[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27129]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     FIXING HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, the Democratic health care bill fixes a 
number of long-standing problems with health insurance and health care 
in America. The health insurance industry is exempt from antitrust law 
in the United States. That means they can and they do get together and 
collude. They collude to drive up your premiums, they collude to 
curtail your coverage, they divide up the world and determine where 
each of them might or might not sell policies so there isn't 
competition in any way. That is all legal. They are exempt.
  The Democratic bill with my amendment repeals that privilege for this 
industry. They will have to play under the same rules as every other 
business in America. That will lower premiums between 10 and 25 
percent, according to the Consumer Union. That is one step. That is in 
the Democratic bill. The Republicans wouldn't touch that with a 
hundred-foot pole. The insurance industry is so generous at campaign 
time, they want to actually give new loopholes to the industry, which I 
will get to in a moment.
  The Democratic bill outlaws denying you coverage because you were 
once sick, preexisting condition. The Democratic plan denies canceling 
your policy when you have been paying your premiums for years because 
you got sick. That is called rescission by the industry. No more. No 
lifetime caps which are hidden in the small print. People find out 
about them when they get a serious illness. Outlawed by the Democratic 
bill.
  And, also, the Democratic bill will put annual caps on people's 
spending. No one will ever again lose their house in America because 
they lost their job and their health insurance and they got sick. Yes, 
the hospital still has to take them, but they will take your house. 
That won't happen if the Democratic bill is adopted. The Republicans 
will deal with none of those abuses, in their obeisance to the 
Republicans, their patrons in the insurance industry.
  We are going to begin to fill in the doughnut hole which they 
created. We are going to help small businesses buy plans with health 
credits. It is a good start. It is not perfect. It can be improved as 
we go through the process. But it is a good start at reining in the 
costs of an out-of-control health care system.
  Now the Republicans' alternative, as I said, they continue the anti-
trust exemption and the price fixing by the insurance industry. They 
allow them to continue to deny you coverage because you were once sick. 
They allow the insurance industry to do rescissions and cancel your 
policy when you got sick, even though you have been paying your 
premiums. And, of course, individual coverage will not be limited, so 
they will still have bankruptcies and people losing their houses.
  But wait. It gets better. They have something called the new national 
plan. That is the key to what they are doing here. You can buy a 
national policy, and it will be cheaper. And, oh, wait a minute. Here 
is the small print, page 122 of the Republican bill: Your national 
policy will only be subject to the rules in the State in which it is 
written. Not where you live. If you have a problem, you will have to 
file with the insurance commissioner in the State where it is written. 
That is probably not too good because we have some States that 
basically don't regulate the industry at all.
  But it gets better. The Republicans are so creative. They have 
created a 51st State called the Northern Mariana Islands because of the 
convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the scandals around 
him, the sweat shops, the sex scandals, all that stuff. That is where 
your new national plan will be based, is the Northern Mariana Islands.
  So if you buy a policy in my home State of Oregon and you want to 
file a complaint, you will be calling the insurance commissioner in the 
Northern Mariana Islands. And perhaps, when he gets out of jail, that 
might even be Jack Abramoff. What a great deal. It would be a joke if 
they weren't serious about it. This is something that the industry 
wanted. They wanted a new loophole to better abuse consumers, and the 
Republicans want to deliver it to them. They can't be serious.
  So I would say to my colleagues, you can throw in with the insurance 
industry which they seem to think is totally benign and always there 
for the American people. Or you can throw in on the side of consumer 
protection, lower costs, and health care for all Americans. That's the 
choice tomorrow.

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