[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 37 (Monday, March 15, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H1399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
  This week marks the homestretch of the health care debate. Reform 
will pass if people focus on the facts and the opportunities. No more 
outsourcing our analysis to the talking heads. Now, facts matter and 
the American people should find them.
  Health care is in crisis not just because we pay more for mediocre 
results in our health care system. The number of uninsured Americans is 
increasing, soon to reach 50 million Americans. And health insurance is 
getting worse for those who already have it. It's getting more 
expensive, people will have higher co-pays, higher premiums. Then 
people will have to fight to get their health bills paid. The United 
States is the only industrialized country where people go bankrupt from 
health care. This year, a thousand people that I represent back in 
Oregon will go bankrupt from health care costs--and most of them will 
have health insurance.
  Medicare is a great success story. Most of us recognize that. It was 
enacted 45 years ago over many of the same objections that we are now 
hearing from my Republican colleagues 45 years ago. Medicare has been 
responsible for our senior citizens getting the health care outcomes 
that people in most other developed countries enjoy.
  Opponents attack government-paid insurance in France, Germany, 
Switzerland, and Canada. But most American families would welcome the 
health care results in those countries where people get sick less 
often, they get well faster, and they live longer, and they pay far 
less than Americans.
  We have a huge problem because Medicare is at risk. It's on an 
unsustainable financial path while it penalizes low-cost, high-value 
States like mine--Oregon--and others such as Wisconsin and Iowa. The 
House bill shows how to make those important reforms.
  Finally, part of the problem today is that there continues to be 
brutal political attacks that are unfettered by the truth and history. 
I take some of this a little personally because my bipartisan 
legislation to help families make sure that their end-of-life decisions 
are respected morphed into the Sarah Palin's ``death panel''--which I 
am pleased to report was judged the lie of the year by Politifacts.com.
  The mandate to buy insurance, which has been an object of attack, was 
in fact a Republican idea that was introduced in the early 1990s as an 
alternative plan to the approach that was offered by the Clinton 
administration. And now we are having people fight to prevent any 
change in Medicare despite the fact that they admit it's on an 
unsustainable path, and they themselves have proposed some of the most 
Draconian efforts to cut--some would say gut it--in the past.
  Is the legislation that we will be considering this week perfect? No, 
it's not. Of course, I have only been here 14 years and I've not yet 
seen a ``perfect bill.'' And the sad decision that was made to follow 
Republican Leader Boehner's admonition to not legislate but to 
communicate, to talk and argue, actually made it harder to make good 
legislation.
  Is this the final word in health care reform? Not by a long shot. We 
will be working to refine and improve this legislation for months, and 
indeed, years to come. But is it worth doing? Absolutely. This is a 
critically important step, the most important since Medicare was 
created 45 years ago.
  This legislation passed the Senate 10 weeks ago. A month before that, 
the House passed its legislation. The facts are clear. The legislation 
is available. If the public and Congress focus on the facts, this bill 
will pass and a sick American health care system will start to get 
better.

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