation this Senate will soon consider. Our national 
legislation draws ideas from both sides of the aisle and from all parts 
of the political spectrum. Similar to our Massachusetts reform, it will 
make a lifesaving and cost-saving difference for millions of Americans, 
whatever their station in life and whatever their political persuasion.
  It is regrettable that efforts for reform in the Senate and the House 
have been under assault by special interests that have a financial 
stake in our failing health care system. As part of that opposition, 
they have attacked the success of our reform in Massachusetts. But let 
me set the record straight.
  First, because of our bipartisan reforms, less than 3 percent of the 
Massachusetts population is without health insurance today, lower than 
any other State.
  Second, the most respected independent fiscal watchdog concluded that 
Massachusetts implemented its reform in a fiscally responsible and 
financially sustainable way.
  Third, unlike every other State, employer-based health insurance is 
increasing in Massachusetts.
  Finally, according to a recent statewide poll by the Harvard School 
of Public Health, 79 percent of the public, and practitioners in every 
sector of the Massachusetts health care system, including physicians, 
strongly supports our bipartisan reform.
  Let me quote a recent message from a Massachusetts doctor:

       You will be glad to know that I just saw the very last 
     uninsured patient in my panel of about 300 patients for whom 
     I am the primary care physician. He is a 62-year-old diabetic 
     electrician from Mattapan. He finally got his insurance last 
     month--with help of [the reform law], we are now finally 
     getting his eye exam, his blood work, and refilling all his 
     prescriptions.

  That is just one example of a substantial difference a bipartisan 
health reform measure has made in the lives of the people of the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. That is the kind of substantial 
difference bipartisan reform can make in the lives of people all across 
America.
  I am the 100th Member, the most junior Member of this distinguished 
body. But I am hopeful that a newcomer's perspective will be received 
as a constructive contribution to this debate.
  Let me be candid. At this moment, when American families are 
imperiled by economic hardship and uncertainty, it gives them no 
comfort to see the Senate so politically polarized over an issue that 
should be bringing us together on their behalf.
  The accelerating health care and health costs crises strike fear in 
the hearts of the average American family. These crises should not be 
dividing this Chamber; they should be uniting us. These crises do not 
discriminate in their impact on our constituents. They are the common 
fears of Republicans and Democrats, Independents and the unenrolled, 
old and young, urban and rural, businesses large and small, workers 
organized and unorganized, the self-employed and the unemployed, 
married and single, straight and gay, and Americans of every ethnic or 
racial heritage.
  These are the people we are honored to represent. They expect us to 
work together in their common interests and, I submit, they deserve no 
less.
  Years from now, history will look upon this debate and record that 
this was our opportunity to act on a defining domestic obligation of 
our time. During the coming weeks, I hope each of us will take the long 
view, think beyond the politics of the day, and come together in good 
faith to do what is right for our people.
  When I accepted my oath of office a month ago, much was made of my 
being the 60th vote for health reform. This debate should not be about 
one party reaching 60 votes. It should be about 100 Senators reaching 
out to each other to reform a health care system that will better 
reflect the true values and character of our Nation.
  As this debate continues, we would do well to pause for a moment to 
hear Ted Kennedy's voice in the quiet of our hearts. You and I know he 
will urge us to seize this moment to come together in this common cause 
and to make sure, at long last, that all Americans will have access to 
the quality, affordable health care they have long deserved and now so 
urgently need.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KERRY. Madam President, I congratulate my colleague from 
Massachusetts, who has made his first comments on the floor of the 
Senate, what is traditionally called a maiden speech, and what for many 
years a speech that often took months, if not, in some cases, years for 
a Senator to make. The times have changed and, indeed, the issues have 
changed. Now Senators, by custom, address the floor much before that 
kind of time period has elapsed.
  Let me say I am glad that is the custom, and I am glad my colleague, 
Paul Kirk, is here to share in his ability to

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be able to present his values and the values of Ted Kennedy and 
Massachusetts to the Senate, with respect to the issue he talked about 
today.
  I cannot say that for many of us who sat here and listened to this, 
as we looked across the Senate at this desk, that there still is not an 
adjustment as we look there and do not see our friend Ted Kennedy but 
see, instead, the person who has been chosen to follow in his 
footsteps.
  I know Ted Kennedy would be both enormously proud and enormously 
pleased that Paul Kirk spoke the way he did today and chose to speak as 
he did about health care.
  Paul Kirk was in the Senate working for Ted Kennedy in 1969, when Ted 
Kennedy first took up the great cause of health care. It was no 
accident that he came to be here working for Ted Kennedy, though it was 
somewhat of an effort because Paul had chosen to work in the 
Presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy. When Robert Kennedy was 
assassinated, Paul felt there was not a place in politics for him, and 
so he stepped back for a moment. It took Ted Kennedy a considerable 
amount of personal persuasion and effort to give him a sense that 
working in the Senate, working with him was the best way to try to 
carry on. That was the beginning of an extraordinary working 
partnership. I think Paul worked with Ted Kennedy until about 1977 or 
so in the Senate, but he never stopped working with him as both a 
friend and an adviser. He went on to become the founder of the 
Presidential Debate Commission. He chaired the Democratic National 
Committee. He has chaired the Kennedy Library, and now he comes to us 
as an extraordinarily appropriate replacement, to the degree there can 
ever be a replacement--we all understand the difficulties of that--for 
our friend Ted Kennedy.
  I thank him for his words today. I thank him for his willingness to 
come and serve at a difficult time. I thank him for being willing to go 
through all the gyrations one has to go through to meet the standards 
of the Ethics Committee of the Senate to serve just, knowingly, for 
4\1/2\ months. That is a great statement both about his feelings about 
being chosen to fill the seat he fills but also about his commitment to 
public service.
  I thank my colleague for his comments about health care. He is 
absolutely correct; we are on the cusp of a historic choice in this 
country, and I think it is more than fitting that Paul Kirk, who knows 
Ted Kennedy's staff, who had such a close relationship with him, who 
shares his values so intensely, is here to be part of this vote.
  He is absolutely correct. While he is the 60th vote, it may change 
some of our ability to move or not move, the thought he expressed about 
our desire to have all Senators join in this historic moment and weigh 
in, in a way that permits more of them to take part is exactly what the 
Senate is about.
  I close by saying, as I looked across at Paul, I thought about this 
transitional moment, of his first speaking and following in the 
footsteps of Ted Kennedy from that seat and that desk. It reminds all 
of us that we all come and we go here. It gives us a sense of the 
timelessness, if you will, of this institution. It reminds us that 
while we do change and we come and go, this institution is here, the 
Congress is here, the country is here, the demands of the people are 
here, and good people keep coming here to try to meet those demands and 
live out the best values for our Nation.
  I congratulate my colleague for representing Massachusetts so 
effectively, for keeping faith with Ted Kennedy and this institution, 
and helping to remind us of the importance of the work ahead of us in 
the days ahead.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, next to the door of Senator Kennedy's 
old office--now Senator Kirk's office--is a small brass plaque that 
Senator Kennedy had mounted near the door with an old Gaelic greeting: 
Cead Mile Failte--100,000 welcomes. With his first maiden speech on the 
floor of the Senate, I extend to Senator Kirk, my colleague, 
officially, Cead Mile Failte, 100,000 welcomes to this great body. The 
fact the Senator would stand and speak to an issue of such enduring 
significance, not only to the Nation but to Senator Ted Kennedy, is 
entirely fitting.

  Forty-five years ago, Ted Kennedy gave his maiden speech on the floor 
of the Senate, addressing the moral issue of his time--the issue of 
civil rights. Over the years, he came to understand the issue of health 
care is an issue of civil rights. His son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy, 
tells the story when his dad was in the hospital recently recuperating 
from cancer, he would walk the wards. We can see him plodding along, 
going from room to room, talking to people about how they were doing 
and, more specifically, how they were paying for their medical care.
  Ted never stopped caring about not only the many people he 
represented in Massachusetts and around the Nation but around the 
world. During the time he served in the Senate, he extended the reach 
of civil rights and opportunity through health care, with Medicaid and 
Medicare and COBRA and children's health insurance and so many other 
things that he was a part of. I am honored the Senator is here today, 
as he has said, to be the voice and the vote of Senator Edward M. 
Kennedy. The question asked is: Will the circle go unbroken? With the 
Senator's speech today, it is clear it is unbroken; that the Senator is 
carrying on the fine tradition not only of Senator Kennedy but of so 
many people who were inspired by his words over the years.
  I congratulate my colleague on his maiden speech on the floor of the 
Senate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. REED. Madam President, I simply wish to rise and acknowledge the 
wise words of a good man and a good Senator in the great tradition of 
Ted Kennedy.
  I thank the Senator, for his work, his commitment, and his 
dedication. With his help, we will complete the work Senator Kennedy 
started.
  I yield the floor.

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