[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3515-3516]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. SCHAUER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. SCHAUER. Madam Speaker, health care is an issue of basic 
economics to middle class families, seniors and businesses. During the 
health care debate, my constituents have asked me to listen. I'm 
listening.
  The story I heard last week is from a college in my area. It employs 
300 people. As in the case with many employers, the lion's share of 
their costs come from employee costs, 70 percent in this college's 
case. Their health insurance premiums this year went up 17 percent. 
Seventeen percent. What does that mean? It means job cuts or tuition 
increases, or both, both disastrous for middle class families in our 
economy.

[[Page 3516]]

  Seventeen percent premium increases. The Nation's five largest 
private health insurance companies' profits went up $12 billion last 
year while they dropped 2.7 million people from coverage. Our current 
health care system may work for the health insurance industry, but it 
is broken for middle class families and is hurting our economies. It 
must be fixed now.

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