[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 185 (Thursday, October 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7136-S7137]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Healthcare

  Madam President, now on an entirely different matter, there is little 
confusion about the devastating economic impact Democrats would bring 
about by ramming through their reckless taxing-and-spending spree: more 
taxes, more debt, and more painful inflation.
  But this isn't some collection of well-intentioned policies whose 
pricetag has just gotten dangerously out of control; the policies 
themselves would mean real pain for American families--case in point: 
the heavyhanded mandates that would restrict choice and access to 
affordable, lifesaving healthcare.
  Democrats want to ax the private insurance plans that millions of 
Americans have chosen and prefer. They want to build new Federal health 
programs and expand the ones that exist today, heaping more than $550 
billion in new expenses on taxpayers to insure less than 4 million more 
people. Let me say that again. They want to build new Federal health 
programs and expand the ones that exist today, heaping more than $550 
billion in new expenses--new expenses--on taxpayers. The result: to 
insure less than 4 million more people.
  Here is the truth: The overwhelming majority of Americans today have 
access to healthcare. Democrats just don't like the private plans that 
most Americans choose.
  Then, there is the plan to heap hundreds of billions of dollars in 
new programs and huge pools of additional people into a Medicare system 
that experts say is already--already, right now--dangerously close to 
insolvency. This is a huge, risky leap toward Medicare for All at the 
expense of the stability and the security of the actual Medicare system 
that millions of seniors rely on right now.
  Democrats want to pour cold water on America's world-leading medical 
innovation sector by imposing socialist price caps on prescription 
medicines. In another example of Democrats' magic math--magic math--the 
rationale here is apparently that calling something cheaper actually 
makes it so. Calling something cheaper, they think, actually makes it 
so.
  In reality, research tells us this would mean fewer new treatments 
and new cures. By one analysis, these price controls would cause up to 
20 times--20 times--as much lost life over a decade as the once-in-a-
century COVID pandemic already has. I want to say that again. By one 
analysis, these socialist price controls could cause up to 20 times as 
much lost life over a decade as the once-in-a-century COVID pandemic 
already has. Suppressing innovation through drug socialism would 
literally cost American lives.
  Of course, they are planning to leave behind commonsense protections

[[Page S7137]]

against taxpayer-funded abortion that had enjoyed consistent bipartisan 
support for decades.
  So, Madam President, this isn't just a runaway pricetag; these 
policies themselves are terrible--terrible policies--destructive things 
that would make America's families' lives actually worse. And the end 
goal, as one liberal House Member said just yesterday, is a Medicare 
for All system from before you are born until you die--from before you 
are born until you die.
  More government between families and affordable care. More government 
between sick patients and lifesaving cures. More reckless ideas from 
Washington Democrats.