[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 164 (Thursday, November 5, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S11144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I would like to speak on health care. I 
note with interest the remarks of the Senator from Tennessee. I think 
there is former bipartisan agreement, but everybody says let's go 
through this step by step. The Congress has had an extensive health 
care debate. We in the HELP Committee have had extensive hearings, and 
we had a markup of our bill that lasted more than 3 weeks and had over 
350 amendments, of which 75 percent were offered by the other side. We 
offered many of those amendments. When all was said and done, they 
voted no. So we don't know when good would be good enough. It is one 
thing to disagree on policy; it is another thing to want to do a 
filibuster by proxy, which is what we encountered in the committees 
with the increased volume of amendments.
  We need health care reform, and we need it now. We need it in a way 
that accomplishes the goal of saving lives, improving lives and, at the 
same time, controlling costs.
  No. 1, I think we all agree, we need to save and stabilize Medicare. 
The other thing we need to do is end the punitive practices of 
insurance companies.
  I am going to tell you a bone-chilling story. I held a hearing in the 
HELP Committee on how health insurance in the private sector treats 
women. First, we pay more and get less benefits. But also what happened 
and what emerged is that a woman who applied for health care who had a 
C-section was denied by a Minnesota company unless she got a 
sterilization.
  Did you hear what I said? An insurance company told an American 
woman, to get health insurance, she had to have a sterilization. Is 
this fascist China, fascist Germany? Is this Communist China? This is 
the United States of America. We were outraged.
  I have been in touch with this insurance company. I got lipservice 
promises, blow-off letters from their lawyers, and stuff like that. I 
am ready with an amendment on the floor. We have to get rid of these 
punitive practices of denying health care on the basis of a previous 
condition. And then, not only doing that because of a C-section, but 
then to engage in a coercive way to force a sterilization.
  So you think I want reform? You better believe I do. And I think I 
speak for the majority of the country who feels this way and the good 
men, such as the Presiding Officer, who will support us on it. I will 
have an amendment to deal with this if the insurance company continues 
to blow me off.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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