John Tierney: “this particular amendment is going to request that the director conduct and provide scientific and technical support for…”

“this particular amendment is going to request that the director conduct and provide scientific and technical support for the private and public efforts to conduct studies of the organization, delivery and financing of health services in order to determine the cost and quality effects of various methods of substantially increasing the number of individuals in the United States who have access to health services. Mr. Chairman, those studies should include a study to determine the impact of a single-payer insurance coverage program on health expenditures in this country during the fiscal years 2000 to 2007 compared to the projected impact of the current system on health expenditures in the United States during that period. Mr. Chairman, simply put, I bring this amendment forward for the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott), the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Baldwin), as well as myself. What we seek to do is to make more explicit one of the duties that the agency is already charged with, and that is the duty to study ways of increasing access to health services. We have a situation in this country where there are estimates of 43 million Americans without health insurance coverage. Of those numbers, 11 million are said to be children. The balance of those people are adults, the majority of whom are working adults. This is simply a situation that is intolerable, Mr.…”