[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19144]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              THE TIME IS NOW FOR HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, President Obama in his speech to the Nation 
on Wednesday night really brought home the fact that we need to act on 
health care reform immediately before this Congress adjourns for the 
August recess, and the reason is simple: costs continue to go up.
  The cost of health insurance, inflation is way out of line by 
comparison to any other developed country, and we still have about 40 
million to 50 million Americans that have no health insurance. So we 
need to do both. We need to cover everyone as best we can, and we need 
to bring down the costs of health insurance.
  The bottom line is that many of the organizations who opposed health 
insurance reform 15 years ago when I was here under President Clinton 
now support a plan that the insurance companies, the AMA, the doctors, 
PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry, all these groups have come together 
with President Obama because they realize that we can't continue with 
the status quo.
  The time is now for health insurance reform, and we need to get 
together as both Democrats and Republicans to pass it.

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