Mr.
Chairman,
Thank
you for all of your work on health care this year, and for bringing
us together to start this markup. A special thanks to the Finance
Committee staff, who have done such a great job of responding to our
questions and getting us information as we work through this process.
And
a very special thank you to my own staff: Oliver Kim, Kim Love, Alex
Sheff, and Kathryn Kietzman.
Mr.
Chairman, this is certainly the most important debate we have had
since I've become a member of the Finance Committee. America
is facing serious challenges because of our current health care crisis.
In
my State of Michigan, we have a 15.2% unemployment rate – the highest
in the country. We know that skyrocketing insurance costs are making
it hard for our businesses to compete internationally and costing
us jobs. People who have lost their jobs are struggling to afford
coverage on their own – or just giving up on it entirely and going
without insurance.
We
also know that nationally, every six seconds, someone loses their
health care – that's 14,000 people every single day. Every day, 5,000
more people lose their homes to foreclosure because of a health care
crisis. And we also know that every year, 45,000 people die because
of a lack of health care – that's more than the number of people who
die in car crashes, and more than the number of homicides. It's truly
a crisis.
We
have to ask ourselves: why in America, the wealthiest country in the
world, do we tolerate a situation where someone dies every 12 minutes
because they don't have quality health care?
The
answer is, "we can't." Not anymore.
The
mark we start with today has a number of very positive initiatives.
It
changes the focus of health care in this country by changing the incentives
to reward quality and keeping people healthy.
It
cracks down on the worst abuses of insurance companies.
It
creates a real health care safety net so if you lose your job, your
family won't lose their health care.
It
also strengthens and improves Medicare, by focusing on prevention,
improving the quality of care, and giving relief for the "doughnut
hole" in Medicare Part D.
And
it helps young people, many who are just starting their careers and
dealing with huge student loan debts, who will be able to keep their
family insurance coverage up to the age of 26.
But
we also have a lot of work to do to improve this bill and truly deliver
on the health care reform that Americans need and deserve.
•
We need to make sure insurance stays affordable for people who already
have it. Middle-class families who work hard cannot be subjected to
unfair excise taxes on their insurance benefits. That's why I'm working
with Senator Kerry to lessen the impact of the excise tax for those
who are already struggling to afford health care.
•
We also need to make insurance affordable for those who don't already
have it. I appreciate that this updated mark comes closer to where
we need to be, but we still have some work to do to make this affordable.
•
And finally, we need to make sure families have a real choice of health
insurance plans, including a public health insurance choice, that
keeps private insurance companies honest and keeps premiums affordable.
Not
only will we help make health care affordable for families, but it's
affordable for the country, too. This bill doesn't increase the deficit,
and in fact, will reduce the deficit over time. An enormous amount
of our federal budget is devoted to health care, and it is critical
that we bring down costs over time.
Mr.
Chairman, I got my start in public service fighting to save a nursing
home in my community. I have been working on health care issues ever
since. I came here to do this.
14,000
Americans woke up this morning with health insurance, but will go
to bed tonight without it. For their sake, now is the time to get
this bill done, and get it done right.
Thank
you.
