Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

HEALTH CARE REFORM -- (Senate - July 28, 2009)

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, a few moments ago, the Republican leader, on the floor, talked about a concern about ``rushing'' to a health care reform debate and bill. I want to assure everyone that no one is rushing to anything. Everyone is working hard to come up with a good, strong health care reform bill that addresses an urgent need in this country.

In fact, last week, President Obama spoke to the Nation about the urgent need to reform the health care system. He spoke about premiums that have doubled over the last decade. He talked about the out-of-pocket costs that have been shooting up by over a third. He talked about deductibles that all of us have seen skyrocket. He talked about the families and the small business owners who have to work harder and harder to stay afloat. President Obama spoke about the work that has been done to put a health care reform plan together.

I sit on the health care committee in the Senate. We spent months having hearings and working through some of the tough, difficult challenges. We spent weeks and hours working through a debate on a health care reform package. We looked at hundreds of amendments, many of them Republican, a lot of them accepted into our health care bill before it passed out. We are working very hard now with the Finance Committee for them to work through the challenging issues and come up with a solution, as the House is as well.

We are working hard to come to a solution with the health care reform plan that protects patient choice, that reins in those costs I talked about, and provides coverage for millions of Americans who don't have any today.

The President of the United States spoke frankly about some of our Republican colleagues who are speaking out for the status quo. President Obama spoke plainly to Americans about the devastating costs of inaction--the devastating costs of inaction if we do nothing, and what will happen if we maintain the status quo. I am telling you what would happen if we do nothing: Premiums are going to continue to rise, benefits will continue to erode, out-of-pocket costs are going to continue to skyrocket, and more and more employers will do what I have seen too many in my State have to do: drop coverage for their workers. We talk about 47 million Americans today who don't have coverage at all. That will seem like the good old days if we do nothing.

Despite what some of our colleagues wish us to believe, Americans do want health care reform. They need health care reform desperately, and they are not going to accept another year of talking and bickering and stalling.

Last month, I sent a letter to families across my State of Washington asking for their help as we work very hard to reform the health care system. I told them I wanted to pass a plan that protects existing coverage when it is good, improves it when it is not, reins in costs today, and lowers them long term, and guarantees care for the millions of people who don't have health care today.

I asked my constituents to share with me their stories and ideas about how to make this vision a reality. I told them that I know health care is a very personal issue, but I also told them their personal stories have the power to change minds and transform debate. The response I got was overwhelming. I came to the floor last week several times and shared some of the over 5,000 stories that have now poured into my office from my State. I underscored the need to fix this broken health care system and do it this year.

I come to the floor to share a few more stories, and I want to talk about a specific aspect of health care reform I have been working very hard on, and that is, as we reform this health care system, we have a skilled health care workforce that is ready to step up and provide the care we need.

Judy Allen, from Moses Lake, WA, sent me a story about her son. She said he had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of 5 and was given a 50-50 chance of making it to his ninth birthday. Judy said she and her husband had good health insurance, but they had to travel over 3 hours to get to a clinic with the resources her son needed. They could not move close to this facility, because moving would force them to switch health care insurance providers, and they knew if that happened, they would get rejected because of their son's preexisting condition. Sadly, Judy's son died 3 years ago, but the reforms we are working on will help mothers such as Judy across the country.

We want to stop insurance companies from spending our premium dollars on figuring out ways to exclude people from coverage. We are going to ensure that nobody will be denied health care coverage even if they have a preexisting condition.

Unfortunately, Judy's story is not unique. Millions of Americans who have insurance today--good insurance--struggle with a broken health care system. They struggle with the skyrocketing costs, with the complicated system that works for the insurance companies but not for the patients. So I agree with President Obama that we need to reform the health care system this year.

As we work to provide quality affordable health care coverage to all Americans, we have to make sure there are enough health care professionals to provide that care. We can write and pass a bill that improves the coverage and reins in the costs, but without an educated, accessible system of doctors, nurses, x-ray technicians, physical therapists, and other health care professionals, that coverage isn't going to mean much. If we provide health care coverage without the workers, it is like building schools and not hiring any teachers. So it is common sense, but it makes economic sense as well.

Not only does this shortage make it hard to access care even if you have insurance today, it makes it more expensive. That is why we have made a number of investments that are going to create and sustain good-paying jobs and ensure access to care so that Americans stay healthy and productive.

We all know today that too few medical students are going into high-demand general care fields. Many students enter specialty fields, in part to pay for the cost of medical school, and because they tend to be more lucrative long term. So the health care bill we passed out of committee on health care includes incentives such as loan repayment programs, scholarships, and grants to encourage students to go into high-need fields and to work in underserved areas. It invests in education, training, and retention efforts, not just for new health care workers but for all of those who are already providing quality care in this country.

Investments in our health care workforce create jobs, ease the strain on overworked health care professionals, and keep Americans healthy, so they can be productive on their jobs. I am going to keep working to make sure these investments remain a priority.

Quickly, before I yield the floor, I want to reiterate the critical need I talked about a minute ago to fix the health care system. I want to share a story.

Sharon Alexander wrote to me from Steilacoom, WA, about her battle with brain cancer--the same type Senator Kennedy suffers from. Sharon had health insurance, but she wrote and told me that while she was running from doctor to doctor and undergoing radiation treatments, she and her husband had to spend a great deal of time navigating different copayments and acceptance policies of all of her doctors. She told me she was lucky she had insurance, but she still had to jump through hoop after hoop to get the care she needed. Sharon discovered that in our broken health care system, high-priced insurance doesn't guarantee high-quality health care.

That is why we need to act. We need to lower the cost of health care, we need to ensure Americans have affordable health care and, in these difficult times, with all of the challenges Americans have with premiums rising three times faster than wages and every day 14,000 more Americans losing their health insurance, we are not rushing; we are working hard to get this right, and it needs to be done this year.

I yield the floor.

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