[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19559]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. SCHAUER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. SCHAUER. Mr. Speaker, while we can argue over the details of 
health care reform legislation, we know one thing for sure: Costs are 
guaranteed to increase if we do nothing. The status quo is 
unsustainable and unacceptable. Unfair trade deals and skyrocketing 
health care costs have devastated manufacturing in my State of Michigan 
over the past decade.
  Last month, in my district, I heard from a small manufacturer at a 
health care forum in Tecumseh, Michigan. Karalyn Roesch told me that 
her manufacturing firm employs seven people in Lenawee County and that 
it covers 100 percent of her employees' health care insurance costs.
  She said, ``We are trying to do the right thing for our employees. 
Yet we have to compete with those who provide little or no health 
care.''
  She said that a quality, affordable health care system that covered 
every American would not only provide needed care for the uninsured but 
that it would also help level the playing field for small business 
owners like her.
  It's time to put partisan politics aside on this issue and put 
companies like Roesch Manufacturing first. We need a uniquely American 
health care system that costs less and that covers more to help small 
businesses compete in our global economy.

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