[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 25013]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          PURSUIT OF AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WEINER. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure again to come to the floor 
to talk about the issue that is capturing all of the national attention 
and a lot of attention of this body, and that is our pursuit of 
affordable health care for all Americans.
  There has been a lot of discussion about this so-called public 
option, this choice people would have when they are searching for 
insurance when they don't have it, the idea being that if you have a 
public alternative, an option that doesn't rely on profits, that 
doesn't rely on high overhead, that consumers would have a chance to 
choose it if they don't have insurance through their own employers.
  Now, it is interesting, because just this week we got an enormous 
boost, those of us who care about having a public option in the final 
bill, and it came from, of all places, the health insurance lobby. In a 
rare moment of candor, in a rare moment of telling us exactly what it 
is that they are going to do, they have told us something that should 
come as no surprise to anyone that has health insurance. They said they 
are going to keep raising rates. They said we can pass whatever we want 
here in Washington, they are going to keep raising rates. As a matter 
of fact, by their calculation, by 111 percent.
  Well, on one hand, I am stunned that they told the truth. On the 
other hand, I am not very surprised. Our rates have been going up twice 
if not three times the rate of our salaries every year. They have been 
going up about $1,000 for people who have health insurance. So the idea 
that they are thumping their chest and saying they are going to keep 
doing it is not a surprise. But the fact that they were so honest about 
making it very clear that we need competition for the health insurance 
companies is refreshing.
  They have made it crystal clear. The private insurance companies have 
said, you know what? If you don't have competition for us, rates are 
going to keep going up.
  The public option, by the way, is not a mysterious thing. A lot of my 
colleagues here in the House of Representatives have it. Yes. They have 
Medicare. And I checked. Not a single one of them that is eligible for 
the government public plan we have today has said no. Maybe it is 
because they are like the country, that says, you know what? Ninety-six 
percent of people say they like Medicare. They like the care they get. 
It only has 3.5 percent overhead, not the 30 percent overhead and 
profits that private insurance companies get.
  They like it, but they don't want you to have it. They don't want you 
to have the plan that they have. So many Members of Congress who are 65 
say, no, you can't have it if you are 55 or 45 or 35. It is only for 
us.
  Well, that is not exactly true. It is for every single American who 
turns 65. It is a government-funded, single-payer, government-
administered health care plan that every year we do a survey about, and 
96 percent of people who are on Medicare say they like it.
  You can do the following test: Knock on the door or go to a neighbor 
or stop someone at the diner who looks like they are 55. Ask them, 
would you like it if tomorrow you got Medicare? Watch their face light 
up. They would love it.
  Now, we are not proposing that. The President is not proposing that. 
I know I would like to have a program like Medicare for all Americans. 
All that is being proposed in the public option is that people who 
don't have insurance through their work, people that don't have 
insurance through Medicare or Medicaid, that relatively small group of 
people, the 10 percent or so of the country, that when they go out and 
shop for insurance with the subsidies we are going to give them, one of 
the options is not the insurance companies that said in this report 
they are going to raise rates 111 percent. That is it. That is what the 
big bogeyman is all about.
  Let me show you this chart here to give you a sense for how 
unfrightening that concept would be. This is the $2.6 trillion of money 
we spend every year on health care. $2.6 trillion. I ask my colleagues, 
do you think we can do a little better for $2.6 trillion. We are 
getting such a great bargain?
  Well, let's take a look at this. These boxes here, Medicare, 
Medicaid, DOD, Veterans Affairs and Department of Health Services, are 
all single-payer, government-funded, government-administered health 
care plans. And every day I hear my Republican friends thumping their 
chest, you gotta protect the VA, you gotta protect Medicare.
  Oh, yeah? But you don't want to extend it to the rest of the country. 
Why is that? What is the big fear? The fear is, they are in a wholly 
owned subsidiary of this group right here. This is the private 
insurance companies, the ones that wrote this report that says that 
rates are going to go up 111 percent.
  Now, in this $854 billion, do you know how much of that is profits 
and overhead? Take a guess. Up to 30 percent. And what some us are 
saying is, if you want to find savings in the system, and you don't 
want to cut into health care, maybe it is a place to start. Can you do 
maybe with 10 percent? 12 percent? 15 percent? Up to 30 percent. That 
is savings that we can get right there. But we are trying to get 
savings using a free market model. Competition. Let's see if there is 
someone that can do it more efficiently than 30 percent overhead.
  We know, for example, Medicare can do it with about 3.5 percent 
overhead. That is the public option, and my colleagues don't want them 
to have what they have, which is government-funded health care.

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