Health Care In America

HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA -- (House of Representatives - January 23, 2007)

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, we must seriously begin to address the problem of the Nation's uninsured and the skyrocketing price of health insurance.

Unfortunately, the plan the President is expected to outline tonight will do nothing to cut down on the number of uninsured because a tax deduction simply is not going to be enough to make insurance affordable to low and middle-income workers. In most cases, individual health plans are more expensive to purchase and provide considerably less coverage, but the Bush administration is under the false impression that their tax deduction will provide enough of an incentive for uninsured workers to sign up.

At the same time, the Bush administration falsely believes they can begin to target the cost of health care premiums by taxing employee-based health benefits. This is nothing more than a tax increase on middle-class workers who have been lucky enough to secure good benefits through their job. Quality health benefits provided by employers should be the norm; and as policymakers, we should not discourage it.

The President's proposal is a non-starter for me, Madam Speaker. But I am hopeful that I can work with the Bush administration to begin to solve some of our health care problems.

http://thomas.loc.gov/