[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 864-865]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I come to the floor pretty 
regularly to read letters from Ohioans, from people in my State, about 
things in their lives that are important to them. I think in this 
institution we--all of us, myself included--too often forget the pain 
of so many people at home who have lost jobs, who have lost hopes, who 
have lost health care.
  I think often about--as I know the Senator from Oregon does--how 
difficult it would be for a parent to explain to their son or daughter: 
I lost my job and we lost our health insurance and now we may have to 
move.
  Nobody has worked harder in the Senate than the Presiding Officer 
from Oregon on fixing HAMP and reforming some of the programs that can 
help people stay in their homes. I appreciate the work the Presiding 
Officer does.
  My letters today are from people all over Ohio about health 
insurance. It was a long fight to be able to take on the insurance 
companies and basically say to the insurance companies: You are not 
going to run this health care system the way you have, excluding people 
with preexisting conditions, denying claims after they have turned in 
their insurance after they have been sick, dealing with all the 
problems people have.
  The business model for health insurance in this country too often has 
been the insurance companies hire a bunch of bureaucrats to keep people 
from buying insurance--the preexisting condition exclusion--and then 
hire a bunch of people on the other end, when someone gets sick and 
turns in their insurance claims, to try to deny them their claims. I 
understand insurance companies do that. I do not even blame insurance 
companies because they are all competing with one another. They may 
have to do that. But the fact is, it does not work for our health care 
system.
  That is what we fixed last year, and that is what Ohioans understand. 
I guess I--I do not want to say ``resent,'' but in some ways I do 
resent when I see conservative Washington politicians, who, for 20 or 
25 years, have had taxpayer-financed health insurance for them and 
their families, and now they want to vote--in the House of 
Representatives, and some do here--to take away benefits for senior 
citizens or take away benefits for small businesses or young people who 
have a preexisting condition or others.
  I will not take too long, but I wish to read three or four stories or 
maybe a handful more than that.
  Laura--I will only mention first names. These are letters from people 
in Ohio who have written me. Laura, from Dayton, in Montgomery County 
in southwest Ohio, writes:

       My youngest nephew has juvenile diabetes and he just 
     started college in-state. Due to the new health care law, he 
     will be able to stay on my older sister's health care 
     insurance plan when he graduates from college. My third 
     oldest nephew can now go back on my second oldest sister's 
     insurance plan.
       It appears [that some in Congress care] more about money 
     than the American people. Please fight for me so I won't have 
     to worry about losing my health insurance plan if I get 
     seriously ill in the future.

  This story comes from Christine in Medina County, up close to where I 
live. It is a county south of Cleveland. She writes:

       My name is Christine and I want to tell you the story of 
     Carol . . . my mom. . . .
       Nine years ago, my father was downsized. His position of 
     over 40 years was eliminated and so was my parents' health 
     coverage. My father was only a few months shy of retirement 
     so Medicare was available to him and my mom was on COBRA. My 
     mom's employer of over 20 years had just recently shut its 
     doors and while she found work through a temp agency, it was 
     only part-time and she didn't qualify for benefits.
       A few months later my mom was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's 
     Lymphoma and Emphysema.
       Fortunately, her life was not in immediate danger and their 
     lives were coasting along until her COBRA ran out.

  COBRA is a plan you pay a lot of money for. Actually, you pay the 
employer's and the employee's side--yours and the employer's--to get 
coverage for up to 18 months after you lose your job and your 
insurance.
  Christine writes:

     . . . have you ever tried to find healthcare coverage for 
     someone with a history of cancer and emphysema? I can, so 
     from personal experience, it's infuriating, but I was able to 
     find it. It would . . . cost her $1,400 per month--

  Mr. President, $1,400 per month--

     with a $4,000 deductible per year.

  That means she would pay insurance--$1,400 a month. She would not be 
able to collect on any of her bills until she had already paid an 
additional $4,000 out of her pocket.

       This was more than my parents were bringing home each month 
     so needless to say whatever savings and retirement they had 
     was used up quickly. What other option did [they] have?
       During this time, my mom's health deteriorated. She 
     required chemo and several hospital stays due to her lung 
     collapsing. . . . I remember sitting with her in the hospital 
     and listening to how worried she was about how she was going 
     to pay [her] bill.

  As if these kinds of illnesses are not bad enough in the stress it 
causes to a family, the anxiety it causes to a family, on top of that, 
they just wonder: What do we do about insurance? We know people get 
sicker and recover more slowly when they have that kind of anxiety 
about paying the bills.

       My parents are good people. My dad is a veteran. They 
     worked their entire lives and sacrificed to give me and my 
     older sisters a better life than they had. They were 
     fortunate to have 3 tireless advocates always looking out for 
     them. Not everyone has that.

  She then goes on:

       State and Federal programs are what helped my parents. 
     Without them, I honestly don't know where they'd be today.
       My hope is that you'll remember my mom and everyone like 
     her. Their lives are depending on it.

  She says: State and Federal programs are what helped my mother.
  This whole attitude of let's repeal the health care bill and then get 
the government out of it, and letting individuals take care of 
themselves is the American way--no, it is not. The American way is 
Medicare, is Medicaid, is Social Security, is private enterprise, is 
individualism, is helping one another, is a spirit of community in our 
communities. It is all that, and it is not get government out of our 
lives. They are against Social Security and they are against Medicare. 
Those are not the American values I was raised with and most people I 
know were raised with.
  Michael from Twinsburg, north of Akron, in northeast Ohio, writes:

     . . . my 22 year old son--a college student--was kicked off 
     my insurance plan because of his age last year. It now costs 
     $460 a month to insure him.
       In January, he will be added back to my policy and it will 
     cost nothing. There is no additional charge to add my son. 
     This is due to the health insurance legislation.
       Please [talk about] these good things. Most people do not 
     know this and other good things.

  Keep in mind, as I read these, this kind of benefit that goes to 
Michael's son. If the people in this body and in the other body--the 
people in the House of Representatives who actually voted to repeal the 
health care bill--if they have their way--and these are mostly people 
who they themselves are getting taxpayer-financed health insurance--
they want to deny to Michael and his son, they want to deny those kinds 
of benefits we have voted for, while they, at the same time, are 
getting taxpayer-financed health insurance. I guess one word would be 
hypocritical, another would be callous, another would be cold. I do not 
understand that way of thinking from some of my colleagues.
  Steve from Groveport, in Franklin County, Columbus, the center of the 
State, writes:

       I believe the new health care law is one of the greatest 
     things ever done for the middle class. . . .
       I am so tired of hearing that [many in] this country [are] 
     against it. Every poll I've seen shows it's split . . . down 
     the middle. The other side . . . has got to be heard!

  Steve wrote this a couple weeks ago. I think what we have seen has 
changed, as people learn more about these benefits. For instance, come 
January 1, every senior in America can go to the doctor and get, 
without copays and deductibles, a physical or can get a mammography 
test or can get screened for osteoporosis or can get colorectal 
screening.
  Seniors also, in the so-called doughnut hole, where they continue to 
pay a

[[Page 865]]

premium but do not get a benefit--under the Bush-constructed health 
care bill, there is this huge hole that costs people a lot of money--
because of the health care bill, because it is law, because the Senator 
from Oregon and I and others voted for it and the President signed it, 
those seniors now will see their drug costs during that period cut 
entirely in half, not taxpayer-subsidized cut in half but the drug 
companies giving up half of what they were paid.
  This is from Donald in Hardin County, northwest of Columbus:

       I know firsthand that the lack of necessary medical and 
     dental services for children and students of all ages has 
     created a serious impediment to the learning process. 
     Families with access to a regular source of medical care are 
     more likely to keep the entire family healthy and create a 
     better learning environment within the home.
       The health care reforms you helped pass are vital to the 
     nation's economic recovery and a crucial ingredient for great 
     public schools. . . . Moreover, passage of this reform was a 
     moral imperative. . . .

  Donald, in addition to what he writes about young people--there is an 
effort in the Ohio legislature where I believe 30 Republican 
legislators have legislation to cancel or eliminate universal all-day 
kindergarten--as if cutting back on children of that age, when 
children's brains are developing, and they are growing and maturing, 
especially at those crucial ages of 3, 4, 5, 6 years old--to pull the 
rug out from under them makes absolutely no sense.
  The last letter I will read is from Rachael, who lives in Cincinnati, 
in southwest Ohio:

       I simply wanted to thank you for the Pre-Existing Condition 
     Insurance Plan. It is . . . very important . . . to me.
       Your support for health care reform is greatly appreciated. 
     Health insurance for my pre-existing condition will become 
     one less thing I need to worry about. Thank you, thank you, 
     thank you!
       I can now concentrate solely on finding a job to replace 
     the one I lost in January. . . .

  Again, I hear people say--I have heard this for years. President Bush 
said it a few times, others have said it: Everybody in this country 
gets health care. If something is wrong, you go to the hospital, you go 
to the emergency room.
  Well, the emergency room does not take care of you if you have 
chronic asthma, the emergency room does not take care of you if you 
have cancer. The emergency room will take care of you if you go in with 
a heart attack, but the emergency room does not take care of you if you 
need preventive care to keep you out of the hospital, to make you less 
likely to have that heart attack.
  I read these letters about health insurance. I don't want to debate 
health insurance legislation anymore. I don't think we need to talk 
about this. We have passed the law. We have made things better. We have 
given people who have insurance better insurance now because of these 
consumer protections. People without insurance now will get assistance. 
People who have insurance and were about to get thrown off can keep it 
now.
  We need to focus on the real problems in this country that we haven't 
addressed well enough, one of which is job creation. I am hopeful my 
colleagues will back off this whole idea of let's keep debating health 
insurance and let's keep relitigating this and let's keep rediscussing 
it and let's try to repeal it. Instead, we can fix some things, as the 
President said last night, make some minor changes in it. But let's go 
back to what we need to do: create jobs in this country and help 
manufacturing.
  My State is the third largest manufacturing State in the country. We 
need to do a lot to make sure that as we innovate, as we do the best 
innovation in the world and do the best research and development, that 
those jobs stay in the United States and don't get outsourced. That is 
our mission, to make sure these jobs are created here.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. In my capacity as a Senator from Oregon, I ask 
unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  Without objection, it is so ordered.

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