[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 40 (Thursday, March 18, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H1638-H1641]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      WOMEN FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. After listening to 14 women come down here and speak for 
5 minutes on why it is so important that being a woman is not a 
preexisting condition as a part of our health care system, and to 
change that--and to change it this weekend when we vote on the health 
care reform bills--I want to tell you I love women. We are so fortunate 
to have such an amazing group of Democratic women in the House of 
Representatives, and I thank every one of them for having come down 
here to speak and to represent their districts, womanhood, and, as Gwen 
Moore just said, humanity in general. We're on our way.
  Tonight, we're going to have a Special Order. We may take an hour; we 
may not. Jan Schakowsky from Illinois has joined us. Corrine Brown from 
Florida has joined us. Others have said they're coming, but I think we 
may have taken a little bit more time on our 5-minute Special Orders 
than had been planned.
  So I think we should start our conversation with Jan Schakowsky from 
Illinois, who was down here last evening talking about senior women.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Thank you so much, Congresswoman Woolsey, for 
organizing us tonight. I appreciate it. I learned so much just sitting 
here listening to the women that have been talking about why this 
legislation is so important to women, why we need health care reform, 
and some of the facts of life about women. I learned from Congresswoman 
Jackie Speier an amazing fact that I'm going to carry with me--that a 
40-year-old woman, she said, who does not smoke, has to pay more for 
her insurance than a 40-year-old man who smokes. This makes absolutely 
no sense.
  I think maybe it was put best by the Speaker of the House, Nancy 
Pelosi, who said, Being a woman is a preexisting condition. That pretty 
much sums it up. According to the Commonwealth Report--that's a very 
well known and reputable think tank on health care--says that 45 
percent of women are uninsured or underinsured; 52 percent of women 
have foregone necessary care because of the cost, including not filling 
a prescription. We know that. We have all heard about that, about 
people who come to our office and they are cutting their prescriptions 
in half, how they're not taking them to the drugstore to fill them, 
skipping a medical test, or not going to the doctor. And we know that 
for young women, only about 12 percent of the plans on the private 
market cover maternity. That was talked about tonight.
  And that's not just a problem for women. That's a problem for 
families. For heaven's sake, you expect that when you have health 
insurance, that if you get pregnant and you're going to have a baby, 
that your insurance company is going to cover it. It's kind of basic. 
But maternity can even be considered a preexisting condition, that a 
woman cannot get insurance because she was pregnant. Of course, having 
a Cesarian section, that's a preexisting condition. Or being a victim 
of domestic violence, that's a preexisting condition.
  The insurance industry thinks women cost more. We do use more health 
care services. That's true. And so throughout our life we pay about 48 
percent more for health insurance than men do. It's because we're 
women.

                              {time}  1945

  I think it's wrong, and that's why in this historic legislation that 
we're about to pass, we end gender discrimination. Women will not be 
discriminated against.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. The gentlewoman from Florida is here with ideas and 
thoughts, and I would like very much to hear them.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Thank you. Before I begin, I just want 
to thank you for your leadership on this matter and thank you for night 
after night coming to the floor. After we do our day work, we can 
always count on you doing the night work, coming here, educating the 
American people. And I just want to personally thank you for your 
leadership.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Well, thank you very much.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. And all of the women that have come out 
tonight.
  Let me just make a few remarks, and then I have a series of questions 
that I want to ask you. But first of all, this is a fight that--I came 
here in 1992, and we started with Clinton, and just because we didn't 
pass health care does not mean it wasn't a serious problem. And we got 
a piece of the loaf. We were able to get programs that covered 
children. So that was step one.
  But here we are on this historical event where we're going to have 
the opportunity to go to step two. And let me just say that this bill 
is not the perfect bill, but I have been elected 27 years, and I've 
been in this House for 18 years, and I've never seen the perfect bill. 
But this is the perfect beginning. I mean, there is so much that I 
would have included in this bill.
  A public option, to me, is very important. I've been on VA for 18 
years. VA is a public option. TRICARE is a public option, and that 
keeps the cost down. We made the Department of Veterans Affairs and the 
Department of Defense negotiate the price of the drugs to keep the 
costs down. We want to do that for all Americans. When we passed that 
hideous bill that helped people with the doughnut hole, one of the 
things in the bill that was against the law was that the Secretary did 
not have the option of negotiating the prices of drugs for all of us.
  So I would like to discuss, when the President signs the bill, what 
are some of the things that would immediately come into effect? And one 
of them that I think is so important to families, particularly mothers 
who have kids in college, is that age for family coverage would go up 
to 26. Is that correct?
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Twenty-six years old.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. You know, that is so important. As a 
mother who had a kid in school, I mean, when they got to a certain age, 
the plan--even our plan dumped them. So with this, you will be able to 
keep the kids on the family coverage while they're in college. I think 
that is extremely important.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. And something else, if the gentlewoman will yield. If 
that young person is employed, the employer cannot insist that the 
young person go on their plan because, you know, young people make 
plans cheaper because they don't get sick as often as older folks. So 
the young person can choose--if the parents agree--to be on the 
parents' plan, even if they're employed.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. One other area, one lady came to one of

[[Page H1639]]

my town hall meetings, and she was a black female. She mentioned that 
she was educated, and she was concerned about the deficit. But I said, 
Concerned about the deficit? Well, President Obama said that--you know, 
I look at it like when you've got your head in the lion's mouth; you've 
got to ease it out. We were under the Bush administration for 8 years. 
What was it? Tax breaks, tax breaks. I used to call it a reverse Robin 
Hood--robbing from the poor and working people to give tax breaks to 
the rich. Our effort toward health care will bring down that cost.
  Now, this young lady had a degree but could not get a job because she 
had a preexisting condition, epilepsy. So I told her, You are the 
poster child. The only reason she could not get a job is because she 
had a preexisting condition. Now, how would this work under this bill?
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Well, for children, after 6 months, there will be no 
such thing as a preexisting condition. But I believe it's in 2014 that 
preexisting conditions will not be allowed for any coverage, including 
group plan coverage.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Let me emphasize that. I think that is one of the 
most important things that's in our legislation. Because, after all, 
who does not have some kind of preexisting condition? And for the 
insurance companies, sometimes they'll call acne a preexisting 
condition that will preclude people from health care. This bill will 
say, when it goes into full effect--Congresswoman Woolsey is right. 
Children almost immediately will not be excluded for preexisting 
conditions. But for everyone else, in 2014, they will not be able to 
exclude you because you've been sick.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Or if you get sick.
  Mrs. MALONEY. My colleagues, a great injustice is that they have 
considered a pregnancy as a preexisting condition. Now, you hear that 
children are our future, and they are our future; yet in health care 
plans, to cover the cost of having a pregnancy--really, in some States, 
they didn't even offer the coverage. So there are many fine parts about 
this bill. But I think one of the strongest is that it has very strong 
maternal health care coverage and treats health care as health care and 
does not treat, really, the necessities of life, of having a child as a 
preexisting condition.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. To the Congresswoman from California, would you like to 
respond?
  Ms. SPEIER. I just want to say how proud I am to be associated with 
all of you tonight, because this is one issue that has gotten very 
little attention in this health care debate--the bald-faced 
discrimination against women in health care--and it's been going on 
forever.
  I just want to share a couple of stories that happened when I was 
serving in the California Legislature, trying to improve reproductive 
health for women. And it's all about our organs. It's all about our 
plumbing.
  The first issue dealt with contraceptive pills and prescription drug 
benefits in California. Basically, the bill said that if you were 
offering a prescription drug benefit, you can't discriminate against 
one class of drugs, and only one class of drugs was discriminated 
against. It was contraceptive bills. I carried the bill 1 year. It got 
to the Governor's desk, and he said, Oh, it's too costly. And then by 
the insurance industry's own estimates, they found that it was $1 per 
month per employee. Then we rounded a second year and a third year, and 
finally in the fourth year, we were successful in getting contraceptive 
coverage included in prescription drug benefits.
  But I can't take any credit for it. You know who I give credit to? 
Pfizer Pharmaceutical. Because in that year, they introduced VIAGRA. 
And guess what? Instantly VIAGRA was covered in prescription drug 
benefits in California, even though it was twice as costly or, 
depending on how many times a month you had to use it, far more costly. 
It was a lifestyle drug; yet that was covered immediately, and 
contraceptive pills, we had to fight for 4 years to get it into 
California law.
  So there has consistently been discrimination against women in health 
care, and it's high time that we opened women's eyes wide so they see 
that, for the first time ever in this country, we're going to stop that 
form of discrimination.

  I just want to applaud you for what you're doing here tonight.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Well, thank you for your input.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. I want to share a couple of quick 
stories.
  In one of my town hall meetings, a person came in and was telling a 
story that they had been in an abusive marriage for a number of years 
but stayed in that marriage because she needed the health care for her 
children. This should not exist in the United States. And in another 
case, a woman quit her job so she could take care of her mother. Her 
mother had insurance; she had not. For 6 years, she didn't go to the 
doctor. She had an emergency, had to go to the emergency room. Her bill 
was $10,000, and they think she's got cancer.
  So if there is a better way to provide service--and of course women 
are always the ones that are--you know, they have the children, and 
because of a divorce or because they're working in minimum-wage jobs, 
they can't afford health care. So these bills will go a long way to 
help women that are single or divorced or married and their husband 
died or got a divorce.
  So, I mean, this is so important for women in the Third Congressional 
District of Florida, women in this country and women in Florida. This 
is a step forward. It's not a perfect bill, but it's a perfect 
beginning.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. A perfect beginning. And one of the reasons that women 
will be able to afford health care in low-wage jobs is the exchange 
that will be provided in the health care bill. Women will be able to 
select from a group of health care plans the best plan that will 
service them, because, I mean, even if they could afford health care, 
not all businesses provide health care. Many will be able to after this 
bill is passed.
  All right. So a woman gets a catalog of what's available in her area. 
We call it an exchange. She chooses her plan. And if that plan is more 
expensive than she can afford, which it probably will be if she's on 
low wages, then this bill provides subsidies for that person so that 
the low-wage worker is subsidized. What a difference that will make.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Let me just say that we compete with 
companies all over the world, and the reason why we are losing the bids 
is because health care is a part of the bid. So when we compete with 
other countries--you know, 16 percent of our income goes toward health 
care.
  You know, I had dinner with the French Ambassador a couple of nights 
ago. They spend 9 percent. So basically we're losing out as far as jobs 
for American workers because we don't have health care.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. The other thing is that--I don't know if the French 
Ambassador bragged at all, but France is considered number one in the 
world in terms of health care results. They have healthier people than 
anyone else in the world as a population, and they spend far less than 
we do, about half what we do per person.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Yes, 9 percent.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. And we're at about 17 percent.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. That's right.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. And the United States of America ranks--what is it?--
about 17th in the world in our health outcomes next to hardly developed 
countries, and the reason is simple. We have 30 million people who have 
no health insurance, and then we have millions and millions of others 
who think they're insured until they get sick, and then they find out 
that they're underinsured.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Or they lose their job, and then they have no insurance.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Let me give you a scenario. At one of 
my town hall meetings recently, a person came to me and said that they 
went to the hospital, and their bill was $77,000. They negotiated it 
down to $18,000, so, therefore, they didn't need health care. I said, 
Let me explain something to you. The hospital did not write that off 
out of the goodness of their hearts. They are charging it to us, a 
disproportionate share. We are paying the cost. There is a better way 
to provide services in this country, and it's not through the emergency 
room.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. You are right. It's by providing health care for 
everybody and helping those who can't afford it and helping small 
businesses who find

[[Page H1640]]

it very difficult to provide health care for their workers, helping 
them bridge the gap between what it costs and what they can afford.
  Let's talk about the argument that we hear that many people think we 
should hold out for the perfect plan that this isn't, and we know it.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. What did I say? I said it when I 
started. I have never seen the perfect bill. It's a perfect beginning, 
and we're going to refine and massage this bill as we go on.
  Like I said, in 1992, we went after health care under President 
Clinton. We didn't get it, but we came out with the children's portion. 
And, of course, that's where we are now, and this is the second step. I 
want more. But the point is, in this body where you're not going to 
have one Republican vote under any circumstances--and let me tell you 
something. As far as health care, it's not Democrat; it's not 
Republican. Everybody needs it. And people who say they don't need it 
need the mental health portion. Everybody needs health care, period.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Well, and some people believe that because they have 
coverage that they don't have to worry about it. Well, I'm telling you, 
everybody has to worry. Retired folks, their retirement plans are 
cutting back. Individuals with really nice, high-paying jobs are 
finding out even their employers are cutting back.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Under the last administration, what 
they did in many areas is they would come in, they would farm out the 
jobs, and you could be in that same job paying maybe the same amount of 
money but no benefits.

                              {time}  2000

  And that's what so many companies are doing.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. You know, you had talked about, and I think you were 
absolutely eloquent, that we've never seen a perfect bill. But, you 
know, Social Security and Medicare, which are not only the most popular 
but the most effective programs that we have in our country, to 
guarantee a dignified retirement, to make sure that people, that older 
Americans, people with disabilities don't do without, orphans don't do 
without if they lose a parent, those bills didn't start out as good as 
they are now. You know, we add people, we make some changes, we fine-
tune the legislation.
  But what we're doing now will rank right up there with the first 
passage of Medicare, with the first passage of Medicaid and Social 
Security. And then, we will--and I, you know, we were together, 
Congresswoman Woolsey, at the White House talking to the President, who 
himself recognized this isn't the be all and end all, but it's, as you 
said, the perfect beginning. It lays the foundation that we can work 
from. And I think the level of peace of mind and security that people 
will have--
  But I wanted to make another point. You talked about how we compete 
in the world. And the cost of health care makes our businesses 
uncompetitive. The other thing it does it this locks down 
entrepreneurship and innovation because, you know, let's say you're a 
young person that has a great idea of how we're going to solve the 
energy crisis or how we're going to solve a health care, you know, a 
disease problem, wants to do great research, or a woman who wants to 
start her own business. But if she has a job that offers health care, 
she may be locked into that job as long as she can stay there. People 
are afraid to leave a job where health care is provided, and that is a 
very stifling factor.
  We can liberate entrepreneurship, which is the hallmark of the 
American spirit, if people know they can leave their job and they'll 
still have access to health care.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. That's correct.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Well, the entire Nation is counting on us to pass 
comprehensive health care reform. We know that. There's no question 
about it. The millions who have no coverage at all desperately need 
this legislation. But as we just said, so too do those Americans who 
are insured and are being squeezed out by outrageous premiums. And 
businesses that are less profitable because they are buckling under the 
weight of high health care costs are strapped, and it keeps them from 
being able to invest in innovation, as Jan said. And individuals cannot 
innovate when they're handcuffed to their health care policy.
  But above all, American women need us to do the right thing this week 
and to overhaul the health care system because it is in ways both overt 
and beneath the radar. This current system--and we've heard it over and 
over and over tonight--discriminates against women.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Let me just share one other--because 
you sound like you're closing and I've just got----
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Well, I actually didn't get to do my 5 minutes because I 
was doing this, so I thought I'd do it. Go ahead.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. I'm sorry. It's the story of someone I 
know that worked with the Duval County school system for 25 years as a 
teacher. They quit the job. They had a breakdown, female. Had to go 
into the hospital, blood sugar went up 700. I mean, intensive care for 
a week. No health care. I mean, and these stories are over and over 
again throughout our country and throughout our district. And we can 
make a difference this week. And this is a giant step for mankind.
  I mean, people are concerned, you know, what is going to happen if I 
vote for this bill? I mean, why are you here? You're here to provide 
service. You're here to make a difference. The Bible says, to whom God 
has given much, much is expected. It's a privilege to serve here, but 
we're not just here to vote on suspension bills.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Naming post offices.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. And post offices. No, this is why we're 
here. And like you said, this bill will go down like Social Security, 
Medicaid, this will be one of the biggest bills ever passed by the 
United States House of Representatives and this Congress.
  And certainly, I said it over again. The House bill is so much better 
than the other body's bill. However, we've got to work with what we've 
got. And I don't think either one of us is going to stop working to 
improve health care because we pass a bill. It will be just one more 
step, and it will give us more to work with.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Well, I've said it over and over. We have written the 
robust public option legislation, which will be introduced the day that 
we sign this health care bill into law.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. I just wanted to talk a little bit about older women 
because, and really all seniors, but the fact of the matter is that 80 
percent of people over the age of 85 are women. Fifty-seven percent of 
Medicare beneficiaries are women. So when you talk about aging you 
really are talking about mostly women. And I think it's important to 
note some of the amazing things that happen in this bill.
  Representative Brown talked about, or maybe it was you, talked about 
the doughnut hole. What is that? That's a gap in coverage. You know, 
let me tell my example. I have a constituent who got on Medicare part 
D. She was told when she signed up that it was going to cover her 
prescription drugs. She looked over the list. One day she goes to the 
drug store, orders a refill of her prescription and she is told it's 
$120. She said, that's impossible. I paid $10 for it last month. It is 
impossible for it to be $120. I know. They said, no, no. You are now in 
this gap in coverage where you have to pay the next $3,600 out of your 
own pocket, and then you'll start to be covered again.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. And that's why I did not vote for that 
bad bill, that doughnut, when I know so many people needed the 
coverage, but that was a bone that was thrown to the pharmaceuticals by 
the past administration, the Bush administration. That was a terrible 
indictment that was put on the seniors that needed the prescription 
drug coverage.
  And I have a similar incident. I went to the drug store to pick up my 
mother's prescription. Well, they said it was $200. I said, okay, look 
again. She came back. Because I knew my mother had TRICARE. She came 
back, and I think it was $12 or $15. But can you imagine a senior going 
there, not knowing where in the world they're going to get the $200.
  This is something that we are going to fix starting with this bill. 
This will make a difference for the seniors in this country.

[[Page H1641]]

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. We're going to close the doughnut hole entirely over 
10 years, but we're going to start right away. $250 it's going to be 
reduced and, for brand name drugs that are in the--
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Formulary.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Yeah. Fifty percent reduction in price. That's going 
to happen right away, so there's going to be help for seniors in that 
regard. We will no longer charge a copayment. They won't have to pay 
out of their pocket for preventive services in this bill when it's 
fully implemented. That means you can get a mammogram, you can get a 
colonoscopy. You can get a checkup. You can get preventive services 
without having to pay any out-of-pocket costs.

  We provide more for home and community-based services so older people 
can stay in their homes. That's where they want to be. If they can, 
they don't want to have to go to a nursing home; they want to have 
services in their communities, in their homes.
  And if they have to go to nursing homes, we improve nursing home 
quality. For example, we make sure that there are criminal background 
checks in nursing homes so that the employees will be safe for people 
and protect women's safety in the nursing homes.
  We extend the life of Medicare for almost another decade. You know, 
oh, Medicaid's going to go broke. This is going to be a problem for 
Medicare doing this. No. The truth is, this bill will make Medicare 
solvent. That means that it won't go broke for yet another decade 
beyond its life right now.
  So this bill does so much for older Americans. And yet, the other 
side's trying to scare the heck out of senior citizens, telling them 
that Medicare's going to be cut. There's not one benefit that's going 
to be cut under Medicare under this bill. We make Medicare better, more 
services, longer life, more prescription drugs. It's a great bill for 
older Americans, as well as younger.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. And the great majority of seniors are women.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. That's right.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. So again, tonight, for women, senior women, all women 
are going to be treated much better under this health care bill. And no 
woman will be considered, just because she's a woman, a preexisting 
condition.
  I want to thank my colleagues for being down here tonight, for 
waiting to get to this Special Order, and for knowing how important 
what we're doing this week is to every single American. Thank you both 
very, very much.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Thank you, Representative Woolsey.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. I want to thank you all. And as I take 
my seat, remember, there's no such thing as a perfect bill, but this is 
a perfect beginning.

                          ____________________