[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 1042-1043]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, a lot of people are talking this morning 
about a judge in Florida regarding his opinion on the health reform 
law. I wish to talk about the law very briefly and then talk about the 
effort to take away the rights that are in the law that are now 
prevalent in the land.
  The health reform bill has already saved lives and saved lots of 
money. It is saving lives because children are not getting their 
insurance taken away, as happened before we passed this law. They can 
stay on their parents' health insurance plans until they are 26, and 
even younger kids can't get kicked off their plans because they have a 
pre-existing condition such as asthma or diabetes. Older Americans are 
healthier because we are starting to close the coverage gap on 
Medicare, which means they can have a wellness check for nothing--it 
doesn't cost anything--which means, as far as the Medicare doughnut 
hole, seniors can finally afford the prescription drugs they had to 
skip or split before we passed this law.
  Saving money. Last week, we saw how much this law is helping cut down 
fraud in the health insurance industry. We have recovered more than $4 
billion so far, and the law will keep cracking down on those who are 
taking advantage of the vulnerable. As small businesses in Nevada and 
across the country have discovered, we are cutting taxes for businesses 
that give their employees health care.
  These consequences of the health reform law--I have mentioned only a 
few of them: save lives, save money, and save Medicare as we promised--
are just the tip of the iceberg. As more parts of the law go into 
effect, it will do even more good; even more lives and more money will 
be saved. It is important to remember this context when we talk about 
the opinion handed down yesterday in Florida.
  Two Federal judges have ruled in favor of the law, two have ruled 
against it. Lawsuits and lawmakers' efforts to repeal this bill are 
nothing more than attempts to raise taxes on small businesses, add more 
than $1.5 trillion to the deficit, force seniors to pay more for their 
prescriptions, and let insurance companies once again stand in the way 
of a child and the medical care he or she needs.
  Health care reform is complex, but this debate is very simple. We put 
patients in control of their health care. Repeal would be insurance 
companies back in charge. We cannot afford it, not with our wallets and 
certainly not with our lives and health.
  Let me spend just a minute on jobs. The health reform bill is about 
jobs. I was visiting with someone from George Washington University, 
the medical department. As I walked in, she said: You know, because of 
the health care bill, we are going to hire 500 new physicians. I went 
back and told my staff, and they said: Oh, no, that couldn't be true. I 
had my staff go back and check with the woman who told me that, and it 
is true. That is just one facility.
  Also about jobs, we need to look to the future. Democrats are working 
to create jobs and strengthen the middle class, and we are starting 
today with the first jobs bill of this Congress. This bill, which will 
modernize Americans' air travel, creates and protects more than 280,000 
jobs. We are improving the infrastructure and reducing costly passenger 
delays. We are going to have a passengers' bill of rights. This is the 
kind of commonsense solution that creates jobs while making our economy 
more efficient and America more competitive. This is a bipartisan bill. 
We need to stop refighting yesterday's fights and start strengthening 
our future. We are ready to work, to get the American people back to 
work, and I am hopeful and confident our Republican colleagues will 
join us in starting with this jobs bill on the floor today.

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