Maurice Hinchey: “as we begin to review competing health care plans, we have to keep in mind that our goal should be to assure that every…”

“as we begin to review competing health care plans, we have to keep in mind that our goal should be to assure that every American has good health care coverage at an affordable price. We should not be satisfied with anything less than that. We should not be satisfied with a promise of mere access. We should not be satisfied with a plan that merely allows people with modest incomes the opportunity to buy private coverage they cannot afford. And it seems to me that that is all that the Cooper plan offers. Its focus is not on the needs of individual American families, families who need health insurance or better coverage. Its goal is protecting the structure of today's health care industry. That structure has not served us well. We need to have the courage to try something that will work. I say to my colleagues, ask your constituents what Government programs, they depend on the most. If they are like mine, they will tell you ``Social Security and Medicare.'' Social Security and Medicare do not offer access. They provide guaranteed coverage. Social Security and Medicare do not rely on networks of private insurers. They rely on mandates. And they work. Let us give the American people an equally solid guarantee of health insurance for themselves and their families.”