[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25783]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. COURTNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, this past Sunday the front page of The New 
York Times reported a survey of insurance brokers across America who 
have now predicted that the increase in insurance rates for small 
businesses in 2010 will be 15 to 23 percent. Last year it was 7 to 12 
percent. So if your premium as a small business for a worker was $4,500 
in 2008, it will be $5,500 in 2010. That is the Halloween surprise for 
small businesses in America today. There is no group in America that 
takes a harder hit than the self-employed and small group markets who 
have no mechanism to pool their risk that large employers and people in 
the Congress benefit from, as members of the Federal Employee Health 
Benefits plan.
  This bill will create a national purchasing exchange so that the 
risk-takers in America will actually have the opportunity to provide 
and buy affordable health insurance for themselves and their employees. 
It is for America's capitalism and for America's entrepreneurs that the 
need to fix this market is the most critical, and that is why it is 
time to stop listening to the voices of ``no'' and move forward with 
real health care reform that will make America's economy grow and be 
viable.

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