[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4949]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   USE LEVERAGE OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO IMPROVE QUALITY AND COST OF 
                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. HIGGINS of New York asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS of New York. Mr. Speaker, last week's healthcare disaster 
was instructive because, in the end, it was never really about health 
care at all.
  Your plan was a thinly-veiled scheme to deliver a massive tax cut to 
health insurance executives and their cronies. UnitedHealthcare is one 
of America's largest, private healthcare insurance companies. 
UnitedHealthcare is under investigation for defrauding Medicare and the 
Federal Government out of billions of dollars. UnitedHealthcare's CEO 
made $66 million in 2014--one man, one salary, in 1 year--$66 million 
under investigation for defrauding the Medicare program; and your bill, 
on page 67, in seven simple words, would have rewarded this potentially 
criminal behavior with a massive tax cut.
  Mr. Speaker, Americans, on average, will pay more than $10,000 per 
person for health care this year. Let's use the enormous leverage of 
the Federal Government to drive down those costs and to drive up 
quality for all Americans.

                          ____________________