[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 23, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H665]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I'm very pleased that on Thursday we're 
going to have this health care summit because I do think there's an 
opportunity for us to work together on a bipartisan basis to achieve 
health care reform.
  I think we need to achieve three things. First of all, we need to 
lower prices, or at least prevent the type of price increases we've 
seen in insurance premiums. We're hearing 20, 30 percent increases in 
many parts of the country.
  Secondly, we have to try to cover as many Americans as possible. 
There are at least 30, 40 million Americans that have no health 
insurance right now.
  And lastly, we have to get rid of discriminatory practices where 
people pay more or can't even get health insurance because of 
preexisting conditions or because of gender differences.
  If we can accomplish the goal of all three of these items on a 
bipartisan basis, we can come up with a bill that can pass here and go 
to the President.
  I believe that all of us would like to see health care reform on both 
sides of the aisle. We just need to sit down and work on it and get it 
done this year because the American people need health care reform.

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