[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26554]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, of course there is no 
Republican plan for health care. I rise today to discuss the 
unconscionable economic cost of doing nothing, which is their plan.
  Without health insurance reform, small businesses will pay $2.4 
trillion in health care over the next decade and up to $800 billion in 
additional costs to them. Without reform, health care costs will rise 
from 18 percent of GDP today to a staggering 34 percent by 2040. 
Without reform, government spending on Medicare and Medicaid will 
nearly triple from 6 percent of our GDP to 15 percent of our GDP by 
2040. Without reform, Federal, State, and local governments paid $42.9 
billion in 2008 to reimburse the costs of uninsured visits to emergency 
rooms, placing a tax burden of $627 a year on every family in America, 
and that, without reform, will triple by 2030. Without reform, Mr. 
Speaker, the average employer-sponsored health insurance family 
deductible grew almost 50 percent from 1999 to 2006.
  These are unconscionable cost increases, and we cannot sustain them. 
We need reform now.

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