[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 198 (Tuesday, December 22, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13779-S13782]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. DODD. Madam President, I want to take a few minutes, if I may, 
this evening to speak about what this health care bill means to my 
constituents in Connecticut. I say to the Presiding Officer, the 
benefits to our States are very similar in many ways, but, obviously, 
we like to point out what this particularly means in our own respective 
jurisdictions that we represent.
  But before doing so, I want to take a few minutes, if I could, 
because, again, tomorrow will be a short day, and then there are the 
votes, apparently, that we are going to have Thursday, and then we will 
be leaving the Senate for a number of weeks before we return in mid-
January, and it might not be possible tomorrow or in the very early 
hours of Christmas Eve to say a special thanks to the people who work 
with our offices in this Chamber, both on the minority side and the 
majority side, who rarely get the kind of recognition they deserve.
  I have tried periodically over the years to make sure that as to the 
consideration of every major bill we talk about the staff and what they 
have done. So I want to take a couple minutes and identify people with 
whom I have worked. This not an inclusive list. There are many more 
people who work for individual Senators who have done outstanding work. 
Our floor staff here, both on the majority side and the minority side, 
do a remarkable job and have great patience with all of us. I am very 
grateful to them, as well as for the jobs they perform.
  I want to take a few minutes and recognize the people I have worked 
very closely with over the last--well, intensely--over the last almost 
year now on this issue.
  Certainly in Senator Reid's office, the majority leader's office, 
Kate Leone, Carolyn Gluck, Jacqueline Lampert and Randy Devalk deserve 
a great deal of credit. All of us know them and how much they have been 
involved in this issue.
  And for those of us who serve in our caucus, we have listened to Kate 
Leone on numerous occasions go over the details of these bills, answer 
the questions Members have raised about the importance of the 
legislation. So to the members of Senator Reid's staff--and, obviously, 
there are a lot more people in his office who deserve recognition--but 
I want to particularly recognize these four individuals with whom we 
have worked very closely.
  Senator Kennedy, as we all know, was such a lion of this institution 
and cared so deeply about this issue. Over the years, he attracted some 
wonderful people to work with him, as he fought year in and year out to 
bring us to the moment we are about to enjoy; and that is, to see some 
national health care legislation adopted for the very first time.
  Michael Myers had worked on this issue for a number of years for 
Senator Kennedy, and still is here working with Senator Harkin now as 
part of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
  Mark Childress, again, worked for the majority leader, worked for Tom 
Daschle, has worked for others in this body, and has just done a 
fantastic job. He stayed on at my request and the request of Leader 
Reid to help us work on this issue. He was involved with the White 
House as well, and really understood the substance of this bill as well 
as the political navigation that was necessary to bring us to this 
moment.
  I thank Pam Smith as well for her fine work for Senator Harkin. 
Jenelle Krishnamoorthy made a wonderful contribution. She worked 
closely with Senator Harkin, and I want to thank her. Connie Garner was 
responsible, for many years, working on the CLASS Act, which is a part 
of our bill. Portia Wu and David Bowen did a remarkable job. John 
McDonough and Topher Spiro, as well, are individuals who certainly made 
a significant contribution to our product her.
  Senator Baucus's staff: Liz Fowler, Bill Dauster, Russ Sullivan, 
Cathy Koch, Yvette Fontenot, David Schwartz, Neleen Eisinger, Chris 
Dawe, Shawn Bishop, and Kelly Whitener--I want to thank them for their 
efforts as well.
  Again, we could give separate remarks about each of these individuals 
and their contributions.
  In my office, again, like others, I have been blessed with some 
wonderful people. Jim Fenton is my legislative director and has done a 
terrific job. Tamar Magarik Haro, who is sitting with me on the floor 
this evening--I know we are not supposed to recognize people other than 
Members--along with Jeremy Sharp, they have just done a wonderful, 
wonderful job, and I know all of my colleagues have gotten to know both 
of them because of their work.
  Monica Feit, Joe Caldwell, Bryan DeAngelis, Andy Barr, Lia Lopez, 
Daniel Barlava, and Rachael Holt all have made wonderful contributions 
as well.
  Senate legislative counsel, with special thanks to Bill Baird, who 
was present throughout the entire HELP Committee consideration, has 
gone way above and beyond. And legislative counsel never gets the kind 
of recognition they deserve.
  They do a tremendous job in drafting the actual legislation. Once 
these ideas are developed, then they require legislative language to be 
written.
  From the administration, Nancy Ann DeParle, whom all of us have 
gotten to know very well; Jeanne Lambrew--I

[[Page S13780]]

want to give a special thanks to Jeanne. She has been just incredible 
in terms of her encyclopedic knowledge of the issues, working very 
closely with our staffs. Again, individuals who may not be well known 
to the public, but when this bill becomes law, these are the 
individuals who deserve special credit for their tremendous work.
  Mike Hash, Lauren Aronson, Secretary Sebelius, Kathleen Sebelius, who 
left the governorship of Kansas to come here to be head of the Health 
and Human Services agency and has done a magnificent job in her new 
capacity; Jim Messina, who worked with Max Baucus for years up here and 
has been the Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House and has done a 
tremendous job. Phil Schilliro and Shawn Maher both worked to represent 
the administration and their Legislative Affairs Office and they do a 
great job; Dana Singiser as well, for her work.
  We will make this list available for the Record. I wanted to thank 
these individuals again for their fine work.
  I wish to speak, if I can today, not in my capacity as a senior 
member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee nor in 
my capacity as one of the coauthors of the underlying legislation, but 
rather in my capacity, as I said at the outset, as a Senator 
representing 3.5 million residents of the State of Connecticut. Our 
neighboring State, my good friend and colleague, the Senator from New 
Hampshire, the Presiding Officer, represents New England.
  If you travel my State, you will meet some of the world's most 
talented and dedicated health care professionals. You will tour some of 
the Nation's finest hospitals where patients get world-class treatment. 
But you will also hear some heartbreaking stories from people in my 
State who come from middle-class families who have lost everything--
their homes, their life's savings, their hope for the future--just 
because someone in their family got sick. They needed special care. You 
will meet hard-working men and women who have seen their insurance 
premiums skyrocket over the last decade from around $6,000 for a family 
of four to over $12,000 annually for that same family, and they wonder 
how much longer they will be able to continue to afford the coverage 
they have. You will meet small business owners facing an impossible 
choice between cutting off health care benefits to their employees or 
laying off those workers.
  I have talked specifically about constituents of mine, small 
businesspeople who literally have been faced with that choice or who 
have had employees who dreaded having to leave the job they had because 
there were no health care benefits. They took reductions in pay because 
they just couldn't stay given the health conditions of their family. 
Having to leave a job they had for 20 years or more to find new work 
where there was health care coverage; leaving a job they loved for less 
pay because they weren't able to get that health care coverage--not 
because their employer didn't want to give it to them but because that 
small employer just could not afford to do so and stay in business. 
Even those who are healthy in my State, who have insurance, there is 
that worry as well.
  What I have described is not an irrational fear they have that 
someone in their family will lose their job that provides the coverage 
as I just described, worrying about that child who may develop an 
illness not covered by their policies, or worrying about no matter how 
much they pay in premiums their insurance doesn't allow them to be sure 
of anything at all.
  The residents of my State understand the status quo is no longer 
sustainable because the so-called status quo threatens the basic 
economic security of every family in my State, as it does across this 
country. They and their fellow Americans in all 50 States sent us here 
to take action, and it is action that we shall take.
  When this bill becomes law, the people of my State will begin to reap 
the benefits right away. One in four of my constituents have high blood 
pressure. One in four teens suffers from diabetes in Connecticut. 
Today, insurance companies can use these preexisting conditions, along 
with many others, as an excuse to deny these people coverage. 
Immediately, young people in our State and across the country will be 
protected against these preexisting conditions to receive the coverage 
they need. Beginning 90 days after this bill becomes law, every 
uninsured resident of my State who has been denied coverage because of 
a preexisting condition will be able to find the affordable coverage 
they need to treat that condition.
  Small businesses make up more than three and four businesses in the 
State of Connecticut, but today only one-half of them are able to offer 
health benefits to their workers. Beginning in 2010, next year, some 
37,000 small businesses in my State, as well as others across the 
nation, will be eligible for tax credits to make those benefits more 
affordable. A 50-percent tax break, $40 billion in this bill, is 
provided specifically for that purpose: to assist the 37,000 small 
businesses in Connecticut, and others across the country, to get a tax 
credit, as much as 50 percent, to allow them to defer or reduce the 
cost of health insurance for their employees.
  Small business owners throughout Connecticut have experienced 
persistent annual increases in premiums. In recent years--and this is 
true across the country, but certainly true in my State--it is not 
uncommon for small business owners to be told they have to pay 20 
percent or more for the same insurance they had the previous year.
  So the bill we are about to pass will empower the State insurance 
exchanges such as the one we will have in Connecticut in 2014 to deny 
insurers access to the exchange if they engage in consumer price 
gouging in the next few years. That is going to be critically 
important. For the more than half million seniors in Connecticut, this 
bill protects Medicare, keeping it solid into the future. Nearly 
100,000 seniors in my State hit what is called the doughnut hole in the 
prescription drug benefit area, costing them an average of more than 
$4,000 annually.
  This bill we are about to adopt takes the first critical step toward 
closing that doughnut hole, and Connecticut seniors should know that I 
and Chairman Baucus, along with majority leader Harry Reid, have 
committed to completing that job in conference, and we will do so.
  Meanwhile, in Connecticut, seniors will see their Medicare premiums 
go down. They will see major improvements in the quality of care they 
receive, resulting in as many as 29,000 hospital readmissions being 
prevented. In my State of Connecticut, 3 in 10 Connecticut residents 
have not had a colorectal cancer screening.
  One in six women over the age of 50 have not had a mammogram in the 
past 2 years. These are important screenings. They and other wellness 
programs will be provided at no cost to people in my State as well as 
others across the country. Beginning in 2011, seniors will be able to 
get a free annual checkup so they can stay well instead of simply 
receiving care when they get sick. That annual free checkup can make 
such a difference. I am a living example of that where--because under 
our health care plan, I can have a free medical checkup once a year. As 
a result of that, I discovered that I had prostate cancer, and what a 
difference that made to be able to discover that, to get through the 
surgery, and to know that I have a bright future ahead of me, not one 
that I would discover later on when the kind of surgery I received 
might have been worthless and pointless.
  So these are the kinds of annual physicals Members of Congress get 
under our health care plans, and our fellow citizens ought to be able 
to as well, particularly our seniors.
  In addition, there are some 255,000 Connecticut residents between the 
ages of 55 and 64 who will need home health services after they turn 65 
because of an illness or an injury. These services, whether they 
involve installing a handicap shower or hiring a home health care aide, 
will help these older Americans live in their homes in dignity and with 
independence. But today these services are not always covered by 
Medicare or private insurance. Rather than having to impoverish 
themselves so they can qualify for Medicaid by transferring all of 
their wealth and assets to a family member or rely on the full-time 
help of loved ones, these seniors will be able to take advantage of a 
new voluntary program called the CLASS Act--authored by Senator Kennedy 
years ago and which is now a part of this bill--that will provide a 
cash

[[Page S13781]]

benefit to be used on these services and supports, totally paid for by 
the individual themselves. Not a nickel, not a penny of Federal money 
is in that program. It is totally based on the contribution that people 
make to that program.
  So when I hear people talk about this as if it was some great robbery 
from the Federal Treasury, it doesn't involve the Federal Treasury at 
all. As the bill takes effect, the health insurance exchanges are set 
up and health insurance will become a buyer's market for people in my 
State as well. More than 350,000 Connecticut residents who today do not 
have insurance will finally have affordable options to choose from. 
Nearly a quarter of a million people in my State would be eligible for 
premium credits to help take care of the cost of insurance. That 
doesn't go into effect until 2014, but in 2010, next year, insurance 
companies will be prohibited from imposing lifetime caps on the amount 
of care you can receive.
  Insurance companies will be prohibited next year from taking away 
your coverage, and they will be prohibited from discriminating based on 
gender or income in the year 2014. The insurance industry will be 
forced to spend more of your premium dollars on your health care, not 
on bureaucrats hired to come up with reasons to deny you the care you 
need. This is called the so-called medical loss ratios which require 
that resources be spent on patient care and needs of the policyholder 
rather than on profits or administrative costs.
  The industry will also be required to offer an appeal if your claim 
is denied, and each State will set up its own independent appeals 
process to keep the industry honest. Next year the industry will be 
forced to provide more details about their policies so that you can 
shop for health insurance the same way you shop for anything else, 
armed with enough information to be a smart consumer.
  All of these insurance items will take effect at least by 2014, many 
of them next year, as I have just mentioned.

  It is not just consumers who will benefit. Connecticut's 15,000 
physicians will also benefit. Today these physicians spend, on average, 
140 hours and $68,000 every year just dealing with bureaucrats at the 
health insurance companies. Let me repeat that: 140 hours and roughly 
$68,000 every year just dealing with bureaucrats at the insurance 
companies. That is 2.1 million hours and $1 billion in costs overall, 
time and money wasted in my State alone. That is going to end.
  This bill cuts down on bureaucratic redtape and needless paperwork. 
Doctors will be able to spend their time caring for patients, not 
fighting with the insurance industry. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 
Connecticut primary care physicians will qualify for the new 5- to 10-
percent payment bonus. That happens next year in 2010. New programs 
will incentivize many more young doctors to stay in primary care, which 
we all know is critically important.
  Today, 9 percent of Connecticut residents can't access a primary care 
physician because there aren't enough doctors to go around. This bill 
makes an investment in our medical workforce and a $10 billion 
investment in community health centers and the National Health Service 
Corps, which begins taking effect immediately in 2010. It will be 
phased in over 5 years. That is going to expand dramatically the 
availability of patient care with our community health care system.
  As more uninsured people gain coverage, Connecticut will no longer 
have to subsidize the $383 million it spends in uncompensated care our 
providers deliver each year--important at a time when my State is 
already, like every State--almost every State--in serious budget 
trouble.
  I have just recited a long list of statistics showing how my State 
will benefit from this bill--in many instances, benefit immediately. 
Some will take a little longer, but many of these provisions go into 
effect in the next year. More important than any statistic will be what 
you will see when you tour my State, or any other State for that 
matter, after this bill takes effect--or more accurately, what you will 
not see. You will not see 100 people losing their insurance, their 
health insurance every single day, finding themselves cast into 
uncertainty and fear--100 people every day--that will no longer be the 
case. You will not see families paying an extra $1,100 a year in health 
insurance premiums, the so-called hidden tax paid by everyone with 
insurance as a result of the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans. You 
will not see seniors facing the loss of their Medicare benefits because 
overpayments to private insurance companies have rendered the program 
insolvent. You will not see parents laying awake at night praying that 
their child's cough goes away because they can't afford to take him or 
her to see a doctor. You will not see people losing their homes, their 
life's savings, losing their economic security, all because they got 
sick or a child or a spouse did. You will not see people dying, as 
45,000 do every year in our country, because they couldn't afford 
access to the health care system.
  So as a senior member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions 
Committee, and a close and dear friend of our departed colleague, 
Senator Ted Kennedy, who led this fight for so long, it will be my 
honor--a deep honor indeed, one of the highest honors I would have had 
in the 30 years I have served here--to cast a vote in favor of this 
landmark legislation.
  As one of two Senators whose job it is to look out for the people of 
my home State of Connecticut, supporting this bill is nothing short of 
my duty, and I intend to fulfill it with great pride at 8 a.m. on 
Christmas Eve. What better gift could I give to my folks at home than 
to cast my vote as 1 of 100 in this body for health care reform in our 
Nation, so long overdue, so long waited for. And on this Christmas Eve 
it will become an accomplished feat of the U.S. Senate.
  With that, I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Udall of Colorado). Without objection, it 
is so ordered.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, there were a number of other people I wished 
to mention. I will not go through the list of all the staff involved in 
this effort in the Senate. I am sure I would miss some people. It is a 
lengthy list of those who played such an important role. I was fearful 
I wouldn't have a chance between now and the actual vote on Thursday 
morning, Christmas Eve, to express my deep gratitude as one Member who 
benefited tremendously from the participation of my staff, two of whom 
are seated with me this evening. I know that is probably a violation of 
Senate rules to recognize them, but I want my constituents at home and 
the American public to know how many dedicated people there are whose 
names they never know, faces they will never see.
  I ask unanimous consent that a list of staff be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:


                                  reid

       Kate Leone, Carolyn Gluck, ard Randy DeValk.


                             Harkin/Kennedy

       Michael Myers, Mark Childress, Pam Smith, Jenelle 
     Krishnamoorthy, Connie Garner, Portia Wu, David Bowen, John 
     McDonough, Topher Spiro, Stacey Sachs, Tom Kraus, Terri 
     Roney, Craig Martinez, Taryn Morrissey, Andrea Harris, Sara 
     Selgrade, Lee Perselay, Caya Lewis, Stephanie Hammonds, 
     Andrew Garrett, Joe Hutter, Lauren McFerran, Jeff Teitz, Kate 
     Cyrul, Dan Goldberg, Caroline Fichtenberg, Bill McConagha, 
     Lory Yudin, and Evan Griffis.


                                 Baucus

       Liz Fowler, Bill Dauster, Russ Sullivan, Cathy Koch, Yvette 
     Fontenot, David Schwartz, Neleen Eisinger, Chris Dawe, Shawn 
     Bishop, Kelly Whitener, Tony Clapsis, Diedra Henry-Spires, 
     Tom Reeder, Bridget Mallon, Tiffany Smith, and Catherine 
     Dratz.


                                  Dodd

       Jim Fenton, Tamar Magarik Haro, Jeremy Sharp, Monica Feit, 
     Joe Caldwell, Bryan DeAngelis, Andy Barr, Lia Lopez, Daniel 
     Barlava, and Rachael Holt.

       Senate Legislative Counsel, with special thanks to Bill 
     Baird, who, along with Stacy Kern-Scheerer, was present 
     throughout the entire HELP Committee and has gone above and 
     beyond.


                          Obama Administration

       NancyAnn DeParle, Jeanne Lambrew, Mike Hash, Lauren 
     Aronson, Secretary

[[Page S13782]]

     Sebelius, Jim Messina, Phil Schilliro, Shawn Maher, and Dana 
     Singiser.

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, let me say this to the minority staff as 
well. While we have disagreed, and while they didn't vote for the bill, 
there are people I admire immensely on the minority staff. On our 
committee, there were wonderful suggestions and contributions that came 
from the Republican side of the aisle. While they didn't support the 
bill, I think they made it a better bill because of their 
contributions. I want to add their names as well. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, 
the ranking member--and I worked with every Republican minority member 
of the HELP Committee--offered amendments that were included. While 
they may not want to admit it or acknowledge it, they made a 
contribution to this bill that makes it stronger and a better piece of 
legislation. I add their names as well for their efforts.

                          ____________________