[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 24871-24872]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, earlier this evening, only an hour or so 
ago, Senator Udall from New Mexico led a discussion with Senator Burris 
and Senator Whitehouse and others. I was there part of that time, with 
Senator Cantwell involved from the Chair. It was extolling the 
importance of the public option, that it makes such a difference in 
terms of keeping the insurance industry honest, keeping costs down, and 
providing extra choice, so if people want to choose private insurance, 
they can; if they want to choose the pubic option, they can.
  The insurance industry, in its wild claims only 2 days ago in a 
manufactured report that an accounting firm did that was clearly 
incomplete and hastily done, claimed huge insurance company increases 
based on our legislation. The fact is, they have already doubled 
insurance rates in less than a decade, in only 7 or 8 years. That is as 
good an argument for the public option as we can find.
  In 5 minutes or so, I would like to speak to the Senate. I have come 
to this floor, night after night, reading letters from constituents I 
have, from Trumbull County near Youngstown, near Summit County, the 
Akron area, from Cuyahoga County. These all happen to be, in this case, 
from northeast Ohio, from near Dayton or Cincinnati or Wilmington or 
Chillicothe.
  What I found in letters I am getting from my constituents, as is the 
Presiding Officer, I think, when he gets letters from Richmond or the 
Washington suburbs or from western Virginia, is that most of this mail 
I get comes from people who had good insurance policies, they thought, 
until they got really sick, and then their insurance policies would be 
canceled or they would spend so much of their time fighting insurance 
companies just to get payment, to get payment for something they 
thought they were covered for. I would like to share a couple of these 
letters.
  Beverly and Dennis from Trumbull County write:

       My husband is 62 . . . and worked for the same factory for 
     42 years . . . last year the factory shut down and his 
     severance package was $8,500 before taxes and 3 months paid 
     insurance.

  Forty-two years, $8,500 severance, 3 months paid insurance.

       After the insurance ran out, we picked up COBRA, which will 
     be up this December right before Christmas. We've talked to 
     different private insurance companies, but without anything 
     really wrong with my health, they say my minor medical 
     condition diagnosed 30 years ago was a preexisting condition. 
     The best plan offered, just for me, was $1,000 a month with a 
     $10,000 deductible

  A preexisting condition from 30 years before.

       We have always been proud of our accomplishments over the 
     43 years of our marriage. I don't want to lose everything we 
     have worked so hard for if something happens to us medically.
       I wish those opposed to reform--

  I wish my colleagues would listen to this.

       I wish those opposed to reform would have to worry about 
     the next meal, the next bill, the next doctor's appointment, 
     or what would happen to them if they got sick.
       We thought things would be smooth sailing after we got to 
     our age, but we're afraid our boat is sinking and we are 
     drowning.

  Forty-two years in the same plant, married for 43 years, played by 
the rules, seemed to do everything right. This is what is happening to 
these people in their early sixties.
  As many of these letters indicate, a lot of these letters come from 
people who are 59 or 63 or 61 or 64, just holding on until they can get 
Medicare because they know Medicare, like the public option, will never 
drop them for preexisting conditions, will not discriminate against 
them because of geography or age or disability, will not cut them out 
of their plan, whether it is the public option or whether it is 
Medicare, for all kinds of reasons the way private insurance does.
  Angela from Cuyahoga County, Cleveland area:

       As a registered nurse I have seen too many cases where the 
     lack of insurance prohibits needed care. I have experienced 
     first-hand what it means to have insurance but be afraid to 
     use it. My husband has worked for the same employer for more 
     than 10 years, but both he and I are afraid to use his 
     insurance for fear that too many medical bills will increase 
     the cost of our plan. In the past 2 years, he has received 
     memos stating that to keep medical bills down we should seek 
     medical visits only when necessary.
       As a strong believer in preventive care, I feel discouraged 
     to go for my yearly physical

[[Page 24872]]

     and my husband has not had a physical in 5 years.

  This is from a nurse.

       Thank goodness we are reasonably healthy. I encourage you 
     to keep pushing for a public option--I'd be one of the first 
     to sign up.

  Think about that, her husband got a note from his employer saying: 
Please don't go to the doctor unless you absolutely have to. She is a 
nurse. She hasn't had a physical for a year. She hasn't had her yearly 
physical. Her husband hasn't had a physical in 5 years. They know they 
should get a physical. They are afraid of what it would cost both them 
and the employer to do that. Again, they are the victims of the health 
care system that too often skimps on preventive care, too often denies 
people coverage for reasons it should not, too often simply is a burden 
to so many of the people who have insurance.
  I will close with a letter that is about health care but also about 
something this Senate needs to vote on quickly; that is, unemployment 
insurance. This is Mark from Franklin County, central Ohio. He writes:

       I need my health insurance badly since I have had cancer 
     twice. The only way I could previously afford insurance was 
     through my employer. But my company was recently bought out 
     and I was laid off.
       Because of my preexisting condition, I can't afford the 
     price of private insurance. In addition to my health and job 
     issues, I have only one more extension on unemployment.
       I really don't know what to do if I can't afford insurance. 
     If I could find a way to receive insurance or get a job with 
     insurance, I could be here for my little girls who I care for 
     and who looks up to me for the world.

  One person on the other side of the aisle, one Republican, stood up 
and objected. We were trying to pass the same unemployment insurance 
extension as they did in the House of Representatives. I know every 
Democrat is for extending unemployment, and I know most Republicans are 
probably for extending unemployment, but one Republican stood up and 
stopped us from doing that. That is so important because every day we 
fail to extend unemployment insurance, people are dropping off the 
unemployment insurance rolls and have to fend for themselves in ways 
that they don't know what to do.
  It is not as if people don't want to work. The situation clearly is 
that people want to work, they are trying to find a job. In this 
economy, in my State as in many States around this country, people 
simply cannot find work, as hard as they are trying. We have an 
obligation to extend unemployment benefits. Not next month, not next 
year, but tomorrow when we come back here, I am hopeful my Republican 
friends across the aisle will not object to that extension of 
unemployment.
  The last letter I will read is from Renee from Van Wert County, 
western Ohio, near the Indiana border. She writes:

       I, along with 300 other workers, were locked out of our 
     company last year after it closed down and moved to Mexico. 
     We will be losing our benefits this month and it is urgent 
     you get unemployment extension passed as soon as possible. It 
     would help so much if we could get our benefits extended, at 
     least through the cold winter months.
       I'm looking everywhere for a job and hope there is 
     something opens up by the spring and the economy will pick 
     up.
       Thank you for reading my story and making me feel like 
     there is hope.

  Renee, again, we will go to the floor tomorrow to try to extend 
unemployment benefits.
  Renee points out, particularly with the winter months coming, people 
will have to choose, if they don't have unemployment extension, between 
food and heating their home and taking care of their kids and all the 
responsibilities people have.
  Somebody like Renee, from Van Wert County--I know Van Wert County. I 
spent a lot of time there. I know about the shutdown of this plant that 
went to Mexico. There are 300 people who lost their jobs. It is not as 
if they don't want to work. They were working hard, showing up for work 
every day. They were productive workers. They did what was asked of 
them. They were taxpayers, were involved in Little League, involved in 
their community. Those 300 workers can't find work. It is not a 
question that there is a job out there for them; they were looking for 
work. That is why it is so important, as they look for work, for them 
to get some help from their government. This is not welfare, extending 
unemployment insurance. It is called insurance, unemployment insurance, 
because they pay into it. They ought to get some help from that 
unemployment fund.
  It is clear from this mail that people want this legislation to pass. 
They know our health care bill will allow people who are happy with 
their insurance to stay in the insurance they have but will build 
consumer protections around those policies--no more preexisting 
conditions, for instance, to deny care.
  Second, this bill helps small business provide insurance as most 
small businesspeople do. They want to provide insurance for their 
employees.
  Third, this bill will help those who do not have insurance. They can 
go into this insurance exchange and get insurance.
  Fourth, this bill provides for a public option, so if they don't want 
to go to CIGNA or Wellpoint or United or one of the big health care 
companies, they can decide to sign up for the public option which will 
never throw them off, just as Medicare would never disqualify their 
coverage.
  It is clear what we have to do in the next month. In my State alone, 
from Akron, to Ravenna, to Cleveland, to Garfield Heights, to Sylvania, 
to Cincinnati, 390 people in my State every day lose their insurance--
390 people every single day lose their insurance. It is important that 
we move as quickly as we can in the next month or so.

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