[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19592]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE COSTS

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, in the last 4 years the Republican majority 
of this House and the Bush administration have failed to address the 
skyrocketing cost of health care. Today's news shows this problem has 
rapidly deteriorated into a crisis.
  Let me quote The Washington Post: ``Higher Costs, Less Care. 
Nationwide, workers' cost for health insurance has risen by 36 percent 
since 2000, dwarfing the average 12.4 percent increase in their wages 
since President Bush took office.''
  In a study by Families USA, they found the cost of health care 
increased three times what the average household's earnings have 
increased since the year 2000; 14.3 million Americans are now spending 
more than a quarter of their income on medical costs, an increase of 
2.7 million people. There are 5 million fewer jobs providing health 
benefits, and small businesses are seeing the sharpest decline. This is 
a problem that affects every middle-class family in the Nation.
  Today, we have cancer patients who determine for themselves whether 
their chances of survival are good enough to invest in the more 
effective and expensive treatments because they do not want to burden 
their family with costs.
  Mr. Speaker, we are in the midst of a health care crisis. This 
administration and this Republican majority have nothing to say about 
it and have thwarted efforts to bring down those costs.

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