[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 180 (Saturday, December 5, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12461-S12462]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following leader remarks, the Senate will 
resume consideration of the health care reform legislation. The first 3 
hours will be for debate only. That time will be equally divided and 
controlled between the two leaders or their designees and controlled in 
45-minute alternating blocks of time. The majority will control the 
first block. We anticipate reaching an agreement to have a series of 
votes beginning at 2:30 this afternoon. Senators will be notified as 
soon as possible with regard to when the votes will actually occur.


                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, yesterday, Friday, 14,000 people lost their 
health insurance in America. Today, Saturday, another 14,000 people 
will lose their health insurance, and Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and 
on and on. Every day, 14,000 people lose their health insurance in 
America. The American people don't get weekends off from this 
injustice. Bankruptcy doesn't keep bankers' hours. They do not go away 
just because it is Sunday or Saturday. The pain is still there. So our 
work continues this weekend. It will continue until we give this 
Nation's citizens a health insurance system that works for them.
  Tens of millions of Americans, those with coverage and those without 
coverage, know all too well right now that the system is broken. They 
do not need academic studies or congressional investigations or 
politicians' speeches to tell them health care is in critical 
condition. Every day they live with it, and every day some even die 
with it or because of it.
  Next year is just around the corner. It is just weeks away. In the 
new year, a whole lot more Americans are about to learn just how broken 
our system is. You see, last year one of America's largest private 
insurance companies made about $1 billion. In fact, it was more than $1 
billion. Its chairman and chief executive officer took home $100 
million himself. But this health care company isn't going to make 
enough this year, by their estimation. The healthy profit of this 
health insurance company, by their standards, is not healthy enough 
because its executives

[[Page S12462]]

have decided that the profit they are making--and remember, more than 
$1 billion, with the boss taking home more than $100 million--isn't 
enough. So this multibillion-dollar company found a clever way to make 
more money next year. How? Raising rates.
  As one might expect with the insurance industry, being as callous as 
it is, those higher premiums are going to be too expensive for many. 
Some analysts say that as many as 650,000 people insured by this 
company will no longer be insured by the company. They will have to 
find other insurance or go without. Now, 650,000 is more than the 
entire population of North Dakota, more than the population of Vermont, 
and more than the population of Wyoming. It is more than the entire 
populations of Baltimore and Boston and Denver and Seattle. How many 
people is this one company going to drop? You could count every man, 
woman, and child in Las Vegas and still have 100,000 people left over. 
Las Vegas is as big as Boston, Baltimore, Denver, and Seattle. But here 
is the worst part: That shocking estimate comes directly from the 
president of the company himself--the man who made more than $100 
million last year. That means the company devised this strategy, 
crunched the numbers, and saw how many American families it was going 
to hurt. Then the bosses shrugged their shoulders and decided to go 
ahead anyway.
  We would hardly stand idly by as a country if every citizen of one of 
our States was left out in the cold. And that is, in fact, what we have 
here. We would never consider doing nothing if every resident of one of 
our biggest cities was, in fact, hung out to dry, but that is the 
equivalent of what just one company is doing--just one of the countless 
health insurance companies that care about nothing except profits.
  Others may suggest the system is just fine the way it is. We on this 
side of the Senate do not believe that.
  Why are they able to do this? Well, one reason they are able to do it 
is they are not subject to the antitrust laws. They can conspire to fix 
prices, as we have indicated, and there are no civil or criminal 
penalties.
  Some may suggest the system is fine just the way it is. We don't 
believe that.
  Just this summer, the junior Senator from South Carolina said what we 
need to do is ``get out of the way and allow the market to work.'' 
Well, the market sure worked fine for this insurance company. It is 
working fine right now. The problem is, it doesn't work for the 
American people, only for the big shots of these insurance companies.
  Just last week, my distinguished counterpart, the Republican leader, 
said the health care crisis is ``manufactured.'' Those were his words: 
The health care crisis is ``manufactured.'' In one sense, he is right. 
It has been manufactured by the greedy insurance companies, just like 
the one I mentioned earlier, companies that claim to be in the business 
of helping people stay healthy when they are actually in the business 
of making as much money as they can. They raise families' rates on a 
whim, deny coverage because someone has a preexisting condition or they 
are a woman or they are too old, with concern for nothing but their own 
executives' personal bank accounts.
  The question before the Senate is, How many more of our own citizens 
will we sentence to such a fate? How much longer will we look the other 
way while our neighbors suffer right in front of us? How much more are 
we going to charge those fortunate enough to have insurance in order to 
cover the many who don't? Right now, every individual who has insurance 
pays at least $1,000 a year more because of the uninsured going to 
emergency rooms all over the country. I ask my colleagues, How much 
longer will we enable the insurance companies to deny health care to 
the sick? How much longer will we let those companies force thousands 
upon thousands of Americans into bankruptcy while they rake millions of 
dollars of cash into their pockets? That is the reality.

  Opponents of progress have tried to drown out this truth with 
distortions, distractions, and dishonesty. But, as John Adams observed 
a long time ago, facts are stubborn things.
  Here is one of the most startling facts: Last year, 750,000 people 
filed for bankruptcy. Seventy percent of those who filed for bankruptcy 
did so because of medical expenses, and 62 percent of those who filed 
because of medical expenses had insurance. What a sad commentary. In 
the year World War II ended, President Harry Truman warned that many of 
us were vulnerable to what he called ``the economic effects of 
sickness.'' In the 64 years since, it has only gotten worse.
  Here are some facts--facts about what our legislation will do: The 
legislation before this body will make sure every American--nearly 
every American, at least 97\1/2\ percent--will be covered with 
insurance. It will not only protect those seniors on Medicare, it will 
make it stronger. It will make sure more than 30 million Americans who 
don't have health insurance now will soon have it. It will not add a 
dime to our deficit. In fact, in the next 10 years it will reduce it by 
$130 billion and over the next 20 years by almost $\3/4\ trillion.
  We are even making this bill stronger than when it was introduced, 
this bill here. For example, because we have added Senator Mikulski's 
amendment to the legislation, women can now get the mammograms, 
checkups, and other preventive tests they need in order to stay 
healthy, at no cost. We made it better by reaffirming our commitment to 
seniors who rely on Medicare and Medicare Advantage, guaranteeing they 
will always get the care they need and the quality of life they 
deserve. We made it better by ensuring that the money dedicated to the 
health care of America's seniors and people with disabilities should be 
used only for those precise payments. And today, we will continue to 
make it better with an amendment by Senator Lincoln of Arkansas that 
stops irresponsible tax breaks for millionaire health insurance 
executives and starts to use companies' revenues to strengthen 
Medicare.
  The fact is, our bill will, in short, save lives, save money, and 
save Medicare. It will make it possible for each and every American to 
afford to live a healthy life. We can't afford not to do this.

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