[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 4109-4110]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   ANNIVERSARY OF HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, this is the 1-year anniversary of the 
President's signing of health care reform, and I am happy to stand and 
say it represents one of the most important pieces of legislation in 
decades. For too long, we let our Nation's health care crisis grow and 
ignored it. People who said let the market work its will, have to be 
honest about what the market did. The market started excluding people 
who had preexisting conditions--and who among us doesn't? The market 
started charging higher and higher prices for health insurance. The 
market, unfortunately, was uncontrollable.
  We tried to deal with it, to bring pricing under control and deal 
with the realities families face across America. When I was in the most 
heated debate about the health care bill with tea party devotees in 
front of my office in Springfield, I told them: Let me tell you about 
some of the people in Illinois I have met. At some point, the tea party 
people said: Stop telling stories, Durbin. We don't want to hear any 
more stories. Of course, they don't because those stories are the 
reason we did this. Those stories represent real lives.
  Let me tell one of those stories, representing a family who comes 
from East Peoria, IL. This is Jill and Ric Lathrop. They have two sons, 
Sam and Nat. One of them has a Superman t-shirt on. They are 12 and 14 
years old and they have severe hemophilia. It is a rare and costly 
medical condition.
  Thanks to the twice-weekly injections of blood clotting replacement 
factor they receive, the boys are able to live happy and healthy 
lives--and they look pretty darn good in that picture. That lifesaving 
medication costs roughly $250,000 per child, per year.
  For years, the family has lived in fear they would reach the lifetime 
limit of their insurance plan. That was a reality. Many of these plans 
had a ceiling that paid no more beyond a certain amount. Well, it 
happened to them in 2005. The hospital where Ric works as an MRI 
technician instituted a $2 million lifetime cap on benefits. For most 
families, that wouldn't even be an issue, but for the Lathrops, who 
know their annual medical expenses will always total hundreds of 
thousands of dollars to keep their boys alive, that was devastating.
  Rather than waiting for their benefits to run out, the Lathrops moved 
to Peoria, where Ric found a job that provided insurance without 
lifetime limits. He moved his family and found a job to get an 
insurance policy that would keep their boys alive. When the open 
enrollment period for their health insurance plan rolled around, they 
waited on edge to see if their insurance would, once again, institute 
an annual or lifetime limit on care that would force them to move again 
to ensure adequate coverage for their sons.
  Thanks to the bill we passed last year, insurance companies can no 
longer place lifetime limits on care. Think about what that means to 
this family who picked up and moved and looked for a new job to get 
health insurance to keep their boys alive. Is that what America should 
be? I think not.
  Let me be very blunt about this. As good as this law was, it was not 
perfect. There are things that need to be addressed, examined, and 
changed. I have said before, and say again, the only perfect law was 
written on stone tablets and carried down a mountain by ``Senator 
Moses.'' Everybody else has been trying and hasn't quite hit that 
standard. So let's be humble about this and be open to change. But 
let's not repeal this, as the Republicans

[[Page 4110]]

have called for time and again. Let's not say to the Lathrop family: 
Sorry. You are on your own if another lifetime limit comes along that 
may literally endanger the lives of these two beautiful little blue-
eyed boys.
  That is what this debate is about. It is a story about a real family. 
That is why the other side hates to hear these stories, because the 
stories literally explain why stepping backward in time and repealing 
health care is exactly the wrong course for America.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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