[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17588-17589]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I think nearly every one of us has gone to 
the doctor and taken home advice to help us get better or to live 
healthier. Maybe at one point in our lives, we were told, for example, 
to exercise more. Maybe we were told to cut something out of our diet, 
lose some weight, add something to it, gain some weight, change your 
diet in some way.
  Maybe we were prescribed medication for a short while or for a long 
while. People within the sound of my voice in this Senate Chamber all 
have been to doctors, and many are taking medicine now. It is not 
always easy to hear the advice doctors give or to follow the advice 
they give. It is never easy to change your lifestyle, even if you know 
you will be better in the long run.
  But you also know the risk of not following your doctor's orders and 
the consequences of not taking your medicine. The costs of doing 
nothing are far greater. You know that if you do not do something this 
time, the news after your next checkup may even be worse; it will take 
even more drastic steps or more difficult changes to get healthy again.
  Well, America has had its checkup, and the prognosis is not 
promising. Our health care system is sick. It is not healthy. Our 
doctor's orders are very clear: If we do not start taking better care 
of ourselves, it is only going to get worse. This is the message 
America has.
  The costs of health care today are staggering. Families in every part 
of Nevada and in every State feel this every day. But the costs could 
get much higher. If we do not act, they will get worse, much worse, 
much higher.
  If we do not act, they will get higher.
  The average American family today pays twice as much for its health 
care then it did a decade ago. If we do not act, less than a decade 
from now those costs will double again. Families are not making more 
money, but they are paying more trying to get healthy and to stay 
healthy. If we do not act, less than a decade from now you will spend 
almost half your family's income on health care. No one can be expected 
to afford that. No one should have to afford that.
  After a while, the trillions of dollars millions of families spend 
start to add up. Our country spends on health care twice as much per 
person than any other developed nation on the planet. Health care costs 
consume almost 20 cents of every dollar we spend. That is of every 
dollar spent in America. If we do not act, in a generation it will 
consume more than one-third of every dollar.
  You may be fortunate enough to afford health care this year, but if 
we do not act, you may not be able to say the same next year. If we do 
not act, your children will likely not be able to say the same when 
they grow up.
  Last Thursday, I was in an event with Senator Murray, where she got 
notice from the State of Washington that 135,000 people who are 
beneficiaries of a health insurance plan in her State got a notice that 
the average rate of increase to the 135,000 recipients of health care 
in that plan will have an increase on an average of 17.5 percent.
  Staggering. We have all read the charts and seen the numbers repeated 
by those who oppose fixing our broken health care system. There are 
charts and there are conversations all toward maintaining the status 
quo, keeping things the way they are. But it is as if they have not 
bothered to do the math on the costs of doing nothing.
  Health care reform is economic reform. That is why we want to lower 
skyrocketing costs and bring stability and security back to health 
care. That is why we are committed to passing a plan that protects what 
works and fixes what does not. I am encouraged by the cooperation and 
commitment of several Republican Senators willing to work with us to 
get that done and to get it done before it is too late.
  I appreciate the tireless work of our Finance and HELP Committees, 
Democrats and Republicans, as they write a

[[Page 17589]]

 prescription for America that will work. I had a call last night about 
10 from Chris Dodd, indicating the progress that has been made in the 
HELP Committee.
  Republicans have offered hundreds of amendments--hundreds of 
amendments--and they are working their way through those. Those 
Republican amendments sometimes improve the legislation. For example, 
Senator Dodd said he was very pleased they were able to work something 
out on bio-generics--that is a prescription physicians get--and there 
is some real activity out there as to how that is going to be treated.
  An amendment offered by Senator Hatch was adopted by the committee. I 
appreciate the work of our Finance and HELP Committees as they write a 
prescription for America that will work.
  I still aim to bring the bill to the floor this month, but it appears 
somewhat to ignore the doctor's orders. I wish I could say they do so 
at their own peril. Yet if a handful of Senators stand in the way of 
the change we so drastically need, urgently need, they will endanger 
not just them but all of us. They will endanger families of every 
background, businesses of every size, and our Nation's collective 
future.
  We have already seen what happens when we do nothing. Over the past 8 
years of inaction, the cost of health care rose to record levels, and 
the number of Americans who cannot afford insurance did the same. 
Senator Patty Murray's story is certainly relevant. For the 135,000 
people in the State of Washington, a 17.5-percent increase, on average, 
of their policies, is what they have to pay.
  For the millions of families who file for foreclosure because they 
cannot afford both their house and health care, not acting is not an 
option. For the millions of Americans who file for bankruptcy because 
their medical bills grow higher and higher and higher, not acting is 
not an option. For the millions of Americans who have skipped a 
doctor's visit or treatments they need to stay healthy or who never 
fill a prescription their doctor gives them because health care is 
simply too expensive, not acting is not an option.
  Our health care system is not healthy. Americans' physical health and 
America's fiscal health are at stake, and not acting is not an option.

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