Comprehensive Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE REFORM -- (House of Representatives - February 12, 2009)

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Ms. BALDWIN. Thank you.

I want to start by thanking you for your leadership. It is so important that you bring us together to highlight the issue, and I think it is powerful to hear what our constituents have to say in their own words.

We all travel back and forth between Washington, D.C., and our home districts. I represent an extraordinary constituency in south central Wisconsin, and there is nowhere I travel in my district that I don't hear these stories that tug on your heartstrings and tell us in no uncertain terms that we must take action, and we must take action in this session of Congress.

I want to share with you a sampling--and we could probably have endless special orders and not get to all of the communications that we receive.

Michael in Poynette, Wisconsin, in my district says, ``I am a [Federal employee] and a member of the Wisconsin WI Air National Guard. This past year we were granted a wage increase of roughly 2.3 percent. At the same time, the cost of our FEHBP plan benefit increased by up to 44 percent.'' For he and his coworkers.

Michael writes, ``Along with this, many of the co-pays also increased. This has put a tremendous strain on my colleagues in the Air National Guard, many who have been deployed three and four times in support of operations throughout the Middle East region.''

Ed in Monroe, Wisconsin, writes to me, ``My wife and I live in the gap. Between our Social Security and a disability policy she had, we get too much money to qualify for help, but not really enough to get by. With the donut hole in Medicare D, we would only be able to get my wife's meds for 3 months if it were not for the samples provided by one of her doctors.''

``Four of her 10 meds would take 65 percent of our total income if it were not for the help of that doctor. I live with chronic pain because of a cancer treatment, but as the years go by, it helps less and I have other medical problems that are gradually getting worse.''

Ed continues: ``I have a wife and a son that I have to take care of because neither can do it all for themselves. I am the one who battles with Social Security and the insurance companies. I have to deal with problems that arise with their medications, their finances and many day-to-day things.''

Ed continues: ``Every time I hear a politician talking about cutting Medicare and other programs for the elderly and disabled, it scares me to death because I am just hanging on by a thread.''

Sue in Beloit writes about her situation. Sue writes: ``My husband was diagnosed with lung cancer. After treatment began, we found out that the insurance company had a small loophole for the treatment of cancer. Under our insurance, they have a $13,000 limit per year on radiation and chemotherapy. That amount did not even cover the first treatment of either the radiation or chemo. I was not going to have my husband die for lack of treatment, so we started to use our savings and available credit to pay for medical expenses. My husband later died,'' Sue wrote. ``After having completely depleted our savings and facing insurmountable credit card debt, I had no choice but to file bankruptcy last year.''

Greg in Verona, Wisconsin, who owns a small business writes: ``Since 1998, we've been providing health care to our employees. Every year, we've had double digit increases in our costs. This year, the insurance company has informed us we'll be paying 42 percent more next year, which will lead to one of several eventualities:

``One. We'll have to reduce what we cover as a benefit for our employees and hopefully retain them. Reality is, many will leave and we'll have trouble replacing them.

``Two. We'll eat the increase but offer no employee raises for the next 3 years.

``Three. We'll raise our prices and force customers to look elsewhere for the services we currently provide them.

``The very real possibility is we'll end up with some element of all the scenarios and end up not being able to keep the doors open. Very scary thought when one considers that my business has been around for 55 years.''

Michael in Burlington, Wisconsin, writes: ``My late daughter was diagnosed with lymphangiomatosis and Gorham's Vanishing Bone disease in March 2005. We found out how much a child with a terminal illness costs a person. My wife and I used every amount of credit and refinanced our house three times just to take care of her. Since her death, the bills mounted so bad that now we will have to file bankruptcy and we already have been foreclosed on our home.

``Secondly, my wife was born with a hole in her heart. In 1972, the doctors repaired the hole. In doing so, through the blood transfusion they gave her hepatitis C. Now she is preexisting at 37 and can't get life insurance and has been repeatedly denied health care coverage. Her mental breakdown because of the death of our daughter left the insurance companies another reason to not let her have health care. This needs to change.''

Carol from Madison, Wisconsin, writes: ``As someone who has had no health insurance at all for 3 years, I can tell you that it was pretty miserable being one of the millions of people in this country without health insurance. Not long ago, my best friend died at age 42 because of ovarian cancer because she did not have health insurance and waited too long to see what was causing all of her symptoms. Yes, people in America actually die from not having health insurance.''

Susan in Baraboo, Wisconsin, writes: ``I am writing you today regarding health insurance coverage for single people with no children. As of this time, I feel that I am left out of the loop in regards to this topic. I am 42, and last September I was diagnosed with breast cancer. In January of this year, the company that I worked for informed us that they would be closing down. I was laid off in December while I was out due to my cancer treatment. I have been searching for health care everywhere because my COBRA will be going up and I am on unemployment and barely able to pay the $244.76 for the coverage now. I cannot get insurance because of the breast cancer. HIRSP, which is the Wisconsin State High Risk Program, is too expensive for me to get coverage since they want 4 months of premiums up front, and as they only cover some things.

``What are single people supposed to do? We don't qualify for any government assistance because we are single. We cannot go without insurance. There are no programs to help us out. So when you are working on health care in the House of Representatives, please remember that there are single people out there also in my shoes. I am at a crossroad because I have no avenue for assistance when it comes to health care. Come November, I will be unable to get coverage when I need it at this point in my life.''

I hope, Mr. Speaker, that my colleagues will join me, and on behalf of those constituents whose stories I've shared, in recognizing the absolute critical nature of our efforts to enact national health care that covers all Americans. The crisis is only worsening at this particular moment, and I invite my colleagues to join me in working on this most pressing issue.

I again thank the gentleman from Connecticut, my friend, CHRIS MURPHY, for bringing us together this evening to give voice to the American people who are suffering so much in the current circumstance.

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