[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 24541-24542]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, is there anything more tragic than a 
preventable catastrophe? Probably not. What is more shameful than 
having the ability to stop a disaster and not using that power? Ancient 
and recent history is saturated with examples of nations standing idly 
by while threats escalate and storm clouds gather on the horizon. Too 
many times we have learned by example what not to do when we see 
tragedy pass before our eyes. Today is no different.
  Today we face two kinds of preventable tragedies--one on a personal 
scale and one on a national scale. There are preventable deaths. There 
are examples of preventable deaths in every city in Nevada and every 
State in the Union. Stories of preventable deaths fill our mail boxes 
and our media.
  In many of these cases we can draw a direct line from an American's 
death to the lack of decent health care. In almost all of those cases, 
we can draw another direct line from their lack of decent health care 
to our broken health insurance system.
  A startling new book by T.R. Reid called ``The Healing of America'' 
traces his travels throughout the developed world and contrasts our 
health care system with far more successful, affordable, and equitable 
health care systems in several industrialized nations. He approaches 
this story in a unique way. He has a bad shoulder. He had had it 
repaired 10 or 12 years before. It started giving him some trouble, so 
he started in the United States asking what to do about his shoulder.
  He was told what to do in America. Then he went to France and Japan, 
all over the world, and was told what not to do with his shoulder. In 
the process of talking about his shoulder, he talks about the health 
care system in every one of those countries. There are some startling 
things.
  The phrase ``socialized medicine'' was developed by the insurance 
industry when President Truman said he wanted to do health care reform. 
It is interesting that the kind of care they have in different parts of 
the world is so uniquely described in this book. For example, Germany 
has had government-sponsored health care since the 1880s, which I think 
is very interesting--I say this with some degree of sarcasm--by the 
great socialist Bismarck. He was about as far as one could get from a 
socialist, but he believed health care should be delivered in a 
Christian way, as he said it. That system is one that has been copied 
in various parts of the world to some degree or another.
  It is an interesting book, and I recommend it to every Senator. It 
opens telling the story of a woman by the name of Nikki White who died 
at 32 years of age. The official medical records show that she died 
from complications of lupus; but if we asked her doctor, the doctor 
would tell everyone Nikki died from complications of our health care 
system. We know how to treat lupus. America is home to millions of 
doctors and thousands of hospitals that can help someone with lupus 
live a longer life. America has developed the science and the medicine 
and the therapies that let people with

[[Page 24542]]

lupus live full, active lives. But because Nikki's health insurance 
company refused to cover her once she got sick and because Nikki's 
income was too much for Medicaid but too little for her medicine's 
cost, she was stranded.
  This story is tragic because Nikki died a preventable death in the 
richest Nation in the history of the world. It is even more tragic 
because it is not the only one of its kind, not by a long shot. All 
over America people are dying too soon. There are lots of others just 
like it.
  Conditions that should be fixable are now fatal. Easily treatable 
diseases now become death sentences. More and more, Americans who come 
down with the flu or are diagnosed with diabetes or suffer a stroke are 
dying far earlier than modern science says they should have to die. 
More and more, Americans who contract skin cancer or have a hernia or 
experience complications during surgery are dying rather than being 
cured.
  These diseases can strike anyone. In fact, more than half of all 
Americans live with at least one chronic condition, and those 
conditions cause 70 percent of the deaths in America. A group called 
the Commonwealth Fund researches ways our health insurance system can 
work better. It recently ranked 19 industrialized countries on how they 
handle preventable deaths. The United States ranked 19th--at the very 
bottom.
  Their study also found that as many as 100,000 American lives could 
be saved if we admitted some health care systems work better than 
others and borrowed some of the best ideas that make them work. This is 
100,000 lives a year. By the way, we are paying for the privilege.
  Over the past 8 years of inaction the price of staying healthy in 
America rose to record levels. The number of Americans who can't afford 
insurance also rose to record levels. At least one in five Nevadans has 
no health insurance. Those who do have it are at great risk of losing 
it. If we don't act, in 10 years health care costs will more than 
double what they are today. The number of Nevadans who can't afford 
health insurance will double as well. If we don't act, more Americans 
will suffer needlessly.
  That Americans are dying preventable deaths is one of two avoidable 
tragedies I said I wanted to discuss. The second is that some here in 
Congress are preventing solutions to that problem. We have the power to 
prevent this national crisis from growing. We have the power to prevent 
it, just like we have the power to prevent diseases from killing us too 
soon.
  We have the ability to treat our unhealthy health care system today. 
Five congressional committees--three in the House and two in the 
Senate--have studied the data, debated the arguments, and proposed 
ideas for what to do next. While we listen to the stories of real 
people with real problems, some try to divert our attention with 
distortions, distractions, and deception. While we strive to change a 
broken status quo, some defend it at all cost. While we seek common 
ground, some insist on opposing good ideas simply because they are 
proposed by people who sit on a different side of this Chamber or by a 
President who comes from a different political party.
  As former Senate leader Bob Dole said last week:

       Sometimes people fight you just to fight you.

  It is inexcusable to let a preventable disease become a deadly 
disease. It is equally unacceptable to deny the American people the 
change they demand. If we don't act, we will not have the luxury of 
saying later, with regret: If we only knew then what we know now. We 
know now exactly what we need to know. We know now that deaths are 
preventable. The question before the Senate is, do we want to prevent 
those deaths? These tragedies are avoidable. The question before the 
Senate is, do we want to avoid these tragedies?
  The broken health care system is fixable. The question before the 
Senate today is, do we want to fix the broken system?

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