[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24963]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   HEALTH COSTS HIGH BECAUSE WE HAVE $800 BILLION OF WASTE IN SYSTEM

  (Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, health care costs are 
not high because people have health insurance. They are high because we 
have $800 billion of waste in the system. Now our friends in the Senate 
are proposing to increase taxes on health insurance.
  When workers such as ironworkers and steelworkers and communication 
workers and the IBEW negotiate their pay package, they work to make 
sure that their health care plan is covered. Too often now they find 
that they don't take a raise because their health insurance is going up 
in cost. They worked to have lower copays, lower deductibles, to have 
vision, dental, mental health services, among others.
  But now we are talking about taxing these plans. What we need to do 
is figure out ways we can actually lower health care costs instead of 
discouraging people from having health insurance.
  After all, isn't this what we are supposed to be trying to do? The 
communication workers alone are being told that these new proposals may 
cost their workers about a thousand dollars more per year in taxes.
  This is the wrong approach. It's not good health care. As someone who 
has practiced in the health care field, I am telling you, it's bad 
medicine.

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