[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16195-16196]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, Americans are insisting that Members 
of Congress work together on reforms which make health care more 
affordable and accessible but which don't force people off their 
current plans or add to an already staggering national debt. Yet the 
Democratic plan now being rushed through the Senate would do just the 
opposite. It would force millions of Americans off their health care 
plans and bury our Nation deeper and deeper in debt.
  Democrats have repeatedly and incorrectly declared that under their

[[Page 16196]]

plan Americans who like their current insurance will be able to keep 
it. This morning, I would like to explain why that is, unfortunately, 
not the case.
  Just last week, the independent Congressional Budget Office said that 
the incomplete Democratic HELP Committee proposal would cause 10 
million Americans who currently have employer-based insurance to lose 
that coverage. Let me repeat that. Before the Democratic bill is even 
complete, we know that it will cause 10 million Americans to lose their 
health care insurance they currently have. But 10 million would just be 
the beginning. One key section missing from the HELP bill is the 
government plan Democrats say they want, and according to one study, 
119 million Americans could lose their private coverage if a government 
plan is enacted.
  Here is why this so-called government option would lead to Americans 
losing their current plans and why it would soon become the only 
option.
  First, a government-run plan would have unlimited access to taxpayer 
dollars and could operate at a loss indefinitely, which could force 
private insurers out of business. Private health plans simply wouldn't 
be able to compete, and millions of Americans could be forced off their 
health plans whether they like it or not. At that point, people would 
have to enroll in a government plan or any surviving private health 
care plan, if they could afford it. I say if they could afford it 
because another unintended consequence of creating a government plan is 
that it would cause rates for private health plans to skyrocket, 
leaving most Americans unable to afford them. They would simply be too 
expensive. Right now, government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid 
pay hospitals and doctors less than private insurers do, and hospitals 
and doctors then pass on the difference to private insurers. If a 
government plan was established, doctors and hospitals would shift more 
of their cost onto private health plans, making them even more 
expensive and making it even harder for them to compete with a 
government plan. In the end, only the wealthiest would be able to 
afford private health plans and the kind of care most Americans 
currently enjoy.
  Some say safeguards could be put in place to create a level playing 
field. But the very nature of the government running a health insurance 
plan in the private market is the problem. Any safeguard could easily 
be eliminated, and one look at the government takeovers in the 
insurance and auto industries shows that when the government is 
involved, there is really no such thing as a fair playing field.
  Let's take a look at the auto industry. The government has given 
billions of dollars to the financing arms of Chrysler and GM, allowing 
them to offer interest rates that Ford, a major manufacturer in my 
State, and other private companies struggle to compete with. This means 
the only major U.S. automaker that did not take a bailout is at a big 
disadvantage as it struggles to compete with government-run auto 
companies. When Ford needed money, it had to raise it in the open 
market and pay an 8-percent interest rate. But GM could just call up 
the Treasury--just call up the Treasury--and have them wire over some 
taxpayer money. No company can compete with that.
  So contrary to their claims, if the Democratic plan is enacted, 
millions of Americans will lose the health insurance they have and that 
they like. Again, that is not what I say, it is what the Congressional 
Budget Office says, it is what independent analysts say, it is what 
America's doctors say, and it is even what President Obama now says. 
The President now acknowledges that under a government plan, some 
people might be shifted off of their current insurance.
  This isn't the only Democratic claim about health care that is 
increasingly suspect. Democrats have also promised their health plan 
will be paid for and won't add to the deficit. But the facts just don't 
add up. Right now, just one section--one section--of the HELP bill 
would spend $1.3 trillion. It is not plausible that this won't add to 
the deficit, which has already swelled by more than $1 trillion thanks 
to bailouts and the stimulus money.
  So when Democrats predict their health care plan won't cause people 
to lose their current insurance and won't add to the national debt, 
Americans are certainly right to be skeptical. They made the same kinds 
of predictions about the stimulus bill. They said the money wouldn't be 
wasted. Yet we are already hearing about a $3.4 million turtle tunnel 
and $40,000 to pay the salary of someone whose job is to apply for more 
stimulus money. The administration also predicted that if we passed the 
stimulus, the unemployment rate wouldn't rise above 8 percent. Now they 
say unemployment will likely rise to 10 percent.
  Americans, indeed, want health care reform, but they do not want a 
so-called reform that takes away the care they have and stands in the 
way of their relationships with their doctors or that buries their 
children and grandchildren deeper and deeper in debt. I think we can do 
a lot better than that.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.

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