Health Care

Floor Speech

Mr. MORAN of Kansas. Madam Speaker, I came to Congress with a purpose, a purpose of working to preserve the way of life that we live in Kansas. I was born and raised in Kansas, and my home and family are still in Kansas. I never moved to Washington, D.C. because I love the sense of community and belonging that Kansas communities offer. Access to quality, affordable health care is one of those things that determine whether our communities survive and whether we have a future. This is why the current health care reform debate is so important to me, and I am extremely concerned about the direction that we are going.

During his campaign, President Obama stressed transparency and accountability in the health care debate. He said, I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table and that the negotiations will be televised on C-SPAN so that people could see who is making the arguments on behalf of their constituents and who is making the arguments on behalf of drug companies or insurance companies.

But now the transparency that the President promised us is nowhere to be found, as several Democrat senators and White House staff hole themselves away to draft the health care reform bill behind closed doors. I understand the Democrats' desire to merge the two Senate committee bills, but this process concerns me because in this closed office, the future of health care for Kansans is being decided.

Does this small group understand the problems that cutting Medicare reimbursement rates will pose for Kansas hospitals, doctors, nurses and other health care providers? Kansas hospitals operate on razor-thin margins because they are already dramatically underpaid by Medicare. If these rates are further reduced, as the current reform bills propose, Kansas hospitals may be forced to close and access to health care for Kansans will be reduced.

Is this small group considering commonsense ideas that have been proposed by Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that would make quality coverage more affordable and more accessible for more Americans? Some of those ideas that we have talked about include placing as much emphasis on wellness as we do on illness by giving employers and insurers flexibility to reward individuals who improve their health and manage their disease; encouraging medical students to become primary care physicians and nurses and incentivizing them to care for patients in underserved communities; permitting the sale of insurance across State lines, establishing high risk pools and reinsurance pools to address preexisting conditions and providing incentives to low-income families to retain or purchase private health insurance that best meets their needs; reforming our medical liability system to reduce frivolous lawsuits that lead to inflated insurance premiums and the practice of defensive medicine; encouraging health care savings by offering individuals health savings accounts that enable families to take ownership of their health; and upgrading our outdated health records system through the use of new technology to streamline costs and reduce medical errors.

It is my hope that these issues are being addressed as the President and Democrat leaders craft the health care reform bill. I have traveled across my State, and I have heard many Kansans who have worries. They are concerned about their health care and about the future of their State and country. Kansans and all Americans deserve to know what their Representatives are voting on, and they deserve the assurance their business will be conducted in a deliberate and open way.

The President has expressed a desire to explore a wide range of options for health care reform. Kansans want commonsense reforms that enhance our current system and reduce health care costs. What we do not want is the trillions in new deficit spending, reduced choices for patients and doctors, and increased power in Washington D.C.

Health care reform must address the underlying reasons that health care costs keep increasing. We lower costs through reforms that eliminate the unnecessary overspending in our current system, not by shifting the costs of health care to taxpayers and mortgaging our children's future with exploding budget deficits.

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