[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17835]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              HIGH-QUALITY, AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE CHOICES

  (Mr. YARMUTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, opponents of health care reform have tried 
for months to attack our efforts to bring high-quality, affordable care 
to all Americans. Their favorite scare tactic has been to allege that a 
public option will somehow lead to a ``government takeover'' of health 
care. This could not be further from the truth.
  Under the plan we introduced yesterday, the CBO projects that just 3 
percent of Americans will be enrolled in the public plan once it is 
fully implemented, hardly a government takeover. In fact, the CBO 
estimates that employer-provided plans will have millions of new 
enrollees under the legislation and that most of those Americans using 
the health care exchange will choose private insurance for their 
coverage.
  This is a uniquely American solution that combines the best of the 
public and private sectors to bring some much-needed competition to the 
health care marketplace, giving American families the peace of mind of 
knowing they will always have high-quality, affordable health care 
choices.

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