Health Care For The American People

Statement

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Mr. ELLISON. My name is KEITH ELLISON; and I am appearing on behalf of the Progressive Caucus, which is again coming to the House floor to discuss a progressive vision for America, a vision of America that has a central focus of the American quality of life being better for all people, that has a central focus of the welfare of Americans being better than it was before. In the Progressive Caucus, Mr. Speaker, we have a set of values which say that yes, we can live in harmony with the planet Earth; yes, we can engage in activity that will allow all Americans to have health care; yes, we can have civil rights for all people; yes, America can be a party and a member in the global village in which we promote peace and in which we stand with nations who are struggling to emerge around the world.

The progressive vision for America, a progressive vision that says that the greatest points in our Nation's history were when we passed the law for civil rights for all people; a progressive vision where we said the Wagner Act, where workers will have rights, was a great moment in American history; a progressive vision where we put together the resources necessary to pull America out of the Great Depression and into a greater level of rights, a greater level of prosperity and a greater level of community.

Tonight we're talking about health care, and I hope to be joined by my colleague soon. But I just want to set out that this is the congressional progressive message; and if anybody wants to communicate with us, they can do so at cpc.grijalva.house.gov. It is very important that folks know how to get in touch with us. Mr. Speaker, this is the progressive message where we come every week on the House floor to talk about a progressive vision. Health care is the topic. Health care is the issue for the American people today. Health care is what everybody is talking about here on Capitol Hill, and this is the progressive message where we talk about a progressive vision for America.

Now I'm using these boards to help illustrate a point; but the main concept here, as we talk about the progressive vision for America's health care, we want to start out with a central idea; and that is, care should be the watchword. We should be talking about care, not who pays, not who doesn't pay. Care. We should not be talking about all the complicated mechanisms first. We'll get to that as it's time to talk about that and there will be a good and appropriate time to debate these more complicated issues.

But the first thing we start with, as we talk about a progressive vision, is care, health care. Care should be where we start. Care should be how we end. If we care for each other, as Americans, if we regard all Americans as essential and important, we will construct a health care system and bring forth health care reform which makes sense for everybody, which costs less than this system does now because this system is not driven by care. It's driven by something else, which I will get to in a moment. We also have to have in this health care reform package a public option. But when I use the word public option, what I really mean is a we're-all-in-this-together option. A public option is an option that says that, look, we will have a public option, together with private options, in which the public can say, look, I want to select that public option because it works for me and my family or my business, and that's what people can take advantage of. There will be private options in the system, in the exchange. But this health care reform starts with the idea of care and states that the public option, which will be included in this health care reform bill and is in the bill now, is really a we're-in-this-together option.

That is what it is about. That is the point. That is what we are going for. And we will talk more about that later. But I think it is important that when people talk about a public option, we are talking about an option that is available for Americans to select which really says, we are not going to leave you out in the cold, you're not by yourself, this ownership society is not a you're-on-your-own society. In fact, it is a society in which we are all in this thing together. So, Mr. Speaker, as I said before, care is what drives our vision.

But the system, the status quo, has something else driving the vision. Health care reform means patients before profits. That is what health care reform means. Health care reform doesn't mean that there won't be profits. Of course, there will be. There will be private businesses on the exchange. There will be people making money. Doctors will continue to make good salaries, nurses as well; and other people who do good things for society will be compensated fairly, of course.

But the fact is we will not have these insurance companies that are not allowed to just charge anything they want and pay their CEOs anything they want. We will have something where patient care will be what is important in this health care reform system.

So, I want to talk tonight, Mr. Speaker, about exactly what health care reform must include. And so let me just get to this board, and then I have a chart which will simplify it. Mr. Speaker, I believe there are folks who want to make this thing complicated. They want to make it hard to understand, and people just sort of switch off their minds and say, well, it is really complicated, so I don't get it, and they seem to be talking bad about it, so I am just not going to plug in.

I believe Americans really, really want health care reform. And I want them to know what this health care reform bill is talking about. As I said, a progressive vision is a vision that makes ``care'' the operative phrase in health care and puts patients before profits, although profits are not out of the picture. They are still around. But patient care is really what is driving the conversation.

A health care reform bill must include guaranteed eligibility. No American will be turned away from any insurance plan because of illness or preexisting condition. Mr. Speaker, how many Americans are at home right now who are checking over their bills, who are perhaps anxiety ridden or maybe even in tears because they have just been dropped or denied coverage because of a preexisting condition?

I told a story last week, Mr. Speaker, about a dear friend of mine who called me aside at a community forum I had on health care in my hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota. She said to me with tears in her eyes that she had a dilemma. She didn't know what to do. Her sister and her mom had succumbed to breast cancer. She thinks she is at risk. She knows that if she goes to get the test to find out, then she will be presumed to have a preexisting condition and could be dropped. But if she doesn't, and she does have the early stages of breast cancer, she will not be getting the care that she needs. So she gets the test now, she can be dropped for having a preexisting condition. If she doesn't get the test now, her breast cancer could be advancing. This is the situation that so many Americans are in today, and it is wrong.

The health care reform we are talking about, guaranteed eligibility, no American will be turned away from any insurance plan because of illness or preexisting condition, meaning that insurance companies just can't insure the people who are well and the people who never make claims. They have to insure everybody, comprehensive benefits.

The new public plan, this is the you're-not-on-your-own plan, will cover all essential medical services including preventative, maternity, mental health and disease management programs. This is comprehensive benefits. This is different from some of those plans you get that is a good plan for health care only it doesn't cover anything, only it has a high deductible, high co-pay, high premium and doesn't offer any real coverage, and this is excluded, that is excluded, doesn't cover this, doesn't cover that. That is not the kind of plan we are talking about.

Comprehensive benefits, affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles, as I just said they got a certain version of health care out there now that the private market has coughed up where they have high co-pays, high premiums, high deductibles, meaning if you go to the doctor, you got to pay a lot, you got to pay a lot out of your check every 2 weeks or every month when you get paid; and then if you need a procedure, you got to cough up a lot of your own personal money because they don't cover everything or even nearly everything.

So, participants will be charged fair premiums and minimal co-pays and deductibles for preventative services. So that means if you want to stay healthy by doing preventative health care, that option will be available to you.

Subsidies. Individuals and families who do not qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP but who still need assistance will receive income-related Federal subsidies and keep health insurance premiums affordable. So we are not going to leave anybody out. Even people who are the lower income scale and have to have health care, have to be able to go and see a doctor, have to be able to get preventative services; and this will be covered.

So health care reform, guaranteed eligibility, no exclusion for a preexisting condition, comprehensive benefits, a good plan that covers things that you need, affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles and subsidies for people who need them.

So this is a chart that we developed, Mr. Speaker, to try to make it simple for folks, because it is complicated. It is our job in Congress to try to boil this stuff down and make it digestible. And so we came up with this little chart to try to talk about what is going on. Let's just say, here is the path to health care for all. Up here at the top of the box, Mr. Speaker, you got every American.

What the plan will yield is basically three of these bubbles that you will fit into. One of them is employer-based insurance. You have heard President Obama say, if you like your health care, keep it. That is what that is. If you like your health care, keep it. It is exactly what you have now if you have employer-based health care, but it is going to cost less. There will be no more discrimination for preexisting conditions. There will be no discrimination for age or gender. And we will have a medical loss ratio of 85 percent because 85 percent of the premiums must go to patient care. So they won't be able to just stuff their pockets with those $100 million salaries some of these health care insurance companies CEOs make.

This is a lot like we have now, only we will have improvement because of cost, because of the medical loss, what is known as the ``medical loss ratio'' and because of the banning of the exclusion for preexisting conditions. Then also we have public programs that exist now, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, still available to children, seniors and families below the poverty line. This will still be there. This is not going anywhere. We are going to have Medicare, we are going to have Medicaid, and we are going to have SCHIP. That is still there.

What is going to be new, Mr. Speaker, is a health care insurance exchange. This is going to be new. This bubble is going to be kind of new. And it is going to go into effect in a few months perhaps after we pass the bill, perhaps as much as 12 months; but it will be counted in months.

Who is eligible for the health care insurance exchange? Individuals and small businesses will be able to go into the exchange. And what will be on the exchange? Private insurance plans that people can purchase, and what you will have there is a public option.

Now, people who go into the health care exchange will be subsidized for up to 400 percent of the poverty level. That means if you are at the poverty level times four, you take that income you have at the poverty level times four, if you make 400 percent of the poverty level, meaning you make well over the poverty level but still you don't have enough to afford health care, you can receive some sort of subsidy to make sure that you can afford coverage.

Then, you can go into the exchange, and you might be able to pick your policy because the policies will be standardized, and you will be able to pick one, be it a public plan or a private plan. And you will be able to get your health care policy picking the one that you want, guaranteeing that you will have choice, guaranteeing that you will have options and you will be able to select based on your needs. We are going to revisit this chart in a moment, Mr. Speaker, because it is important to go back to it.

So I just wanted to say that tonight what we want to do with this Progressive hour is talk about helping folks to understand the health care reform plan, helping folks to understand what the public option is. As I said before, the public option should be understood. It is something that is going to help you, something that means that this is our commitment to each other, like Social Security is our commitment to each other, like other important public programs are a commitment to each other, our roads are a commitment to each other. It is what we all do together to make sure people can make it. This is what the public option represents.

So, Mr. Speaker, many in Congress, the House and Senate, believe that any significant health care reform package must include a robust public option. We have seen leaders, brave and courageous legislators like RUSS FEINGOLD in the Senate and BERNIE SANDERS and CHUCK SCHUMER in the Senate over in the other body talking about the importance of a public option. But here in the House we have heard the same commitment from some great leaders like JOHN LEWIS, LOIS CAPPS and Congresswoman Pingree from Maine, who is new to this body, all making important commitments to support a public option, on both sides, of course. We heard the President talk about the public option as well.

So we have people in all three, in both Houses and in the President's Office, talking about the public option. We have talked a little bit about what it means. But let me just elaborate on that a little bit. What it means at its heart is it means giving the uninsured the option to enroll in a public health care plan that is sort of like Medicare. That is what it means at bottom, giving the uninsured the option, the choice, the choice to enroll in a public health care plan like Medicare. A public insurance option would compete. We are talking competition here, Mr. Speaker. We are not talking about not competing. We are talking about competing.

Under the system we have now, we don't have much competition. But with a public option, we will have some competition. And this public option will compete on a level playing field with private health insurers, and the uninsured individuals would get a chance to choose which plan is best for them.

If you look at the health care market today, and you go into a given area, everybody knows that one or two firms dominate in that particular area, maybe three. Sometimes you just really don't have any options at all, Mr. Speaker. And so we have a lack of insurance right now, a lack of a competition now; and what we need to do is get some real competition.

Why is having a public health care option important? There are many reasons, but here are a few. A broad number of research and a broad spectrum of research has confirmed that a public health insurance option is a key component of cost containment. To drive down the cost of health care, you need a public option, because what it does is it introduces more competition, lower administrative expenses and drives cost-saving innovation. Some folks don't know that our health insurance industry right now is exempt from antitrust legislation and doesn't really have to compete. But a public option will drive them to competition, which is a good thing.

Also, need for a public option, according to research from the Commonwealth Fund, the net administrative cost for Medicare and Medicaid are 5 and 8 percent respectively. These are plans, Medicare and Medicaid, which already drive reasonable cost down so that the folks who participate in these programs are not being charged for a bunch of stuff that they don't need. They are getting low administrative costs.

Now I just want to say that I have been joined now by one of my favorite
colleagues, DONNA EDWARDS, who by the way, is a pretty good softball player, that is an aside, but Congresswoman Edwards is here. She represents a district in Maryland. And let me just give her a chance to sort of jump in on this important conversation going on in Congress right now.

Congresswoman Edwards, how are you doing tonight? Let me yield to you.

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Mr. ELLISON. Well, let me thank the gentleman, and let me remind everybody that this is the Progressive message, the Progressive Caucus coming together; and I just want to leave us with this.

Mary from Minneapolis says, My daughter needed her wisdom teeth out. At the time with insurance we were told to pay $375 and we did. Then we got billed over a thousand. Resubmitted, eventually the amount was reduced to 750. In the meantime, my husband had no paycheck.

Her second story was, she had calcium deposits in her back which make it difficult for her to walk, and yet she's having to delay her treatment until such time that it gets to be an emergency.

There are health care nightmare stories all across America. This Democratic Caucus is hearing the cries of the American people and bringing forth reform, with a bill that includes a robust public option, will stop people being dropped and denied for preexisting conditions; and we hope, Mr. Speaker, that people all

over America talk about the fact that hope is on the way, change is on the way.

And I'm looking forward to pushing green on this bill, just like my colleague from Maryland talked about, feeling good about this change that's coming. Not that we don't have some tweaks to do, but, hey look, any tweak is nothing compared to the hope that this bill represents to the American people.

So, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you and the Congress.

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