[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8617-8618]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             INNOVATIVE HEALTH CARE INITIATIVES FOR AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LANGEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to acknowledge Cover the Uninsured 
Week. Many of us have heard from our constituents this week, just as we 
have in the weeks, months, and years prior, asking that we make health 
insurance coverage a top priority of the 109th Congress. America's 
families are living in fear that someone they love might develop a 
health problem that they cannot afford. We must begin a meaningful 
dialogue about this problem that will continue until every American has 
access to quality, affordable health insurance.
  This national disgrace has reached crisis proportions. Forty-five 
million Americans, more than 8 million of whom are children and more 
than 80

[[Page 8618]]

percent of whom live in working families, are one ambulance trip away 
from financial devastation.
  I was pleased to join the gentlewoman from California (Leader Pelosi) 
and other Democrats in cosponsoring three bills introduced this week as 
part of the Democrats' plan to build on programs that already work. 
Together, the Family Care Act, the Medicare Early Access Act, and the 
Small Business Health Insurance Promotion Act would cover over half of 
all uninsured Americans. I have also been proud to be a part of other 
initiatives, both nationally and in my home State of Rhode Island, to 
expand existing health insurance programs for retirees, children with 
disabilities, and adults attempting to return to the workforce. These 
are all important aspects to addressing the health care crisis, and I 
am honored to be a part of building momentum around a solution.
  Just as individuals and families know that we are facing a health 
care crisis, our small business owners know that we are in crisis as 
well. Rising health care costs are undermining their ability to 
purchase coverage for their employees. It has threatened their ability 
to keep their businesses economically viable, and they are frustrated 
with the increasing burden of negotiating and administering health care 
plans that are taking on extra costs or passing them on to employees 
just to maintain level coverage. Without systematic change, these 
problems will continue to threaten the economic and health security of 
all Americans.
  What frustrates me the most about the health insurance crisis is what 
little attention it receives. But I believe that with the proper amount 
of consideration and planning, the health care system in America can be 
saved. An enormous amount of money circulates through our health care 
system.
  We spend $35 billion on uncompensated care for individuals who do not 
have health insurance, just last year alone, with Federal, State, and 
local governments covering as much as 85 percent of those costs. Would 
it not be better for American families and also more cost effective to 
transfer a large share of these funds to a new program to subsidize the 
cost of covering the uninsured? We spend millions treating illnesses 
diagnosed at later stages, thus requiring more costly treatments 
because we did not offer people the screenings to catch these problems 
earlier. This is the least efficient way possible to treat people.
  While we may not be in the best of economic times, if we made this 
issue a priority and committed ourselves to spending our health care 
dollars more wisely, we could offer all Americans access to quality, 
affordable care.
  Now, with these principles of efficiency and inclusion in mind, I 
have developed a model for universal health insurance introduced last 
year as the Americans Health Benefits Plan. This bill is modeled after 
the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which everyone in this 
Chamber is familiar with, as it offers coverage to Members of Congress, 
their families, and staffs.
  Under my proposal, private companies will compete to offer health 
insurance, attracting enrollees on the basis of benefits as well as 
efficiency, service, and lower premiums. The government should make a 
substantial contribution to every American's premium, and those for 
whom paying a portion of the premium would be a hardship, the 
government should offer subsidies as we currently do under Medicaid.
  Employers should continue to contribute to the health care system, 
and they could do so through a payroll tax which would fund the 
government contribution, but the burden of negotiating and 
administering health care plans should be taken on by the Federal 
Government.

                              {time}  1700

  A National template for this model already exists. FEHBP manages 
health insurance for more than 8 million Federal employees, annuitants 
and dependents. This program is administered by the Office of Personnel 
Management, which assumes responsibility for approving or disapproving 
carriers, negotiating benefit and rate changes, and auditing carriers' 
operations under the law.
  With administrative costs of less than 1 percent, OPM has managed to 
offer a wide variety of health care choices and protections for Federal 
employees.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Federal Government should offer this 
kind of coverage and oversight to all Americans and I sincerely hope to 
continue this dialogue with my colleagues beyond the Cover the 
Uninsured Week, but this is an important place to start.

                          ____________________