[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20395]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  A UNIQUELY AMERICAN HEALTH CARE PLAN

  (Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, today, it is time for health 
care reform.
  Now, there are some out there who like to claim that we don't need 
reform now because the private marketplace will take care of 
everything. Well, the private marketplace hasn't taken care of anything 
except to increase deductibles, to increase premiums, and to increase 
copays that cost the American people. Let me tell you what that means 
in my home State of Maryland.
  In 2001, if you were paying on the average of $600 a month for your 
health care, today, you're paying an average of $1,000 a month for your 
health care. Well, I don't know about anybody else, but in my 
household, an extra $400 a month is real money. It's groceries. It's an 
electric bill. It's daycare. I mean, this is an important cost to the 
American people.
  It is time for us to enact a uniquely American plan that doesn't 
embrace the insurance industry, that doesn't close down the insurance 
industry, but that says to the insurers: you have to compete in the 
marketplace with a public plan that relies on Medicare rates, that 
ensures that we will have real competition, and that is real change for 
the American people.
  It is time for us to educate the American people and to get this done 
for the public so that we can be competitive.

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