[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19472-19473]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, fixing our broken health care system after 
decades of inaction is no small task. With such an effort comes no 
shortage of strong convictions, diverse ideas, rigorous analysis, and 
constructive criticism. But as the plans, proposals, and policies 
evolve, our principles remain constant. Although we navigate a sea of 
choices, we know where we will land. First, we will bring security and 
stability back to health care. Second, we will not add a penny to the 
considerable national deficit that has ballooned over the past 8 years. 
This work we are doing on health care is budget neutral. That means it 
will not run up the debt. We are obligated to do that because that is 
in the budget resolution we passed earlier this year. That is what it 
says. We cannot do health care if it costs an extra penny. So we will 
do that. Finally, we will remain focused on seeing this fight all the 
way through because we are long overdue for a change.
  Those who are fortunate enough to have health care now and who hear 
us debate how to make it better might wonder: What are you talking 
about? You may wonder what is in it for you--the people who are 
listening in. Well, health care reform helps everyone and affects 
everyone. It will help those who have insurance today but do not know 
if it will be there tomorrow. It will help those who worry about being 
just one illness away or one accident or one pink slip away from losing 
the insurance they have. It will help those who are covered but fear 
their children very likely will not be able to say that when they grow 
up--that they have coverage. And it will help nearly 50 million people 
who have none to begin with.
  The reform we are pursuing means making sure that if you lose your 
job, your health care will not go with it. It means that if you change 
jobs, you will not have to worry about losing your coverage. Health 
care reform means lowering the costs of care and keeping them low. It 
means improving the quality of the care you get and keeping the quality 
of care high. Reforming health care means that if your mother had 
breast cancer or you had minor surgery last year or your child gets 
allergies every spring, your insurance company cannot say: I am sorry, 
you are too much of a risk to cover. It means the premiums you pay 
every month will not go up just because your insurance company feels 
like it. It means keeping costs stable so the price of staying healthy 
does not fluctuate

[[Page 19473]]

like a gallon of gasoline. It not only means making sure you can keep 
your family's doctor or keep your health care plan if you like it but 
also that you can afford to do so. No one can predict when that next 
accident may occur or when one might lose their job. We do not know 
when we will get sick next or when one of our loved ones will become 
ill. But we can take the uncertainty and unfairness out of the current 
system. We can make sure it is stable, more secure, more reliable, and 
more dependable.
  Second, all of the many plans we have heard for fixing health care 
have something else in common: They each have maintained President 
Obama's commitment that this effort, I repeat, will not dig us any 
deeper into debt than we already have. Any plan that passes this body 
will be fully paid for, I repeat. When all the numbers are crunched, 
the No. 1 bottom line is zero. It will not cost anything. In fact, as 
we improve disease prevention, reduce health disparities, and better 
coordinate medical services, we will be lowering future costs even 
further.
  Families will also save in the long run because the status quo comes 
with a hidden health care tax. If you have health care now, you are 
paying at least $1,000 more for that health care then you would need to 
if other families had some insurance. When we reform health care and 
you are no longer responsible for covering the uninsured, you will see 
those savings in every paycheck you get.
  The only costs that worry me are the costs of doing nothing, of 
inaction. We have already seen what happens when we do nothing. Over 
the past 8 years, health care costs rose to record levels and the 
number of Americans who cannot afford insurance did the same. The 
number of people who lost their insurance rose dramatically. Every day, 
14,000 people in America--7 days a week--lose their health insurance. 
Right now, in Nevada, half a million people already lack the coverage 
they need or struggle with inadequate coverage. If we do not act, many, 
many more Nevadans and millions more Americans will lose their health 
care as it gets more expensive day by day.
  For a generation, we have been working to fix this broken health care 
system. Throughout this year, we have explored numerous proposals in 
numerous bipartisan roundtables and committee hearings. This has been 
the No. 1 issue on our agenda for a long time now. And today we are 
closer than ever to getting something done.

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