[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26051]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 HEALTH CARE REFORM: WILL WE STAND FOR THE PEOPLE OR FOR THE INSURANCE 
                               COMPANIES?

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Speaker, health care is a basic right in a 
democracy and a moral responsibility of our government consistent with 
the preamble and the Constitution itself; yet we are being told that 
it's not possible to have the kind of single-payer health system which 
every industrialized democracy in the world has.
  We compromised single-payer with a public option. We're being asked 
to compromise a public option with negotiated rates. In conference, 
we'll be asked to compromise negotiated rates with a trigger.
  In all of this, in each and every step, the insurance companies win. 
They get $900 billion in new taxpayer subsidies. They get to raise 
their premiums, increase their copays and their deductibles, while the 
public is forced to pay for private insurance, and the insurance 
companies win big.
  If this is the best we can do, then it's time to ask ourselves 
whether the two-party system is truly capable of representing the 
American people or whether it's become so compromised by special 
interests that it can't even protect the health of our own people.
  This is a moment of truth for the Democratic Party in particular. 
Will we stand for the people or for the insurance companies? Will we 
have a true public option or will we be co-opted?

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