Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

HEALTH CARE REFORM -- (Senate - October 01, 2009)

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Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I thank my colleague, the Senator from Oregon, for helping organize this morning. I thank all other colleagues for once again coming together and speaking with different voices but with similar themes. I also thank our newest colleague, the new Senator from Massachusetts, for being here. I know he will take time in another moment to give his maiden speech. Being here and giving us moral support is helpful.

One of the things we all get to do as freshmen Senators is sit in that chair and preside over the Senate at various times. Consequently, we often get, perhaps more than other colleagues, a chance to hear the folks on the other side and their talking points. Monday afternoons, I get to hear it for uninterrupted hours. What I hear time and again from our colleagues on the other side is complaints about the various proposals this side--and, hopefully, some on the other side will join us on--has put forward.

What I do not hear from the other side is what happens if we take their approach, which is doing nothing. What I do not hear from the other side is a simple recognition not of the moral challenges of covering close to 30 million additional Americans, but the fiscal challenges of not acting, a fact that we all brought forward last week when we pointed out, if we fail to act, we will see Medicare go bankrupt by 2017; if we fail to act, our deficit numbers will continue to explode; if we fail to act, an average Virginia family, and an average Colorado family as well, will be spending close to 40 percent of their disposable incomes within the next decade paying for health care. Senator Merkley and Senator Begich have mentioned if we fail, American business cannot compete when we have to pay $3,000 to $4,000 more per employee than our competitors across the world in terms of increased health care costs.

Some may say that the simple reason for these increasing health care costs is because we have an aging population. We do. But an aging population is not the only reason for rising health care costs. Our rising health care costs are increasingly driven by an inefficient delivery system, by a system that does not reward value, by a system that does not compensate based upon any rational basis. That is where so many of the reforms are focused through the Senate Finance Committee and the HELP Committee bills--and others we will be putting forward in later weeks, perhaps even on the floor, that will bring these reforms to the overall delivery system.

Again, some of my colleagues have already mentioned wellness. Senator Shaheen mentioned the enormous differential between states in terms of Medicaid reimbursements. We can and must do a better job.

For example, if as we see here, we can put health care reform in place and drive system reform, we could potentially save $3 trillion over the next 10 years across the entire system. If we fail to act, we leave those costs in a system that does not provide good quality health care and, with 70 percent of the cost going for chronic diseases, does not provide better coverage, either.

On this last chart, in terms of what we are talking about in expanded savings, if we fail, if we simply expand the current system--this is based upon Lewin Group studies, the Commonwealth Fund that has been cited many times on the other side--if we simply put in place expanded coverage without reform, we will continue to explode the deficit. But if we put in place the kinds of reforms we are talking about, which is wellness, and increased transparency--and I strongly believe in a free market system--but we have no transparency in our system in terms of what costs are and what people actually pay. If we take advantage of some of the best examples in the private sector, where health reform is taking place right now, we can bring about not only reform but bring about reform with lower costs, higher value, and truly make sure Americans all across the country get the coverage they need and that does not break the deficit.

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