[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19574]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                MAINTAIN THE DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP

  (Mr. SHIMKUS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, 90 percent of all Americans have health 
insurance, the majority of whom like their plans. The Democrat bill, as 
drawn out, does a couple of things.
  First of all, it doesn't keep the President's promise. The President 
promises that, if you like your health insurance plan, you can keep it, 
but as stated earlier on pages 16 and 17 of the bill, you're not going 
to be able to do that.
  The other thing is the plan was to lower the cost curb, but the CBO 
testified that the costs for both plans go up. The cost for the private 
insurance plan goes up. The cost for the public option goes up. A 
public option will undercut private insurance, driving people into a 
public plan.
  Now, in countries that have one public insurance plan, the only way 
they control costs is by rationing care. If you don't trust me, just 
ask the Canadians, the Brits, the folks in New Zealand, and in 
Australia where you have a bureaucrat deciding whether you get the care 
you need or not. This is not the type of plan we want. We want to 
maintain the doctor-patient relationship.

                          ____________________