Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, a week ago, freshman Democratic Senators came to this floor to discuss as a group how our current health care system is broken and unsustainable. Today, we return to address the challenge of runaway costs and how health care reform can bend the cost curve, making health care more affordable and more accessible to our families and our businesses.

Many folks have said to me: Is this really the time to take on health care reform, when we are in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression? The answer is an unequivocal yes. Now is the time. Now is the time because health care costs are a runaway train that can do great damage to our families and our small businesses and large businesses. Indeed, consider the situation of a family when health care costs have doubled in the last 9 years, so families who could afford insurance just a few years ago cannot afford it today. Now health care premiums are rising even faster. They are expected to double in the next 7 years. As a result, many families and many individuals who are struggling to pay those health care premiums right now won't be able to do so in just a few more years. So fixing our broken health care system cannot wait. Indeed, reform is essential to our families, our small businesses, and our large businesses.

Consider this: For a working family, every additional dollar that goes into a health care premium comes out of the wages that would otherwise go to increase the family's purchasing power.

So rising health care premiums are a tax on family wages, a tax on family purchasing power, making it much harder for our families to get ahead and provide for their children and establish a high quality of life.

Controlling cost is also essential to small businesses. Small businesses want to offer health coverage to attract and keep good employees, to do what is right for their employees' quality of life. But runaway costs are making that more and more difficult.

Consider the example of the Hawthorne Auto Clinic founded and operated by Jim Houser and his wife Liz Dally. When they opened 26 years ago, Jim and Liz were committed to offering those who worked for them and with them a good benefits package, including comprehensive health care.

They are still able to provide health insurance to their employees, but it is getting tougher. Premiums have gone from 9 percent of their payroll to 18 percent in just the last 5 years. As a result, they have had to cut back on the benefits they have offered. Over the last decade, health care premiums have skyrocketed for small businesses across the board like they have for the Hawthorne Auto Clinic.

Large businesses see the effect as well. If you build a car in America, it costs $1,500 in health care. If you build that same car across the border in Canada and Europe, the cost is zero. In fact, in 2007, GM spent more on health care than they did on steel. So controlling costs is essential for our large businesses to be competitive in the world, to be able to build products here in America.

If we do not build products in America, we will not have a middle class in America. So health care reform cannot wait. Our families need help with runaway costs. Our small businesses are looking for us to help control costs, and our large businesses need reform to be competitive in the world and to build the strong economy that will raise all boats.

Today, freshmen Democratic Senators are here to discuss this from a number of perspectives. First will be Senator Roland Burris of Illinois. As comptroller and attorney general of Illinois, Senator Burris committed himself to serving the health and well-being of underserved populations in his State.

I yield 4 minutes to my distinguished friend from Illinois.

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Mr. MERKLEY. I thank the Senator very much for his comments and his emphasis on making the best use of every dollar while addressing ethnic disparities in our health care system and the dire need to invest in prevention and wellness.

Next, we will hear from Senator Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire. As Governor of New Hampshire, Senator Shaheen enacted the New Hampshire Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides affordable health and dental coverage to tens of thousands of children in her State.

She also initiated a senior prescription drug program, providing seniors with lower cost prescription drugs. I yield 4 minutes to the Senator from New Hampshire.

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Mr. MERKLEY. I thank Senator Shaheen so much. It is enormously valuable to have her experience fighting for health care at the State level and bringing that to this conversation, recognizing we do have a partnership between what the State can do and what the Federal team can do and that the goal of reforming the way we deliver health care can have a huge impact on price.

Next, we turn to Senator Michael Bennet from Colorado. As the highly successful superintendent of Denver Public Schools, Senator Bennet committed himself to ensuring the health and educational well-being of Denver's school-aged children.

I yield 4 minutes to my friend from Colorado.

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