[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4473-4474]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the House of Representatives deserves the 
appreciation of the entire Nation for what it did last night. A clear 
majority of Congressmen and Congresswomen voted in favor of the bill 
that a supermajority of Senators passed on Christmas Eve a few months 
ago. Tomorrow the Senate will begin to put the final touches on this 
enormous effort.
  Last night's vote took both courage and common sense. Their votes 
were momentous. They were historic. They were right.
  After a century of working and waiting, going back to the days of 
Theodore Roosevelt, real reform will become the law of the land, not in 
a matter of

[[Page 4474]]

years or months or weeks but in a matter of hours. In the very near 
future, various parts of this bill will take effect and improve the 
life of millions. Soon insurance companies will no longer be able to 
refuse to cover children with preexisting conditions. They will no 
longer be able to drop your coverage just because you get sick.
  Small businesses that today cannot afford to cover their employees 
will soon get tax credits to help them right that wrong. Tens of 
thousands of small businesses will benefit in Nevada alone--24,000 to 
be exact.
  Reform means that if you have a preexisting condition and no health 
insurance, you soon will be able to finally afford the care you need to 
get and stay healthy.
  If you are stuck in the prescription drug doughnut hole, you will 
soon get a check to help pay for your medicine. That will help seniors 
stay healthy while we completely close that loophole, once and for all, 
for nearly 60,000 Nevada seniors and millions more across the country.
  Also, starting this year, no insurance company will be able to impose 
a lifetime limit on your benefits.
  Those changes are just a tip of the iceberg. They are only some of 
the benefits that will kick in almost immediately--some in 3 months, 
some in 6 months but none longer than what I am going to talk about 
today--just a fraction of what this bill will do over the long term for 
the health of our Nation, our economy, and, most importantly, our 
citizens.
  When all is said and done, more than 600,000 Nevadans will be able to 
access affordable coverage. More than 300,000 Nevadans will get tax 
credits to help them buy health coverage from the private market. 
Another 300,000 seniors in the State of Nevada will get free preventive 
annual services, such as physicals and checkups.
  Nevadans who buy insurance on their own will also save money. Because 
of this bill, their premiums will go down as much as 20 percent, which 
means Nevada families can save more than $2,000 a year.
  This bill will also save our country money and lots of it. Over the 
next 10 years, it will slash our deficit by $143 billion; in the next 
10 years, a $1.3 trillion deficit reduction.
  Many Senators deserve credit for getting us this far, and many will 
help us cross the finish line this week.
  I thank especially Chairman Baucus, who oversaw the financial aspect 
of this bill that will bring down health care costs and vastly reduce 
our deficit; Chairman Dodd, who oversaw the parts of reform that will 
ensure more healthy Americans, and they did that in the HELP Committee. 
Not only will it allow people to stay healthy, it will allow them to 
stop being sick in the first place. Our friend, Ted Kennedy, must 
surely be proud of this work. Chairman Harkin, who has led the HELP 
Committee down the home stretch, deserves our thanks for the work he 
has done to make college more affordable. Chairman Conrad, who is head 
of the Budget Committee, will continue to guide us through the budget 
reconciliation process--a fiscally responsible final piece that will 
further reduce the deficit, ensure more Americans can afford more 
health insurance, and fully close the doughnut hole.
  I know the other side watched the House vote last night, as we did. 
As they did, I hope they finally learned that a strategy of delay, 
myths, and fear might slow progress, but it cannot stop it. I hope this 
week, when we take up the final revisions of what will soon be the long 
overdue law, our Republican friends will finally act in the interests 
of their constituents and not just in the interests of the insurance 
industry or their political party.
  The other side has made it clear they will try to stop progress based 
on a technicality. But without substance, they are powerless. What this 
budget process is all about is simply making a good law that we passed 
on Christmas Eve even better.
  The other side is still talking about the number of pages in the 
bill, but we will not stop talking about the number of lives it will 
save.

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