[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 22324-22325]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            HEALTH INSURANCE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I will be very brief, but I wanted to make 
a point on the Record relative to some messages and information I 
received from my State which I would like to share with my colleagues.
  During the month of August, I went back across the State of Illinois 
and visited with a lot of people, including

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chambers of commerce, labor unions, families, and community leaders. I 
would say for the third or fourth consecutive year, the report I 
received from businesses in particular in my State was identical. When 
I asked them what their major concern was, time and again they came 
back and said the same thing. It is the No. 1 concern of businesses 
across America when it comes to the cost of doing business and 
competitiveness. It is the No. 1 concern of labor unions across America 
when it comes to fair compensation for their employees. It is the No. 1 
concern of more and more families across the United States as they 
realize how vulnerable they are.
  What is that concern? The cost of health insurance. Time and time 
again that issue resurfaces. I have to tell my constituents in 
Illinois, my friends in business and labor, that I understand what they 
are saying. But this is an issue which has gone unaddressed in 
Washington in the time I have been here, for the last 7 years, in the 
Senate. It is as if the people in the Senate, the men and women like 
myself who are talking back home, are not listening or at least they 
are not coming back here and saying: What can we do about this?
  There are some who have an automatic reaction and say: Don't jump in 
with a Government solution. The market will solve this problem.
  I would say to them that the market is addressing this problem. The 
market of health insurance in America is reducing coverage, reducing 
their exposure to risk, and raising costs to increase their 
profitability.
  What I am about to say is not just anecdotal evidence of a trip 
around Illinois this year or for the last 4 years, but it is the same 
thing we found when the Kaiser Family Foundation released their annual 
report on health insurance across America, and I commend it to those 
following this debate: KFF.ORG, KFF.ORG. Go to that Web site and you 
will find this report on the cost of health insurance.
  According to this report, monthly premiums for employer-sponsored 
health insurance went up 13.9 percent between 2002 and 2003, the third 
successive year of double-digit increases in the cost of health 
insurance, while inflation in general is going up 2.2 percent. Of 
course workers are paying more out of pocket and receiving less 
coverage.
  Small businesses are getting hammered if they can afford health 
insurance. If they can't afford it, frankly, they are on their own, and 
that is not a good outcome here. The question is, Why are these rates 
going up?
  When the Kaiser Foundation asked the businesses what they thought, 
the No. 1 reason was the cost of prescription drugs going through the 
roof.
  I talked to the CEO of the biggest company in Illinois during my 
August recess. They are self-insured for health. He told me they are 
now spending more money on prescription drugs for their employees and 
retirees than they are for the rest of their health insurance costs--
more on prescription drugs. Prescription drugs are skyrocketing in 
cost. We are doing nothing about it, either in the prescription drug 
benefit for seniors or in any other legislation.
  The second reason, of course, for the cost of health insurance going 
up is the cost of hospital services. So you might ask, What about the 
health insurance companies? How are they doing? That is interesting.
  The Weiss Ratings, an insurance rating agency, looked at the profits 
for 519 health insurance companies. They evaluated these companies and 
they learned that between 2001 and 2002, of these 519 health insurance 
companies, their profits went up 77 percent. The same review had shown 
a 25-percent increase in the years 2000 to 2001. And the trend is 
continuing this year.
  Have you seen the ads for PacifiCare Health Systems where the whale 
jumps out of the water and splashes in? In the second quarter of 2003, 
PacifiCare Health Systems, which serves 12 million Americans, reported 
a profit increase of 260 percent. UnitedHealth Group reported a 35-
percent increase. Aetna reported a 28-percent increase.
  These are extraordinary profit margins in the midst of a recession in 
America. They are profit margins at the expense of businesses, their 
employees, of labor unions and their members, and families across 
America. For my colleagues who say it is hands off, Government cannot 
get involved in this debate, this is an issue to be resolved in the 
marketplace, I remind you again it is being resolved in the marketplace 
as health insurance premiums skyrocket and coverage disappears.
  A friend of mine with a small business in downstate Illinois and 10 
employees had 1 employee whose wife had a baby who was sick. The baby 
incurred great costs at the hospital. The next year, when his small 
business went in for their health insurance, they were told their 
premiums would double--a 100-percent increase from one year to the next 
because of one claim.
  This man and his wife had this company in their family for 
generations. They called together the 10 employees and said: We cannot 
do it. We cannot pay it anymore. We are going to give you the money 
which we would have put in your monthly paycheck each month for your 
health insurance. You have to go try to find coverage.
  The family with the sick baby could not find any. The others went out 
and did the best they could. I asked the owner of the company, who was 
genuinely saddened when it reached that point, what did it mean? He 
said: I'm in the open market for health insurance. It meant at his age, 
about 58-years-of-age, and his wife about the same, that whatever they 
make a claim for under their health insurance policy this year will be 
excluded from next year. Whether it is part of your body or disease or 
illness, you are stuck.
  Next year it is excluded.
  Let me tell you the lengths to which they have gone. When this woman, 
who is now with her husband in the private health insurance market, 
goes in for a mammogram and they say, Where should we send the results, 
she says: Send them to me personally. I don't want them to go to a 
doctor because if they become part of my medical record, it will be 
used against me when we apply for health insurance next year.
  That is what it has come to and that is what people are facing across 
America--outrageous copayments, increases in premiums they cannot 
afford, and less and less coverage every year.
  What have we done about it? What has this Government done to stand 
behind these businesses and labor unions and families? Absolutely 
nothing.
  That is unacceptable. If we really want to address an issue that 
business cares about and labor cares about, this is the issue.
  If you are concerned about competitiveness, consider this: The cost 
of health insurance is embedded in the cost of every American product 
that we export overseas. In other countries, the government provides 
the health insurance. It is a government obligation, paid for in taxes. 
The individual companies do not have to add it to the cost of the car 
they are selling in the United States. But we do. Every time we produce 
something in the United States with American workers, covered by health 
insurance premiums that are going through the roof, the cost of that 
health insurance is embedded in every product and, frankly, takes away 
from our competitiveness.
  I challenge myself as a Senator here and my colleagues. We cannot 
escape the responsibility to address this issue honestly, and we cannot 
escape the reality that the marketplace is now driving health insurance 
beyond the reach of conscientious businesses that want to protect their 
employees and labor unions that are trying to stand up for working men 
and women and of families who, if they are left to their own devices, 
will find this to be a very cruel alternative when they seek health 
insurance.
  I yield the floor.

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