[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27123]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. ROE of Tennessee asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, this week, Democrats released 42 
additional pages of the health care bill in their manager's amendment, 
meaning the total package now stands at 2,032 pages.
  As I see it, the manager's amendment makes it more likely that we 
will see everyone in the exchange on a government-run plan within a few 
years of its creation. The amendment calls for insurers to report 
annual premium increases to the government and gives the administrator 
the power to kick insurers out of the exchange for increases that he or 
she deem to be excessive, a term that is left entirely up to the 
discretion of the administrator.
  What we have been saying all year is that a plan that doesn't pay the 
cost of care will shift higher costs to private insurers, as hospitals 
and providers have to make up their losses on payments from the 
government. As costs are shifted, private insurers are left with no 
choice but to increase premiums.
  Independent studies have shown that millions of people will be 
dropped from their current coverage and put on the public plan. Now, 
with the manager's amendment, Democrats are simply quickening this 
transition by kicking insurers off their plan. It is a bad amendment, a 
bad bill, and it should be rejected.

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