[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 15685]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, as the debate escalates over the best way to 
ease the crushing burden of health care, it is easy to become 
sidetracked by misrepresentations, distracted by minor details or 
tempted to point fingers. When we do those things, we lose sight of 
what is at the heart of this effort, this debate, and this reform.
  I wish to take a moment at the end of this week to remind all of us 
what this is all about--the health care debate. It is about hardworking 
Americans because they are too often the casualties of our broken 
health care system. They deserve better than to be also casualties of 
misleading politics.
  To the millions of Americans without health care, this is a concrete 
and critical crisis that affects children, families, small businesses, 
and big businesses every single day. It is about the parent who can't 
take a child to the doctor because insurance is prohibitively 
expensive. It is about the family who lives one accident or one illness 
away from financial ruin. It is about a small business that had to lay 
off employees because it couldn't afford the skyrocketing cost of 
health care premiums or that small business that had to cancel health 
insurance for its employees because it couldn't afford it. It is about 
the three-in-five families who put off health care because it simply 
costs too much.
  As Democrats in the Senate, we are committed to lowering the high 
price of health care, ensuring every American has access to that 
quality, affordable care and, finally, letting people choose their own 
doctors, hospitals, and health plans. We are committed to protecting 
the existing coverage when it is good, improving it when it is not, and 
guaranteeing health care for the millions--including 9 million 
children--who have none. We are committed to preventing disease, 
reducing health disparities, and encouraging early detection and 
effective treatments that save lives.
  No matter what Republicans claim, the government has no intention of 
choosing for you any of these things or meddling in any of your medical 
relationships. If you like the coverage you have, you can choose to 
keep it.
  Health care is not a luxury. It shouldn't be a luxury. We can't 
afford another year in which 46 million people have to choose between 
basic necessities and lining the pockets of big insurance companies 
just to stay healthy.
  I hear every day from Nevadans--through e-mails, phone calls, 
letters, and other means of communication--that people are turned down 
for health coverage by insurance providers who care more about profits 
than people. I hear about people who lost their health coverage when 
they lost their jobs and now have no means of getting it back. I hear 
of people from Nevada who play by the rules and rightly demand that our 
health care system be guided by common sense.
  That is what this debate is all about--nothing more, nothing less. 
These people--and nothing else--should be the focus of the open and 
honest debate they deserve--the people of America.
  Mr. President, has the Chair yet announced that we are in a period of 
morning business?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. It has not.

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