Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

Health Care Reform

Mr. ELLISON. Madam Speaker, in America today, more than 60 percent of all bankruptcies are related to medical bills. Insurance premiums have gone up three times faster than the money people take home every year. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are denied the health care they need by insurance company bureaucrats, and millions more are holding on by the skin of their teeth to keep what insurance coverage they do have.

Yet there are still those who say that there is no problem and that nothing is wrong. I don't know who they've been listening to--maybe to the insurance company CEOs who rake in millions of dollars every year in bonuses alone or maybe to the insurance company lobbyists who have flooded Washington with millions of dollars spent on ensuring that health care reform does not happen.

Americans want progress. They want a system that delivers quality, affordable health care for them and for their families. By giving them a public option to choose from, we can keep insurance companies honest through competition, and we can provide our Nation's families with the quality health care they deserve.

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