[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Page 26465]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have had, during the last 6 months, 
extended hearings on the need for health care reform. Every Member in 
the Democratic caucus believes the present system of delivering health 
care in America is in trouble. It is not fair to patients or to 
physicians. Certain classes of people are being damaged. Medicare 
recipients are hammered every day.
  What we are doing is presenting to the American people alternatives 
to the insurance industry running the world of health care. We cannot 
continue the way we have been going. That is what the Republican plan 
is--to continue more of the same, with the health insurance industry 
controlling everything, not professionals.
  We are going to continue working on this with the CBO, which now has 
the plan we have sent to them with different alternatives, and they 
will report back as to the numbers on that. We will have in the near 
future a program that will be open to the American people that will 
show that is what we are doing. We are returning the health care to the 
people who can do the best job in health care. Rather than the doctor 
having to go through some bureaucrat working for an insurance company, 
he or she can make a decision on their own. This is what the nurses 
want, this is what the physicians want, this is what the patients want, 
this is what the hospital administrators want, and this is what the 
teaching hospitals want.
  Health care in America is not in good shape. All you need to do is 
read any fair discussion of the health care system, recognizing now 
that one-sixth of every dollar is spent on health care in America 
today. If we don't bend that curve, it will be up to 35 cents of every 
dollar. America cannot continue this. We are lagging behind the rest of 
the world, and that needs to change.

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