Sr. Merkley<\/p>\n
Mr. President, we stand at a critical juncture today as we
\ngrapple with how to fix our broken health care system. Rapidly escalating health care costs are
\ncompounding the current economic crisis in America. Families and businesses across the country
\nare struggling to afford increased premiums, co-payments and deductibles. Premium increases are taking an increasing
\nportion of workers’ wages and more firms are under pressure to reduce or
\npossibly eliminate health care coverage for their workers. <\/p>\n
Helping middle class families and small businesses afford
\nhealth care coverage is a critical component of improving the nation’s
\neconomy. Mr. President, families and
\nbusiness owners in Oregon have told me at length how concerned they are about
\nthe rising cost of health care. Those
\nfamilies who have health care are concerned about losing it and they’re
\nconcerned about the rising cost of the premiums and the co-pays.<\/p>\n
And those citizens without health care and nearly 47 million
\nAmericans are unable to afford the cost of health care, those citizens are
\nworried about getting sick, or they’re sick and they’re worried about how to
\npay for the drugs and treatments to get well.
\nAnd under this system, our small businesses who are working hard to
\nprovide health care coverage for their employees are worried that they won’t be
\nable to continue, that they’ll have to raise the share of the cost that the
\nworkers carry. Or maybe they’ll have to eliminate the health care plan
\naltogether. <\/p>\n
Mr. President, I want to share with you the experience of
\none of my constituents, Jeanette Hall of Milwaukie, Oregon. She was employed but she could not afford health
\ninsurance. Jeanette had a mole on her
\narm and it was a mole that she thought should be looked at and her friends and families
\nurged her to have it looked at. Finally
\nshe went to the emergency room to have it examined. The diagnosis was melanoma, but Jeanette
\ncould not afford to have the surgery to address it. <\/p>\n
Now, sometimes one gets a fortunate turn in life and Jeanette
\ngot such an example. She was interviewed
\nby a local news station that was doing a story about the plight of the
\nuninsured. Jeanette says she is only
\nalive today because of that moment when a news station covered her story
\nbecause after that story aired, she received a call from a local hospital that
\noffered to help. They basically said
\nthat in exchange for being the subject of an observational surgery for medical
\nstudents, the hospital would cover the cost of the surgery. And so Jeanette is now cancer free and she
\nfeels very blessed about that. What is
\nmore, she now has a job where she has health insurance and that certainly puts
\na brighter horizon in place for her. <\/p>\n
But while she’s pleased about her personal health and her
\npersonal health insurance, she’s worried about health insurance for families
\nand friends and health coverage system for all Americans in this broken health
\ncare system. Her brother is very
\nill. Her brother does not have health
\ninsurance. Her brother needs an
\noperation to save his life but he’s not getting that operation. And she anticipates that his life expectancy
\nis very short now as a result so she sees it very personally, very
\ndirectly. And just as she hopes for
\nhealth care for her and her family and for American citizens, so do citizens
\nacross this nation. Citizens like
\nJeanette are not looking for a government handout. They don’t expect something for free. But what they do want is access, choice,
\nquality health coverage, affordable health coverage for their families and
\ntheir workers.<\/p>\n
We need to offer citizens like Jeanette a lifeline in these
\nhard economic times. As a member of the
\nSenate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, I am very proud of the
\nbill that we passed out two weeks ago which puts us a significant stride closer
\nto providing health care, affordable quality health care for every
\nAmerican. It’s a plan that will lower
\ncosts, provide consumers with more choices and increase competition. That act, the Affordable Health Choices Act,
\nis a landmark bill. It gives every
\nAmerican a full range of health insurance options, including a community health
\nplan. It ensures that those who like
\ntheir current health care coverage can keep it, and it guarantees that no
\nAmerican will be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.<\/p>\n
That act makes sound investments in disease prevention, in
\nhealth promotion and it strengthens the health care workforce. The Affordable Health Choices Act gives small
\nbusinesses better choices for high-value health insurance by creating a new
\nhealth insurance market place, or gateway as it’s called, which will help lower
\ncosts and increase competition. In fact,
\nlet me explain this a little bit more. <\/p>\n
Right now, in America, if you are an individual trying to
\nget health care, you have to pay an extraordinary premium because you don’t
\nbring any market share clout to the negotiating table. And, right now in America if you are a small
\nbusiness, you don’t get a good deal because you don’t bring any market clout to
\nthe negotiation. So, this health care
\nbill at its heart, addresses this problem.
\nIt creates an exchange where you would go and purchase health care not
\nas an individual, but as a group of hundreds of thousands of fellow
\ncitizens. And, that health care plan
\nwould bring the combined negotiating clout of those hundreds of thousands or
\neven millions of individuals so that you get a much better deal as an
\nindividual and you get a much better deal as a small business.<\/p>\n
And I know that every individual and small business in America
\nwho has gone through this process of trying to get a fair, decent health care
\nplan knows exactly what I’m talking about.
\nAnd, that’s the heart of this reform.
\nBut even as we make historic progress on guaranteeing affordable,
\nquality health care for all, there are powerful forces underway to halt this
\nesfuerzo. <\/p>\n
There are those that favor the status quo, and they’re
\nworking on their talking points. They’re
\nrallying their special interests.
\nThey’re doing polls to see what phrase will most scare Americans from
\nchanging. They want to defeat this
\nhistoric march towards quality, affordable health care for every single
\ncitizen. But, Madam, Mr. President, one
\nthing is clear, we cannot afford to fail.
\nMaintaining the status quo is not an option. The last time we attempted to tackle the
\nproblem, in 1992, health care spending was $849 billion. Today health care spending in America is $2.2
\ntrillion and growing by over 10% a year.
\nSo march it forward , next year it will be over $2.4 trillion, the year
\nafter that, $2.7 trillion, the year after that, $3 trillion and so forth. We’ll be spending nearly $40 trillion under
\nthe status quo over the next ten years. <\/p>\n
Premiums in the early 1990s were 7% of a family income. Today premiums eat up 17% of a family’s budget. In 1996, employers paid about $3,700 toward a
\nfamily plan. Now that is well over
\n$10,000 and growing and workers are picking up an increasing share of the
\ncost. Today under the status quo, 60% of
\npersonal bankruptcies are due to health care costs. More than half, more than half of personal
\nbankruptcies are due to health care. And
\nwhat’s more, more than half of those personal bankruptcies due to health care
\nare with folks who have health care insurance, but their health care insurance
\nsimply wasn’t adequate to cover the extraordinary costs of a medical
\nemergency. 75% indeed of those
\nindividuals who are going through bankruptcy due to health care costs had
\nhealth insurance. <\/p>\n
Mr. President, if we look to the future, the consequences of
\ninaction are even more dire. But,
\ndespite all of that, every day we hear from special interests, we hear from
\ntheir allies, who are standing up using their poll-tested phrases like
\n“government takeover” in order to scare the American people into rejecting
\nhealth reform. <\/p>\n
So here are citizens who know firsthand, firsthand the
\nchallenge and the stress of health care, but they’re being manipulated – an
\neffort to manipulate them by powerful special interests that want to scare
\nthem, to turn them against reform and change.
\nNow, the opponents of reform, they have a health strategy. And their strategy is the status quo. And why do they like the status quo so
\nmuch? Because the special interests are
\nmaking so much money with the current health care system. Huge profits for insurance companies, huge
\nprofits for other health care players.<\/p>\n
But here’s the problem, soaring profits for health care
\ncompanies equates to out of control unaffordable premiums for America’s working
\nfamilies. Now, let’s examine the status
\nquo program put forward by the opponents of reform. Under the opponents’ status quo strategy, the
\npremiums that are paid by a family would go from about $13,000 a year, now just
\neight years in the future, $24,000, nearly double in a short period of
\ntime. If you want out of control
\npremiums, then support the opponents’ status quo efforts. <\/p>\n
Second, under the opponents’ status quo plan, the cost of
\nhealth care for a small business would more than double and the cumulative
\ncosts are extraordinary. We see the
\ncosts here starting and then in billions of dollars in 2009, $156 billion, the
\ncost imposed on small businesses soaring to $2.4 trillion by 2018, the
\ncumulative costs. So, over a ten year
\nperiod, small businesses carrying a multi-trillion dollar burden under the
\nstatus quo. <\/p>\n
Third, under the opponents’ status quo plan, the number of
\nuninsured Americans increases, and why is that?
\nIt’s very simple. Families can’t
\nafford these premiums. Small businesses
\ncan’t afford these premiums. Even large
\nbusinesses may not be able to afford these premiums. Even large businesses may not be able to
\nafford this more than 10% per year increase in premiums. Indeed, under one study, the uninsured
\nAmericans, under the status quo opponents’ plan would reach 66 million
\nAmericans over the next ten years, up from about 47 right now, it’s a huge
\nincrease.<\/p>\n
Fourth, under the opponents’ status quo plan, our community
\nhospitals would see uncompensated care go through the roof. Why is that? Because we’ll have more
\nuninsured. They have to go to the
\nemergency room to get their care and so the hospitals end up carrying that
\nburden. What does that do? That results in a cost shift from those who
\ndon’t have insurance and go to the emergency room, those costs gets shifted on
\nto those with insurance, continues the death spiral in soaring insurance
\npremiums that we have right now in America.<\/p>\n
What is more, under the opponents’ status quo approach, we
\nget the same failure to invest in prevention and disease management. You know, insurance companies don’t really
\nhave an incentive to invest in disease management because that might make you
\nhealthier 10 years from now or 20 years from now. We get the same investment in a fee system,
\nin a cost-plus system that is driving up the cost of health care. Let me make this very clear. If you have any form of expense in which the
\ncompensation is cost-plus, the person providing those services is going to
\nprovide as many services as possible. If
\nyou’re building a fighter and you say, we’ll pay your costs plus 10% – those
\ncosts – they’re going to make sure that fighter plane is as expensive as
\npossible. And the same is true in health
\ncare. Yet, that model of compensation is
\nthe dominant model in the health care system today.<\/p>\n
We need to invest in an integrated, integrated approach,
\nlike the Mayo Clinic does, where the doctors are not motivated by profits but
\nby providing health care to their patients.
\nThey have no incentive to run you through that M.R.I. machine four or
\nfive times. Their only incentive is to
\nhelp you get well. That’s a very
\ndifferent approach, an approach we need to expand on here in America. An approach that says, we need an integrated
\nhealth care system, not a cost plus fee system. <\/p>\n
So, when opponents of reform try to scare you and say we
\ndon’t need to change anything, just remember how scary their plan is. And I know that you understand what I’m
\ntalking about because you see it every day.
\nThe opponents are saying, it’s okay if insurance companies routinely
\ndeny necessary medical care and cancel policies in order to increase their
\nprofits. The opponents are saying they
\nprefer an America where parents will lie awake at night worried if they can
\nafford health care their children need because they don’t have health insurance
\nfor their children. <\/p>\n
The opponents want an America where a worker is just one
\npink slip away from losing their job and their health care. That’s a double calamity that strikes
\nmillions of families in America every year.
\nThe opponents are arguing for an America where a would-be entrepreneur
\nwho has worked hard and may want to open a business may not do so because he or
\nshe cannot health insurance in a volatile, expensive small business
\nmarket. The opponents want an America
\nwhere small businesses who do offer insurance are faced with double-digit,
\nbudget-straining premiums that strengthen the economic viability of that small
\nbusiness. I want to see our small
\nbusinesses thrive. Our small businesses
\nare incredibly creative, far more patents per capita than large businesses. Our small businesses expand and grow and
\nabsorb more workers. We want them to
\nthrive and a major challenge they have today in thriving is our broken health
\nsistema de atenci\u00f3n. <\/p>\n
Mr. President, I do not accept that vision for America, the
\nvision put forward by the opponents of health care reform. We need to create a simple health care
\nexchange where individuals and small businesses can go and be part of a large
\npool so they can negotiate a fair deal.
\nToday we don’t have that fair deal.
\nTomorrow we will. <\/p>\n
We need a health care system that invests in prevention and
\ndisease management. We need a health
\ncare system that works to expand the health care workforce because we have a
\nbig challenge. Many of our health care
\nworkers in America, our doctors and our nurses, they’re retiring. They’re baby boomers. They’re reaching retirement age. So we’re going to have increased demand for
\nhealth care services as our baby boomers get older and we’re going to have
\nfewer providers. <\/p>\n
The bill we put forward works to address that
\ndiscrepancy. Because otherwise that by
\nitself, greater demand and lower supply will drive the cost of health care
\nup. And we need to create a system that
\neliminates an insurance that doesn’t cover pre- conditions. What kind of health care do you have if you
\nhave a bad back, but your bad back is not covered? What kind of health care system do we have if
\nyou have Melanoma, like Jeanette does or did before her operation, and you
\ncan’t get it covered because it’s a preexisting condition?<\/p>\n
This bill changes that.
\nI believe we need to create a health care system that expands citizens’
\nchoices instead of constraining them, as our current system does, where you have
\nmany markets in America that only have a single dominant provider. And we need to create a community health care
\nplan to hold the feet of insurance companies to the fire. Competition – competition in the marketplace,
\na 100% apple pie American concept is needed in health care to help control costs. <\/p>\n
Madam President, Americans across the country are counting
\non us to work together to find a solution, to help ease the burden of health
\ncare costs on family and business budgets and create more affordable health
\ncare options. I urge my colleagues to
\nset their partisanship aside, set aside the goal of trying to torpedo America’s
\nfuture because you want to torpedo the Presidency of Barack Obama. <\/p>\n
Think about the quality of health care for our working
\nfamilies and what we in this chamber could do to make that quality of life far
\nbetter. The costs of inaction, the costs
\nof our broken status quo system are just too great to fall to petty, bitter,
\npartisan bickering. Let’s come
\ntogether. Let’s fight for a brighter
\nfuture for America’s families. <\/p>\n
Mr. President, we stand at a critical juncture today as we
\ngrapple with how to fix our broken health care system. Rapidly escalating health care costs are
\ncompounding the current economic crisis in America. Families and businesses across the country
\nare struggling to afford increased premiums, co-payments and deductibles. Premium increases are taking an increasing
\nportion of workers’ wages and more firms are under pressure to reduce or
\npossibly eliminate health care coverage for their workers. <\/p>\n
Helping middle class families and small businesses afford
\nhealth care coverage is a critical component of improving the nation’s
\neconomy. Mr. President, families and
\nbusiness owners in Oregon have told me at length how concerned they are about
\nthe rising cost of health care. Those
\nfamilies who have health care are concerned about losing it and they’re
\nconcerned about the rising cost of the premiums and the co-pays.<\/p>\n
And those citizens without health care and nearly 47 million
\nAmericans are unable to afford the cost of health care, those citizens are
\nworried about getting sick, or they’re sick and they’re worried about how to
\npay for the drugs and treatments to get well.
\nAnd under this system, our small businesses who are working hard to
\nprovide health care coverage for their employees are worried that they won’t be
\nable to continue, that they’ll have to raise the share of the cost that the
\nworkers carry. Or maybe they’ll have to eliminate the health care plan
\naltogether. <\/p>\n
Mr. President, I want to share with you the experience of
\none of my constituents, Jeanette Hall of Milwaukie, Oregon. She was employed but she could not afford health
\ninsurance. Jeanette had a mole on her
\narm and it was a mole that she thought should be looked at and her friends and families
\nurged her to have it looked at. Finally
\nshe went to the emergency room to have it examined. The diagnosis was melanoma, but Jeanette
\ncould not afford to have the surgery to address it. <\/p>\n
Now, sometimes one gets a fortunate turn in life and Jeanette
\ngot such an example. She was interviewed
\nby a local news station that was doing a story about the plight of the
\nuninsured. Jeanette says she is only
\nalive today because of that moment when a news station covered her story
\nbecause after that story aired, she received a call from a local hospital that
\noffered to help. They basically said
\nthat in exchange for being the subject of an observational surgery for medical
\nstudents, the hospital would cover the cost of the surgery. And so Jeanette is now cancer free and she
\nfeels very blessed about that. What is
\nmore, she now has a job where she has health insurance and that certainly puts
\na brighter horizon in place for her. <\/p>\n
But while she’s pleased about her personal health and her
\npersonal health insurance, she’s worried about health insurance for families
\nand friends and health coverage system for all Americans in this broken health
\ncare system. Her brother is very
\nill. Her brother does not have health
\ninsurance. Her brother needs an
\noperation to save his life but he’s not getting that operation. And she anticipates that his life expectancy
\nis very short now as a result so she sees it very personally, very
\ndirectly. And just as she hopes for
\nhealth care for her and her family and for American citizens, so do citizens
\nacross this nation. Citizens like
\nJeanette are not looking for a government handout. They don’t expect something for free. But what they do want is access, choice,
\nquality health coverage, affordable health coverage for their families and
\ntheir workers.<\/p>\n
We need to offer citizens like Jeanette a lifeline in these
\nhard economic times. As a member of the
\nSenate Health ,Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, I am very proud of the
\nbill that we passed out two weeks ago which puts us a significant stride closer
\nto providing health care, affordable quality health care for every
\nAmerican. It’s a plan that will lower
\ncosts, provide consumers with more choices and increase competition. That act, the Affordable Health Choices Act,
\nis a landmark bill. It gives every
\nAmerican a full range of health insurance options, including a community health
\nplan. It ensures that those who like
\ntheir current health care coverage can keep it, and it guarantees that no
\nAmerican will be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.<\/p>\n
That act makes sound investments in disease prevention, in
\nhealth promotion and it strengthens the health care workforce. The Affordable Health Choices Act gives small
\nbusinesses better choices for high-value health insurance by creating a new
\nhealth insurance market place, or gateway as it’s called, which will help lower
\ncosts and increase competition. In fact,
\nlet me explain this a little bit more. <\/p>\n
Right now, in America, if you are an individual trying to
\nget health care, you have to pay an extraordinary premium because you don’t
\nbring any market share clout to the negotiating table. And, right now in America if you are a small
\nbusiness, you don’t get a good deal because you don’t bring any market clout to
\nthe negotiation. So, this health care
\nbill at its heart, addresses this problem.
\nIt creates an exchange where you would go and purchase health care not
\nas an individual, but as a group of hundreds of thousands of fellow
\ncitizens. And, that health care plan
\nwould bring the combined negotiating clout of those hundreds of thousands or
\neven millions of individuals so that you get a much better deal as an
\nindividual and you get a much better deal as a small business.<\/p>\n
And I know that every individual and small business in America
\nwho has gone through this process of trying to get a fair, decent health care
\nplan knows exactly what I’m talking about.
\nAnd, that’s the heart of this reform.
\nBut even as we make historic progress on guaranteeing affordable,
\nquality health care for all, there are powerful forces underway to halt this
\nesfuerzo. <\/p>\n
There are those that favor the status quo, and they’re
\nworking on their talking points. They’re
\nrallying their special interests.
\nThey’re doing polls to see what phrase will most scare Americans from
\nchanging. They want to defeat this
\nhistoric march towards quality, affordable health care for every single
\ncitizen. But, Madam, Mr. President, one
\nthing is clear, we cannot afford to fail.
\nMaintaining the status quo is not an option. The last time we attempted to tackle the
\nproblem, in 1992, health care spending was $849 billion. Today health care spending in America is $2.2
\ntrillion and growing by over 10% a year.
\nSo march it forward , next year it will be over $2.4 trillion, the year
\nafter that, $2.7 trillion, the year after that, $3 trillion and so forth. We’ll be spending nearly $40 trillion under
\nthe status quo over the next ten years. <\/p>\n
Premiums in the early 1990s were 7% of a family income. Today premiums eat up 17% of a family’s budget. In 1996, employers paid about $3,700 toward a
\nfamily plan. Now that is well over
\n$10,000 and growing and workers are picking up an increasing share of the
\ncost. Today under the status quo, 60% of
\npersonal bankruptcies are due to health care costs. More than half, more than half of personal
\nbankruptcies are due to health care. And
\nwhat’s more, more than half of those personal bankruptcies due to health care
\nare with folks who have health care insurance, but their health care insurance
\nsimply wasn’t adequate to cover the extraordinary costs of a medical
\nemergency. 75% indeed of those
\nindividuals who are going through bankruptcy due to health care costs had
\nhealth insurance. <\/p>\n
Mr. President, if we look to the future, the consequences of
\ninaction are even more dire. But,
\ndespite all of that, every day we hear from special interests, we hear from
\ntheir allies, who are standing up using their poll-tested phrases like
\n“government takeover” in order to scare the American people into rejecting
\nhealth reform. <\/p>\n
So here are citizens who know firsthand, firsthand the
\nchallenge and the stress of health care, but they’re being manipulated – an
\neffort to manipulate them by powerful special interests that want to scare
\nthem, to turn them against reform and change.
\nNow, the opponents of reform, they have a health strategy. And their strategy is the status quo. And why do they like the status quo so
\nmuch? Because the special interests are
\nmaking so much money with the current health care system. Huge profits for insurance companies, huge
\nprofits for other health care players.<\/p>\n
But here’s the problem, soaring profits for health care
\ncompanies equates to out of control unaffordable premiums for America’s working
\nfamilies. Now, let’s examine the status
\nquo program put forward by the opponents of reform. Under the opponents’ status quo strategy, the
\npremiums that are paid by a family would go from about $13,000 a year, now just
\neight years in the future, $24,000, nearly double in a short period of
\ntime. If you want out of control
\npremiums, then support the opponents’ status quo efforts. <\/p>\n
Second, under the opponents’ status quo plan, the cost of
\nhealth care for a small business would more than double and the cumulative
\ncosts are extraordinary. We see the
\ncosts here starting and then in billions of dollars in 2009, $156 billion, the
\ncost imposed on small businesses soaring to $2.4 trillion by 2018, the
\ncumulative costs. So, over a ten year
\nperiod, small businesses carrying a multi-trillion dollar burden under the
\nstatus quo. <\/p>\n
Third, under the opponents’ status quo plan, the number of
\nuninsured Americans increases, and why is that?
\nIt’s very simple. Families can’t
\nafford these premiums. Small businesses
\ncan’t afford these premiums. Even large
\nbusinesses may not be able to afford these premiums. Even large businesses may not be able to
\nafford this more than 10% per year increase in premiums. Indeed, under one study, the uninsured
\nAmericans, under the status quo opponents’ plan would reach 66 million
\nAmericans over the next ten years, up from about 47 right now, it’s a huge
\nincrease.<\/p>\n
Fourth, under the opponents’ status quo plan, our community
\nhospitals would see uncompensated care go through the roof. Why is that? Because we’ll have more
\nuninsured. They have to go to the
\nemergency room to get their care and so the hospitals end up carrying that
\nburden. What does that do? That results in a cost shift from those who
\ndon’t have insurance and go to the emergency room, those costs gets shifted on
\nto those with insurance, continues the death spiral in soaring insurance
\npremiums that we have right now in America.<\/p>\n
What is more, under the opponents’ status quo approach, we
\nget the same failure to invest in prevention and disease management. You know, insurance companies don’t really
\nhave an incentive to invest in disease management because that might make you
\nhealthier 10 years from now or 20 years from now. We get the same investment in a fee system,
\nin a cost-plus system that is driving up the cost of health care. Let me make this very clear. If you have any form of expense in which the
\ncompensation is cost-plus, the person providing those services is going to
\nprovide as many services as possible. If
\nyou’re building a fighter and you say, we’ll pay your costs plus 10% – those
\ncosts – they’re going to make sure that fighter plane is as expensive as
\npossible. And the same is true in health
\ncare. Yet, that model of compensation is
\nthe dominant model in the health care system today.<\/p>\n
We need to invest in an integrated, integrated approach,
\nlike the Mayo Clinic does, where the doctors are not motivated by profits but
\nby providing health care to their patients.
\nThey have no incentive to run you through that M.R.I. machine four or
\nfive times. Their only incentive is to
\nhelp you get well. That’s a very
\ndifferent approach, an approach we need to expand on here in America. An approach that says, we need an integrated
\nhealth care system, not a cost plus fee system. <\/p>\n
So, when opponents of reform try to scare you and say we
\ndon’t need to change anything, just remember how scary their plan is. And I know that you understand what I’m
\ntalking about because you see it every day.
\nThe opponents are saying, it’s okay if insurance companies routinely
\ndeny necessary medical care and cancel policies in order to increase their
\nprofits. The opponents are saying they
\nprefer an America where parents will lie awake at night worried if they can
\nafford health care their children need because they don’t have health insurance
\nfor their children. <\/p>\n
The opponents want an America where a worker is just one
\npink slip away from losing their job and their health care. That’s a double calamity that strikes
\nmillions of families in America every year.
\nThe opponents are arguing for an America where a would-be entrepreneur
\nwho has worked hard and may want to open a business may not do so because he or
\nshe cannot health insurance in a volatile, expensive small business
\nmarket. The opponents want an America
\nwhere small businesses who do offer insurance are faced with double-digit,
\nbudget-straining premiums that strengthen the economic viability of that small
\nbusiness. I want to see our small
\nbusinesses thrive. Our small businesses
\nare incredibly creative, far more patents per capita than large businesses. Our small businesses expand and grow and
\nabsorb more workers. We want them to
\nthrive and a major challenge they have today in thriving is our broken health
\nsistema de atenci\u00f3n. <\/p>\n
Mr. President, I do not accept that vision for America, the
\nvision put forward by the opponents of health care reform. We need to create a simple health care
\nexchange where individuals and small businesses can go and be part of a large
\npool so they can negotiate a fair deal.
\nToday we don’t have that fair deal.
\nTomorrow we will. <\/p>\n
We need a health care system that invests in prevention and
\ndisease management. We need a health
\ncare system that works to expand the health care workforce because we have a
\nbig challenge. Many of our health care
\nworkers in America, our doctors and our nurses, they’re retiring. They’re baby boomers. They’re reaching retirement age. So we’re going to have increased demand for
\nhealth care services as our baby boomers get older and we’re going to have
\nfewer providers. <\/p>\n
The bill we put forward works to address that
\ndiscrepancy. Because otherwise that by
\nitself, greater demand and lower supply will drive the cost of health care
\nup. And we need to create a system that
\neliminates an insurance that doesn’t cover pre- conditions. What kind of health care do you have if you
\nhave a bad back, but your bad back is not covered? What kind of health care system do we have if
\nyou have Melanoma, like Jeanette does or did before her operation, and you
\ncan’t get it covered because it’s a preexisting condition?<\/p>\n
This bill changes that.
\nI believe we need to create a health care system that expands citizens’
\nchoices instead of constraining them, as our current system does, where you have
\nmany markets in America that only have a single dominant provider. And we need to create a community health care
\nplan to hold the feet of insurance companies to the fire. Competition – competition in the marketplace,
\na 100% apple pie American concept is needed in health care to help control costs. <\/p>\n
Madam President, Americans across the country are counting
\non us to work together to find a solution, to help ease the burden of health
\ncare costs on family and business budgets and create more affordable health
\ncare options. I urge my colleagues to
\nset their partisanship aside, set aside the goal of trying to torpedo America’s
\nfuture because you want to torpedo the Presidency of Barack Obama. <\/p>\n
Think about the quality of health care for our working
\nfamilies and what we in this chamber could do to make that quality of life far
\nbetter. The costs of inaction, the costs
\nof our broken status quo system are just too great to fall to petty, bitter,
\npartisan bickering. Let’s come
\ntogether. Let’s fight for a brighter
\nfuture for America’s families. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mr. Merkley Mr. President, we stand at a critical juncture today as we grapple with how to fix our broken health care system. Rapidly escalating health care costs are compounding the current economic crisis in America. Families and businesses across the country are struggling to afford increased premiums, co-payments and deductibles. Premium increases are taking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsroom"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n