[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 41 (Friday, March 19, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H1720-H1721]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Boustany) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I had the great privilege of practicing 
medicine for 20 years in Louisiana. I was a heart surgeon. I did open 
heart surgery, critical lung surgery, and I took care of many patients 
during very difficult times in their lives. And I got to see the 
wonderful innovation in technology that we were able to use to save so 
many lives during that time.
  As we face a Sunday vote, here we are Friday night, and I have to say 
that I am deeply saddened because I really fear what is going to happen 
to health care in the United States if this bill passes. I have heard 
from many Americans across the country, given my status as a physician 
in Congress, many, many Americans from all over the country have 
contacted me and have basically rejected this bill. They are concerned. 
They are concerned because they will see their premiums rise. Let me 
explain.
  The Senate Democrat bill will increase health insurance premiums for 
families by up to 13 percent by 2016. What does this mean? For an 
individual with the lowest cost basic plan, it would cost $300 more in 
2016 than if Congress did nothing at all. How about for a family? 
Families are struggling right now. Well, for a family who got the 
lowest cost basic plan, it would cost $2,100 more in 2016 than if 
Congress did nothing at all. Premiums are going to rise.
  We don't need an expensive bill to start bringing health care 
premiums down. All it would take is competition and choice, things that 
Republicans have promoted. We have written bills that would expand 
health savings accounts. We would allow folks to buy insurance across 
State lines, create transparency, and allow small businesses to pool 
together to get greater purchasing power, just like unions and large 
corporations do.

                              {time}  1915

  That wouldn't cost trillions of dollars to do. Let's just do this. 
It's easy.
  What is going to happen with this plan? Well, it raids the Medicare 
program by a half a trillion dollars and uses that money to create a 
whole new entitlement, just like it basically raises taxes by over a 
half a trillion dollars to create this new entitlement program. What 
happens with these taxes? These are taxes on businesses and families. 
These are taxes on innovation in health care. And so the United States 
may end up losing its innovative edge if we allow this to go forward.
  If you look at what's happened over the past 50 years in health care, 
folks, doctors, nurses have come from all over the world to train in 
the United States because of our advanced education in health care and 
in medicine and our advanced technology. Patients come from all over 
the world because of this great innovation, this great

[[Page H1721]]

ability to save lives. And if we tax this, well, we will lose that 
competitive edge. There is no question about it.
  So what happens with this big massive entitlement that is going to be 
expanded? Well, $434 billion will be used to expand Medicaid coverage. 
Now, as a physician I know that Medicaid is a deeply flawed program. 
There are serious problems with this. First of all, it is breaking 
States' budgets. Secondly, it is a strain on the Federal budget. But 
what does this really mean for families? Well, families who have 
Medicaid right now are having a very difficult time getting access to a 
doctor because the Medicaid reimbursements don't even come close in 
many instances to meeting the costs. So doctors are not seeing these 
patients until late in their conditions. They are having to go to the 
emergency room, when care is much more expensive, they are sicker. And 
it is just the wrong way to do this. It is not fair for these 
individuals, these families who are having to do this.
  So what does this bill do? It expands Medicaid. Well, I have a 
problem with this. I think there is a better way to do it. We can 
expand coverage, meaningful coverage, by increasing competition, as I 
mentioned earlier, so that folks afford health care insurance. The last 
thing we want to do is drive up the cost of health insurance. And that 
is what this bill does.
  The other thing this bill does is it increases taxes across the 
board. I mentioned new taxes on innovation, on pharmaceuticals, on 
devices that surgeons use in the hospital. You know, your knee 
replacement, your hip replacement. This is going to hurt innovation, as 
I mentioned. But there are also new taxes across the board on 
businesses. We are going to see new Medicare taxes, $210 billion in new 
Medicare taxes, new taxes on health care benefits, new taxes on 
employers, and an individual mandate, an individual mandate that is 
going to have the IRS in everybody's business.
  Mr. Speaker, we have a duty to do health care reform, but we have an 
obligation to get this right.

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