[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18842]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                             WE NEED REFORM

  (Mr. INSLEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. INSLEE. Madam Speaker, the keepers of the status quo on health 
care are simply wrong. It is unacceptable for Americans to have their 
wage increases swallowed up by health care costs.
  Our medical costs are rising three times faster than our wages. It 
consumes twice as much of our economy as it did just 12 years ago. The 
status quo is unacceptable.
  Now some of my colleagues want to defend the status quo, trying to 
scare Americans to think that we're going to deliver bad medical care. 
Let me ask them this: Is the medical care at the Mayo Clinic in 
Rochester, Minnesota, so bad? I don't think so.
  Our bill, basically--and we are improving this bill as we speak--is 
going to provide the kind of care that Americans are getting at the 
Mayo Clinic. Because when our bill passes, it will in fact allow and 
inspire doctors to do what they do at the Mayo Clinic for half the 
price that Americans are paying for their medical care in Miami, 
Florida. Half the price at the Mayo Clinic for what Americans pay in 
medical care.
  We need reform. We're going to pass it.

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