[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25785]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker and Members of the 
House, during my recent trips back to my congressional district, I 
spent time with many small business owners who are still in business 
and who are able to continue to keep their doors open, but they do so 
by cutting back the health care benefits to themselves and to their 
workers. In some cases, they're getting rid of health care, and they 
lament that fact because they are very fond of their workforce. They 
believe that they're very productive and that they've helped them, but 
they simply cannot afford it.
  They're part of a larger movement in this country of businesses, both 
large and small, to get out of the health care field and to stop 
offering these benefits, in some cases, to new hires and, in some 
cases, to all of their employees. We're seeing this with a record 
number of companies. Why are they doing that?
  It's for the same reason that families are struggling. It's because 
the costs of health care continue to go up and up and up. It's crushing 
America's families and it's crushing America's businesses.
  That's why we're going to have in the next couple of weeks a vote on 
health care in this House and in the Senate, and we will send a bill to 
the President's desk so that, finally, we will have real competition in 
this system and so that insurance companies will no longer run this 
system for their fun and profit.
  The time for change is coming. It is time now for health care for all 
Americans.

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