[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[House]
[Pages 26753-26756]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Driehaus). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, the Affordable Health Care for America Act,

[[Page 26754]]

our House bill, 3962, will make health care affordable for middle class 
families, provide security for seniors, and guaranteed access to health 
insurance coverage for the uninsured.
  I'd like to go through these charts to let the viewing audience, 
Americans, and particularly Californians, know what will be provided by 
the Affordable Health Care for America Act. And this is a blend of 
three different bills that came out of various committees in front of 
the public, voted out by the committee, amended, and now combined in 
one bill.
  Our first interest is making health care affordable for the middle 
class families. We want to guarantee security for our seniors. We want 
responsibility to our children, and it will not add a dime to the 
deficit.
  The health insurance reform means ending discrimination for people 
who have preexisting medical conditions. You can never be denied 
coverage because you have a preexisting condition. No dropped coverage 
if you become sick. You know, so many people get into the health care 
system when they're acutely ill, and that means they cannot go to work. 
Then they find that they're having trouble paying their house note, 
paying their car note, even buying food. And we want them to know that 
there will be no dropped coverage if you become ill or you lose your 
job. No copays for preventative care. And we want Americans to go see 
their health care provider as often as they need to so they can stay 
healthy. We want to prevent conditions that require medical care. But 
if you should fall ill, you can be covered for your medical treatment.
  Yearly caps on what you pay and no caps on what insurance companies 
pay. Reining in health costs for families is one of our major targets, 
reining in health care costs for businesses and for government.
  You know, people talk about not wanting government in between their 
doctor and themselves. Well, just think about that statement. What is 
Medicare and Medicaid? What is Social Security? These are government 
programs. We call them the safety net so you will not fall through the 
cracks and into devastation. We want fiscal responsibility and we want 
to reduce the deficit. We want to eliminate from health care waste, 
fraud, and overpayments to private insurance companies. Why should 
health care of Americans be for profit? Health care ought to be 
guaranteed to every American. There's major emphasis on innovation, on 
keeping people well, and prevention.
  Now, misinformation is out there galore. You need to understand this: 
If you have insurance, you like your insurance, you keep it. And if you 
have a doctor, you can keep that doctor. Certainly you can keep that 
plan. And, remember, this bill came about because there were 38 million 
people in America that were uncovered, and every American should have 
health coverage.
  We want to emphasize for seniors we strengthen Medicare and we 
improve the benefits. There is one Member that is telling everyone that 
we're going to take away the benefits from our seniors. That is so 
untrue. We want to improve benefits, including closing the doughnut 
hole, and we will get into that a little later.
  If you don't have or you lose your insurance, a new health insurance 
exchange. It's more like a one-stop-shopping marketplace, and it 
includes a public option. Now, what does ``option'' mean? It means a 
decision. It means a choice. It means you have the right to make your 
own choice. And a public option for consumers means competition for 
better prices and better coverage. We want to be sure your coverage is 
affordable and accessible and of quality. And there will be 
affordability credits to help Americans and small businesses buy 
insurance.
  Now, if we don't have health reform, there will be skyrocketing 
health care costs, and it will increase by $1,800 each year for the 
average family. Care and medication already postponed by more than half 
of all Americans may become more unaffordable, and Americans face a 50/
50 chance of losing their insurance in the next 10 years.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to our Member from California, 
Judy Chu, who might make some comments, and then we might have some 
questions back and forth.
  Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, the health care reform bill is crucial to 
Californians across the State, but it will especially benefit my 
constituents in the San Gabriel Valley and East L.A. who struggle every 
day to survive without proper health care.
  The percentage of California residents that lack health insurance is 
about 19 percent, one of the highest rates in the country. But fully 
one-third or 33 percent of the residents of my district are uninsured. 
This is a situation that is simply unacceptable for a State and the 
Nation that prides itself on being the most advanced and wealthiest in 
the world.
  But this bill will provide everybody stability, security, and peace 
of mind. It will provide peace of mind for the low income and 
uninsured. People like Patricia, who is age 64 and had insurance until 
she retired. Then she was left without insurance and she got very sick. 
Her kidneys failed, and she was too young for Medicare. It was not 
until she was in the intensive care unit and dying of renal failure 
that she was able to qualify for early Medicare benefits. This 
situation will not occur with health care reform. With health care 
reform, people like Patricia will be able to buy health care and there 
will be credits provided to her so that she can afford it.
  Health care reform will be good for people who don't have coverage 
right now, people like Scott, who had insurance all his life but 
changed jobs, became self-employed, and wanted to buy insurance but 
found, to his shock, that he was denied because of a preexisting 
condition. He had asthma as a child. Health care reform will help him 
because he will not be denied because of a preexisting condition. He 
will not have to worry about being dropped from insurance because of a 
serious illness. He will not have to worry about copays and deductibles 
that will cause him to go into bankruptcy. He will not have to worry 
about a lifetime cap on medical care in case of a very serious illness. 
In fact, with passage of health care reform, never again will American 
families face bankruptcy because of unexpected health care costs, as 
they will not have to pay more than $10,000 a year for out-of-pocket 
health care costs.
  And this bill will give peace of mind to small businesses. Small 
businesses and their workers are particularly impacted by the high cost 
of health care in this country. They account for the largest share of 
the uninsured. Small businesses pay higher rates today because they do 
not have the advantage of large numbers of employees over which to 
spread insurance risk.
  Even if a small employer currently has healthy workers, the small 
business faces the prospect of dramatically increased future premiums 
if any employee actually needs to use the coverage, such as one small 
company in my district, an insurance company with five workers. One 
worker had a baby that was premature, causing very, very expensive 
care. The next year, the insurance company drastically raised their 
rates, and now the business has to make a decision about whether to 
continue covering its employees. But this bill will allow small 
businesses to afford health care coverage and reduce health care costs 
through tax credits that are available to the smallest of employers.
  It is clear that the status quo is unacceptable. If we do nothing, 
health care costs will continue to rise, quality of care will 
deteriorate, and every American will risk losing their health care. The 
growing cost of health care is one of the biggest drains on our 
economy. If we are to bring our Nation back to fiscal health, we must 
have real, fundamental health care reform.

                              {time}  1815

  This bill is good for my district, and it's good for California, 
where hospitals are overwhelmed with uninsured patients, where 
thousands are without jobs and without insurance and where the State 
doesn't have the financial resources to pick up the slack. Not in six 
decades have we been this close to achieving this most crucial task of 
reforming our health care system. Let

[[Page 26755]]

me be clear, we would be derelict in our duty to the American people if 
we let this opportunity go to waste.
  Ms. WATSON. Congresswoman Chu, do you find in your districts the 
demographics that have changed in the last few years, that people in 
your district are going into the health care system more acutely ill?
  Ms. CHU. Yes. They wait until the last minute, such as the person I 
talked about, Patricia, who was age 64 and had insurance. But during 
this 10-year period between the time she retired at age 55 and age 65, 
where she would have qualified for Medicare, she had no alternative. 
She had kidney failure, but she waited until the last minute, and she 
was almost dying before she got care. This is a situation that people 
in California are faced with in California every day.
  Ms. WATSON. You know, California being the largest State in the Union 
and being the first State to become a majority of minorities, people 
come over the Pacific as well as over the border. Many people think 
that many of our immigrants come from over the border. But those who 
come from across the Pacific have many different ways of receiving 
health care, more traditional and so on. So they try to treat at home. 
Then when they come into the system, they are more acutely ill. So I 
have been concerned about the formulary and having brand names on the 
formulary to treat these odd kinds of conditions, rather than always 
pushing generics.
  So I understand that the bill that will come in front of us very soon 
will allow for not only generics but these brands to be prescribed by 
their physicians. I know that in my district, the 33rd Congressional 
District in Los Angeles--I include Hollywood, Hollywood Hills and so 
on--there was a young man at an event taking pictures, and when I 
finished explaining the bill, H.R. 3200 at that time, he sat down 
beside me, and he said, Thank goodness the government is looking at 
health care reform because I require a medication--and get this--that 
costs $74,000 a month. I thought I didn't hear him correctly. I said, 
Are you talking about $74,000? He said, Yes. I said, Well, what is this 
condition? He said, I have a condition that I was born with that starts 
the skeletal system, the muscular system and vital organs to 
deteriorate. My copayment is over $696 a month. Thank goodness for the 
government helping me live.
  Helping people live is so important, and I know that you have heard 
from people in your district, much like the ones I have described.
  Ms. CHU. Yes, I have heard many stories like that. In fact, I had a 
town hall for people who just spoke Spanish. I had a town hall for 
people who just spoke Chinese. I will never forget one woman who was 
speaking Spanish, talking about the fact that she was covered but that 
her son, age 21, was not covered and, in fact, when she tried to get 
coverage for him, he was denied because of a preexisting condition. So 
they were forced to go down to Tijuana every month to just buy 
medication out of pocket.
  But with this health care bill, insurance companies can cover 
children of parents up until the age of their 27th birthday. So young 
adults like that will be covered with this health care reform bill.
  Ms. WATSON. Isn't that wonderful. I have not been able to understand, 
you know, during the month of August why there was so much ranting over 
health care. It appeared to me that some mean-spirited persons went out 
and gathered people up, misinformed them and told them government is 
trying to take something away from them. What we're trying to do is to 
give something. I understand one of our own Members has asked for 
people to come from across the country tomorrow to confront us in the 
halls and say, Don't take away my health care. My response would be, We 
want to guarantee you health care at very little cost, at high quality.
  I think it's foolish. You know, why the ranting and not the 
reasoning? As you know, our President has said not a penny over $1 
trillion. In fact, not a penny over $900 billion. We are reinventing, 
innovating the system so that we can guarantee Americans the best, the 
most affordable, the most accessible quality.
  Ms. CHU. Absolutely. My town halls actually showed the opposite of 
what some might think. It showed people who were very sincerely 
concerned about their futures, who wanted to have that security and 
stability and peace of mind and who very much needed this alternative.
  But you raise a very good point. Not only will this do so much good 
for the people of America; it is also fiscally responsible. The 
Congressional Budget Office has actually said that this will actually 
reduce the budget deficit over the next 20 years.
  Ms. WATSON. Judy, you bring so much credibility because you were a 
statewide officer in California, and you dealt with a lot of these 
fiscal issues. So we're very pleased to have you here. I represent 
Hollywood, and anything can happen there. We had a rally out in front 
of the Catholic church on Sunset Boulevard, Blessed Sacrament. Right 
behind the church was Selma Avenue School, the last school I taught in. 
We had the Catholic priest who was emceeing; we had a rabbi, female; we 
had a Muslim priest--Muslim minister; and we had Protestant ministers 
there; and they were testifying.
  One gentleman came up--he had a heavy accent. He said, I am an 
American citizen. I have worked four jobs. My 2-year-old daughter got 
sick. I did not make enough money to pay for insurance coverage. My 
daughter died. There wasn't a dry eye because everyone in the audience 
could put themselves in that position. There was a real tall gentleman 
off to my left. He had a placard that he kept pushing up, and it had 
the face of our President, Barack Obama, with a Hitler kind of 
moustache. So disrespectful. So when I got to the mic--you know, I'm 
Catholic. I made the sign of the cross. I spoke to him in Latin and pax 
Domini. He put that sign down, and a woman in front of him kind of hid 
it. I found out he was an actor, and someone paid him to come.
  I would like to kind of give the viewing public some idea of how the 
health reform bill will impact on my district. Forty-eight percent of 
the district has employer-based coverage. These constituents can keep 
their own insurance if they like. In my public forum, I had the 
audience raise their hands if they were insured, and most hands went 
up. How many of you like your insurance? Most of the hands went down. 
So I said, If you like it, you keep it. If you don't, you have a 
marketplace to choose the plan that best fits your family's needs.
  So the bill that will be in front of us in a few days improves 
employer-based coverage for over 304,000 residents in the 33rd 
Congressional District of California. That's Los Angeles, Culver City 
and Hollywood. It provides credits towards insurance costs for up to 
173,000 households. There are 22,200 individuals who have preexisting 
medical conditions that could prevent them from obtaining health 
insurance. The bill ensures that they will be able to obtain insurance, 
where they have been denied in the past. It will improve Medicare for 
75,000 beneficiaries, including closing the prescription drug doughnut 
hole for 6,100 seniors.
  It provides a tax credit for 15,100 small businesses in my district 
that have 25 employees or less and pay an average wage of less than 
$40,000. It allows 16,300 small businesses to obtain affordable health 
care coverage by joining the exchange. It provides coverage to 138,000 
uninsured individuals, and that includes 30 percent of the district's 
residents below the age of 65. It protects 1,100 vulnerable families 
from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs. It reduces the 
cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and health care providers by 
$29 million. That is the direct impact on my district.
  In the State of California, more than 20 percent of the population is 
uninsured. Workers at private sector businesses of all sizes are 
experiencing an increased likelihood of being uninsured, although it is 
most pronounced in businesses with fewer than 10 employees. More than a 
third of the uninsured have family incomes of more

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than $50,000 per year. Of families with incomes between $25,000 and 
$50,000 in the State of California, 27 percent are uninsured. Seventy 
percent of uninsured children are in families where the head of the 
household has a year-round full-time job.
  Mr. Speaker, we are so pleased that this House can come up with a 
piece of legislation that will guarantee our children, our working-
class families, and our seniors full coverage so families won't have to 
go bankrupt because they had preexisting conditions, and the poorer the 
family, the less health care they have had because they simply can't 
afford it.
  So, Mr. Speaker, it's incumbent on us--it should be bipartisan 
because I don't understand why people would rant and rave over 
providing all Americans with affordable health insurance.

                              {time}  1830

  If we are going to be the strongest country on the globe, then we 
need to ensure that we have a healthy population. If we choose to go 
thousands of miles away and fight unnecessary wars, and we want 
victory, then we have to be sure our military is healthy. We have to be 
sure that our families can sustain themselves while their loved ones 
are over fighting for this country. If we want to ensure a victory, 
then let's provide the infrastructure on our land that will help 
Americans be the strongest people on Earth.
  It is an embarrassment, and right now the Inter-Parliamentary Union 
is meeting here in the Capitol Visitor Center. When we went over a few 
months ago to join them, they said, Why is America not at the table 
with us? We were embarrassed to say that we're caught up in a health 
care debate whether to give health insurance to all Americans. How can 
we pride ourselves of being the strongest leader, and we cannot even 
provide health care in an affordable fashion to our citizens?
  I want everyone to hear this. A robust option, a robust health 
option, says that you can make a choice. You can look at a marketplace 
of plans that will address your family's needs. You can buy into that 
plan. It also says that seniors, when they get to that doughnut hole, 
when they have spent 24 or $2,500, they are not going to fall into that 
hole where they have to make decisions whether to pay their rent, pay 
their house note, their car note or buy food, because this bill will 
help you lift that burden. We are going to pull people out of the 
doughnut hole.
  We are going to say to you, if you lose your job, your coverage will 
continue. We want to say to you Americans, if you fall ill, you don't 
have to be bankrupt. We want to say to America that we care about your 
health. We are willing to put our policies on the line for you.
  Do not be confused, and do not let the opposition misstate the 
benefits. You will receive more health benefits under this plan. Just 
know, we are providing for you the best health care insurance, and we 
are keeping it within the budget that our President has set.
  I do hope that if you come here to the Capitol, or you go to the 
offices of your Representative, or if you write them, e-mail them or 
call them, encourage them to vote for a policy that will insure all 
Americans. We want to be sure we are the strongest, the healthiest and 
the happiest nation in the world.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________