[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 26 (Friday, February 26, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H954-H955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE NEED FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, besides the question and the 
need for jobs, I think it is important for America and for my 
colleagues to know that the meeting yesterday at the White House at 
Blair House was a vitally important meeting. I know that many Americans 
were able to see it in its purity, meaning that you were able to watch 
it live.
  The President intended that we have the opportunity to hear real 
discussion. And I would beg to differ whether this was an opportunity 
for just show

[[Page H955]]

and tell. I have listened to the President's commitment to health care 
reform. I have listened to the Democratic leadership's commitment to 
health care reform. And I have spent hours listening to constituents 
through town hall meetings in August and traveling throughout the 
district. As they speak about jobs, I want us to be very clear.

                              {time}  1230

  Every time I am in the district, someone says, are you going to get 
health care reform passed?
  This is real meat and potatoes. This is about premiums that go up 
about $1,400 to $2,500 a year on a family of four. This is about 36 
million to 40 million who are now uninsured. This is about working 
people who are uninsured. This is about families whose children have 
asthma or respiratory illnesses or preexisting conditions and are not 
able to get insurance because of birth defects or other illnesses that 
their children are born with, a preexisting disease. And presently, you 
cannot get insurance if you have a preexisting disease.
  This is, likewise, about the noncompetitive atmosphere that health 
carriers live in and that we suffer under. And you know what?
  Before we began discussing this health care reform, we accepted it as 
the norm. We didn't think anything of it. In Alabama, one insurance 
company in the entire State. In a State like Texas, only three 
insurance companies. That is not competition. That is, you take me the 
way I want you to take me, and if you don't like it, move on.
  That's the kind of atmosphere that health care insurance companies 
live in. They tell us, move on. Preexisting disease, move on. You can't 
pay your premiums, move on. You're in the hospital and we don't want to 
pay it, get out. That's what atmosphere Americans are living in.
  And I realize that those who have insurance that they like, they 
don't see these horror stories of people dying because they don't have 
insurance. And I want the people who have insurance to keep their 
insurance. But 45,000 people die every year because they don't have 
health insurance.
  So yesterday's meeting was a serious meeting, because the bottom line 
of it was, we're listening and we're open, but we have to move on 
because we're losing people's lives.
  And so this preexisting disease will be eliminated. Premiums will go 
down. We'll save billions of dollars because of the health care reform 
process.
  At the same time, I want us to do good. I want to make sure that we 
save physician-owned hospitals. Many of you probably have been patients 
in physician-owned hospitals, where doctors have come back in and 
purchased failing hospitals by a small percentage of ownership, where 
their name is on the line, where they want high quality hospitals like 
the 40-plus that are in the State of Texas, like Doctors Hospital, like 
St. Joseph's Hospital, like the hospitals down in the Valley, where 
individuals who are paying the amount of money can count on doctors 
being there who care. And so I want this health insurance reform not to 
close down those hospitals and eliminate those employees who are there.
  We can do a lot of good, and we must pass health care reform. We have 
to already recognize that we've passed the antitrust exemption so that 
you can have more competition in these States. We did that this past 
week. That's a good thing.
  But we've got to make sure that we increase CHIPS for our children, 
Children's Health Insurance Program, protect Medicare and Medicaid, and 
open the floodgates for Americans who work and have dignity to have 
dignity when they are sick. The last thing you want to do is to be on 
your sickbed and to lose your house, your car, your ability to support 
yourself while you're losing your job because you're sick.
  So I simply say that it is time now for the wake-up call to go out 
amongst all of those who care. America needs to wake up. When America 
demands, this legislative body, this People's House acts.
  And so I thank the President for transparency yesterday. I thank the 
Democratic leadership for transparency. I thank my friends on the other 
side of the aisle for attending and engaging.
  But after all is said and done, there will still be 45,000 people 
that are dying every year because they don't have insurance.
  Mr. Speaker, the call is being made. The question is, will we answer. 
I will, for one, answer for health care reform for America.

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