Political Quotes

“Woman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chair, I just want to go back to what is going on in America's healthcare costs and look at some of what is going on elsewhere around the world. First of all, I would draw the Member's attention to the Kaiser Foundation report that Axios reported on about people who have health insurance and still can't afford to use it. They talked about just over half of those with employer coverage have some sort of chronic disease, so they have health insurance. But the deductibles which are at $3,000 to $5,000 are so high that three-quarters of the people reported skipping or postponing some type of care. Half, 49 percent, said that a family member had a problem paying medical bills or difficulty affording their premiums, deductibles, or copays in the last year. What we are trying to do is help those people in the individual market, and we would love to help those people in the market that employer-provided health insurance is in as well, and put downward pressure on pricing, and go after the cost of healthcare from one end to the other. Now, the gentleman from California, I believe, has talked about going to a, I guess, government-run, single-payer system. I have got two veterans that work virtually full time helping veterans in Oregon's Second District get access to a similar sort of system. You know of it as the VA. Think about the problems we have with that government-run, single, sort of, payer-operated system.…”