[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24740]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               PASS COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM

  (Mr. TONKO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, this past Sunday, America's Health Insurance 
Plans, the trade group representing the largest health insurance 
companies in this country, released a report. The insurance companies 
contend that health insurance reform will raise premiums on families by 
as much as $4,000 in the next 10 years.
  I am here to tell you this morning, Mr. Speaker, that this is simply 
not true. Just last week, the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax 
research group, released a report that said middle-class American 
families will see a savings of about $1,900 from the House's health 
reform bill.
  Insurance companies are worried that health insurance reform is going 
to cut into their profits. This report is a last-ditch effort to stop 
this Congress from providing real relief to the millions of Americans 
who already are struggling with the high cost of health insurance.
  Even the company hired to produce the report has issued a statement 
saying that they produced a skewed report that analyzes only part of 
the bill because that is what the insurance industry paid them to do. 
That company has since distanced itself from this report.
  This report completely ignores critical policies that hold down the 
cost of health insurance, such as the grandfather policy that allows 
you to keep the plan you have, affordability credits, and the health 
insurance exchange.

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