[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 21631]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          WE NEED HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. ARCURI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, I spent the month of August and the first 
part of September traveling across my district in upstate New York, 
listening to my constituents in townhall meetings, tele-townhalls and 
one-on-one discussions in my office. I've listened to doctors, nurses, 
hospital administrators in order to build consensus on what my 
constituents want to see as part of a health care reform bill. I 
learned a lot during that time, and I heard stories that would make 
hearts break regarding denied coverage or loss of coverage because of 
preexisting conditions and catastrophic illness.
  I have promised my constituents that I will keep listening until we 
have to go to vote on this bill. However, it is crucial to America's 
financial health that we pass comprehensive health care reform to rid 
the current system of rampant waste, fraud and abuse, like the inflated 
costs of prescription drugs. Our economy cannot sustain the high cost 
of our current system, and it is clear to me that the health care 
reform in this country is not just the moral imperative for those who 
don't have health care insurance, but it's also an economic imperative 
for those that do have health care insurance, to ensure that those 
individuals can continue the coverage that they have.

                          ____________________