[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26532]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           WE MUST MAKE HEALTH CARE A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE

  (Mr. LEWIS of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, we are at a historic moment in our 
Nation's history.
  After a half century of debate, the time has come to make health care 
a reality for every single American. We must make health care a right 
and not a privilege. People are dying without health care. This week we 
must say, No more. No more.
  People are losing their homes because they are without health 
insurance. This week we say, No more.
  The American people cannot wait a moment longer. Every day that we 
wait, 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance.
  We have a good bill before us. We have resolved our differences. We 
have been struck in the paralysis of analysis, and this must end and 
end now. Now is the time to act. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once 
said, ``Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the 
most shocking and inhumane.''
  We must not perpetuate this injustice. The spirit of history is upon 
us. We have been called to lead. Now is the time for the Congress to 
act.

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