[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19431]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the 
urgent issue of health care reform. Later, the Congressional Black 
Caucus, led by a great leader who does this every Monday night on 
behalf of the CBC, Congresswoman Marsha Fudge from Ohio, will be 
holding another Special Order on health reform. Although I won't be 
able to join my colleagues tonight, I did want to come to the floor and 
add my voice to the chorus of members from the Congressional Black 
Caucus who are calling for real health care reform now.
  I want to begin by commending my colleagues in the CBC, especially 
Congresswoman and Dr. Donna Christensen, who also is the second vice 
Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and chairs our Congressional 
Black Caucus Health Brain Trust. She has been leading the charge to 
address racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Together with 
Representative Danny Davis, who cochairs the CBC's Health and Wellness 
Task Force, the two of them have developed a very important set of 
requirements to ensure that real health care reform becomes the order 
of the day. So I just want to thank them for their leadership, and just 
know that the Congressional Black Caucus supports what they have put 
together with all of the input of the CBC.
  Let me just begin by just saying, we have said over and over again 
that we want to ensure that there is a strong public health option 
linked to Medicare providers. This requirement must remain intact in 
the final bill.
  We believe that we must continue to work to get this done as quickly 
as possible. That means hopefully we can do this before we recess this 
week. The 47 million uninsured deserve this. This means, again, we must 
pass a bill this week before we adjourn for the August recess.
  The Congressional Black Caucus believes that a bill that is less than 
$1 trillion, that is completely paid for, that is budget neutral, would 
likely compromise many of the provisions that are important to the 
millions of Americans that are uninsured. This is unacceptable. We 
think the bill must at least have a cost of $1 trillion. There is no 
reason to consider a bill less costly.
  The CBC stands firmly behind an original request that we made, along 
with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian 
Pacific American Caucus, to include specific health disparity 
provisions from the TriCaucus bill, which I believe is H.R. 3090, the 
Health Equity and Accountability Act. We want these provisions in the 
final health reform bill.
  The TriCaucus has worked on a comprehensive bill to eliminate health 
disparities for the last 8 years. We believe that we have a very good 
bill, and we are pleased that many of the provisions in our health care 
reform bill are included now as it relates to health and ethnic and 
racial disparities.
  The CBC considers the provisions on children's health prevention 
services and mental health and substance abuse critical to this bill, 
and they should not be compromised in the final product. We must ensure 
that we guarantee true parity for mental health and comprehensive 
coverage, including dental and vision, for kids.
  Also, the Congressional Black Caucus believes that the 
disproportionate share of hospital payments should not be cut in an 
unnecessary attempt to reduce the cost of the overall health bill. Many 
hospitals who care for a large number of low-income patients or which 
serve as teaching hospitals depend on these DSH payments to help cover 
their operating costs. We shouldn't be penalizing these hospitals, 
because ultimately that will affect their ability to provide access and 
care to low-income populations.
  And finally, the Congressional Black Caucus strongly believes that we 
can realize a host of savings from a variety of provisions in this 
bill, whether or not the Congressional Budget Office agrees to evaluate 
and score these savings. As a caucus, we strongly recommend including a 
trigger in the final health care reform bill that would allow those 
savings to be used to replace current pay-fors and to add important 
services that were left out of the initial bill because of the failure 
to fully assess and score the final cost.
  The bottom line is that expanding access to care and expanding the 
availability of preventive health services will cut costs and save 
lives and will be to the benefit of everyone. We should try and 
recapture those savings and use them to strengthen the system.
  Last week, President Obama reminded us all of the important work that 
we must do, and we must do it now. We must reject claims that the cost 
of reforming health care in America is something our Nation can't 
afford. To the contrary; if we fail to act, and if we fail to act now, 
we do so at the peril of the American people, particularly the 47 
million who will continue to suffer.
  Thank you, Congresswoman Fudge, for your leadership.

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