On the recordMarch 17, 2010
This week we are closer than we have ever been to passing real, comprehensive health insurance reform for the American people. Reform is simple. It gives consumers, working families, and small businesses more control and forces insurance companies to do what is right. With respect to Medicare, it extends the life of the Medicare trust fund and improves benefits for our seniors, including improving the prescription drug benefit. My friends on the other side of the aisle are not interested in passing real reform for the American people. They want to maintain the status quo in which we see health care spending growing exponentially, more and more families losing coverage, and health insurance companies continuing to raise rates free of any restrictions. And they are okay with allowing tens of millions of taxpaying, hardworking Americans to go on without needed health insurance, the same coverage they enjoy as Members of Congress. They also want to eliminate Medicare as we know it today. They want to privatize Medicare and give seniors a coupon to go out and shop for private insurance plans from the same companies that have been raising rates and dropping customers. Health insurance reform is not just about insuring the uninsured. It's about also protecting and improving Medicare. Mr. Speaker, I encourage these reforms.
