[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 103 (Wednesday, June 20, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H5289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE COST OF HEALTHCARE

  The SPEAKER. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. 
Marshall) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. Speaker, it is great to see so many youth in the 
audience today, and I look forward to sharing what I think is perhaps 
the biggest problem that is facing Americans right now, and that is the 
cost of healthcare. Not the cost of healthcare insurance, but truly the 
cost of healthcare itself.
  When I look at the problems facing this country, most of us are very 
concerned about our national debt of over $20 trillion. In fact, 28 
percent of our Federal budget goes towards healthcare right now, and 
until we can start driving the true cost of healthcare down, we will 
never be able to fix this huge Federal debt.
  When I talk to small businesses across my district, their number one 
concern is the cost of healthcare. A sixth of their budget is going 
towards healthcare.
  Certainly, I believe that transparency, innovation, and consumerism 
are the basic principles to drive down the cost of healthcare, but I 
want to stop today and applaud what the President and the Secretary of 
Labor did yesterday by opening up association plans. This is one small 
piece that will help drive down the cost of healthcare for folks who 
purchase healthcare as individuals or in small groups.
  This will start to break down the State walls which prevent 
competition and once again allow different groups--all my farmers could 
join together through their associations, or other small businesses 
would be able to group together and have better purchasing power. This 
is going to give 400,000 people more health insurance and quality 
health insurance with true access to healthcare.
  Now, on the House side, we passed H.R. 1101, and that bill basically 
codifies what the Secretary of Labor did yesterday. But like some 6,000 
other bills, it has been sitting over in the Senate and, in this case, 
has been sitting in the Senate for over a year. We need leadership on 
both sides of the House to help drive down the cost of healthcare.

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