[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18483]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker and Members, I serve on the 
Energy and Commerce Committee and on the Health Subcommittee. We were 
in session last night until 12:30, working on this bill. It was 
beginning to be a bipartisan bill. We accepted Republican amendments; 
we accepted Democratic amendments, but we have a long way to go. Let me 
tell you what the facts are in our country.
  Forty-three to fifty million people in our country are without health 
care. They get their health care through the emergency rooms. Do you 
know who pays for that? Those of us who have insurance, who are 
fortunate enough to have employer-based insurance, whether you're a 
Federal employee, a State employee, a city employee or whether you work 
for some of the large industries. We have insurance, but 43 to 50 
million people don't. Our country's employers and employees spend more 
per capita than anywhere in the world for some of the worst results for 
the average illnesses.
  We are going to debate a bill in a few minutes by my colleague from 
California, Joe Baca, on the increase in diabetes in the Hispanic 
community. Diabetes can be dealt with early on. Our health care system 
decides to deal with people after they're so ill that it's more 
expensive. We need health care reform in our country for cost 
containment but also to make sure that every American doesn't have to 
get their health care through the emergency rooms.

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