[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 19564-19565]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                COLLUDING TO KEEP HEALTH CARE COSTS HIGH

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, while the Republicans are mounting a 
fabulous defense of the health insurance industry, the party of do 
nothing is saying reform and health care is not needed.
  They talk about competition, except they ignore the fact that the 
health insurance industry is exempt from antitrust law, so they can and 
they do collude to jack up the rates--two times the rate of inflation. 
Profits are up 250 percent in the last 10 years, while wages and 
earnings are down for most Americans and small businesses. But they 
ignore that little fact when they talk about we can't have a public 
plan. That would hurt competition. No, it will bring competition for 
once to the health insurance industry.
  Then they forget about a few other things. They collude also to 
exclude individuals from coverage because you have been sick or you 
might get sick. Preexisting conditions or anything an insurance company 
doesn't like, they can deny you coverage, even if you are willing to 
pay their full premium.
  They can and do, insurance companies, their friends, deny people 
renewals because they had the temerity to get sick after paying their 
premiums.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Salazar). The time of the gentleman has 
expired.

[[Page 19565]]



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