[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2622-2623]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE COSTS

  (Mr. KAGEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, impossible costs for health care are a 
major

[[Page 2623]]

concern for everyone, and the President should be commended for 
addressing this difficult crisis. But his proposal is really a tax hike 
for people who cannot afford it: businesses and working families.
  We must establish an open and transparent medical marketplace, and it 
is really not that difficult to do.
  We need to, one, openly disclose all prices in health care 
everywhere; two, give every citizen the same discount; and three, 
establish a single risk pool, 300 million strong, across the country to 
leverage down prices and costs for all of us. In other words, if you 
are a citizen, you are in.
  It is past time that the Congress should establish a single basic 
Federal standard health insurance policy that every insurance company 
must offer to each and every one of us. In doing so, we will be able to 
compare insurance companies based on the quality of their service and 
their price.
  The President means well, but you cannot use tax hikes to lower 
health care costs.

                          ____________________