[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 402]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1010
            FOR-PROFIT HEALTH CARE MODEL IS THE WRONG MODEL

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. The for-profit health care system is the problem. Eight 
hundred billion dollars every year is spent on corporate profits, stock 
options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing, and the cost of 
paperwork.
  In the for-profit system that we have, nearly 1 out of every 3 
dollars goes for things not related to health care. If we took that 
$800 billion and spent it on care for people, we would have enough 
money to cover all medically necessary needs in addition to dental 
care, vision care, mental health care, prescription drugs, and long-
term care.
  We now have a situation where 50 million Americans don't have any 
health insurance. Americans wouldn't have to worry about losing 
everything they've worked a lifetime for because there is an illness in 
the family.
  This debate is the wrong debate. A for-profit model is the wrong 
model. We should be talking about universal health care, single-payer, 
not-for-profit health care, Medicare for all, quality health care for 
all Americans.

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