[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Pages 25722-25723]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      HEALTH CARE WEEK XV, DAY II

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, from the outset of the health care 
debate, Americans have had one key test for reform: Will it make health 
care cost less? Will it make health care cost less? Well, over the past 
few months, a number of independent groups have reached the conclusion 
that the legislation we have seen fails that test. In fact, it would 
make health care more expensive. So even aside from the issue of 
whether the so-called government option is in or out of the bill that 
hits the floor, I think it is fair to say it isn't what the American 
people were looking for.
  Let's start with the independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget 
Office. The CBO says the proposed fees and taxes on drug makers, 
medical labs, and medical device manufacturers would lead to higher 
health care premiums for Americans who get health insurance through 
their employers, and it says premiums will go up for people who choose 
to buy their own insurance. So whether you get insurance through your 
employer or whether you buy it on your own, your premiums go up. The 
Joint Committee on Taxation, another nonpartisan group, also looked at 
the legislation. It says that a proposed excise tax on insurers would 
also drive up the cost of employer-provided insurance. Here are two 
independent, nonpartisan groups looking at the health care legislation 
we have seen. They both conclude it will drive up the cost of health 
care.
  Americans thought reform was supposed to lower costs, not raise them. 
Yet every day it seems we see further confirmation that the plans under 
discussion would lead to higher costs and more long-term spending and 
debt.
  One study we have seen says the Democrats' tax on insurance plans 
would cost families nearly $500 per year in higher premiums starting 
next year, long before any of the proposed benefits would kick in. 
Another study says that a family of four in my home State of Kentucky 
would see their premiums go up from about $350 a month to nearly $800 a 
month--a big increase. Even if these families were eligible for the 
subsidies in the Democratic bill, their premiums could still be about 
50 percent higher than they are now. This is mind-boggling. Only in 
Washington would lawmakers propose a health care reform that actually 
raises costs and do so in the very same month the Federal Government 
recorded its largest deficit in history and at a time when unemployment 
approaches 10 percent.
  Americans thought the whole point of reform was to lower costs. Yet 
the plans we have seen would do just the opposite, and the American 
people are taking notice. Americans are asking us to follow through on 
the initial pledge to lower health care costs, but that

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means enacting reforms that would actually lead to lower costs, such as 
getting rid of junk lawsuits and incentivizing healthy choices. 
Americans want reform. Instead, the administration and its allies in 
the Senate are giving them higher premiums, higher taxes, and massive 
cuts to Medicare. Mr. President, that is not reform.
  I yield the floor.

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