[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25792]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     COMMONSENSE HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. FORTENBERRY asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. Mr. Speaker, Terry recently wrote me, ``Congressman, 
I can buy a car in Iowa, beer in Kansas, a fishing license in South 
Dakota, land in Colorado, but health insurance? No place but 
Nebraska.''
  Mr. Speaker, in these difficult times people are hurting. Families, 
and especially seniors, need more affordable options, from what they 
put on their table to what they put in their medicine cabinets.
  My constituent, Terry, pointed out a commonsense reform--purchasing 
health insurance across State lines. There are other reforms, such as 
appropriately addressing preexisting conditions, promoting a culture of 
health and wellness to drive down costs, creating new insurance risk 
pool models for small businesses and families, strengthening community 
health centers, and expanding opportunities for health savings 
accounts. These changes could mark a truly bipartisan policy effort 
that increases competition among health insurance companies and 
benefits all Americans.

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