Progressive Caucus Hour

Floor Speech

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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to share with you stories of real people and how health care impacts real American lives every day.

One of my constituents from Westminster, Colorado, Barbara Graham, contacted me the other day and shared her story that I want to share with you.

In 1970, Barbara's daughter was born with cystic fibrosis. The longest period of time she went without being hospitalized was 7 months. At that point, they had insurance, and Barbara told me that unlike today's insurance, it covered all of her stays and it didn't cost them an arm and a leg. Unfortunately, her daughter died 6 weeks before her eighth birthday. Her son was born with cystic fibrosis in 1976. He is still alive, but because of his condition, today he has no health insurance. He is self-employed, and he couldn't begin to afford the cost of insurance with a preexisting condition like cystic fibrosis.

His and his mother, Barbara's daily thoughts are, how long can they get help from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, from family members trying to patch together what they need to help with his medication and his needs? How long can her son stay healthy enough not to be hospitalized because hospital stays have cost him everything? He can never accumulate assets, his hospital stays wipe him out. The last time he was sick he was turned away. His mother has watched him where he can hardly get a breath of air without thinking that it might be his last.

Yes, Barbara tells me, our country needs help with the health care industry. Barbara says that having an illness and a preexisting condition is not elective, and it's a shame that insurance companies control how and when a person is treated. Barbara watched--and how difficult it is for any parent to watch--one of her children die because of our health care system, and she fears and she writes that she will probably watch her son die before his time because of his inability to access health care.

Barbara wants us in Congress to remember those who can't help themselves because of illness. Well, in the health care reform plan before us, we ban pricing discrimination based on preexisting conditions. Through creating exchanges, we allow people like Barbara's son, who is self-employed, to have access to a low-cost option with some of the same negotiating leverage that a 10,000 or 100,000-person company might have through an exchange which allows for great choices between many private insurers and the public option. He would also receive affordability credits depending on his income--for an individual up to 300 times poverty, up to about $42,000 a year in income. Barbara's son will receive affordability credits to buy the insurance that he needs through the exchange, which will be affordable because they won't be able to discriminate based on his preexisting condition.

It is for families like Barbara's and to make American families stronger that the United States Congress needs to pass health care reform.

Thank you, and I yield back to my friend from Minnesota.

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Mr. POLIS. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota.

I rise to share stories of real people that highlight the urgent need for health care reform.

Eileen Fink of Colorado Springs is what we might think of as a soccer mom. Her kids, she told me, have a reputation for being involved in sports. They are a healthy and athletic family, but they, like many American families, lost their health care insurance. They encourage their kids to power on, play sports, have fun, live a normal and happy childhood. No one in their family was reckless, but they had a bad year when they racked up several orthopedic injuries in a short time with no insurance. This could happen to any family. Their daughter racked up over $10,000 in bills after a

fall that required reconstructive surgery and steel rods in her bones. Their other daughter fell ice skating, broke her wrist. That was a $3,000 bill. Finally, their 14-year-old son broke his wrist, and feeling sorry for the family's financial predicament, he hid that for 9 days; he didn't tell his parents that his wrist was in pain or what he was suffering from. One night he finally said, Mom, I think I broke my wrist a while back, but I didn't want to make you cry about the bills. It turned out it was broken on a growth plate. The police came to question Eileen about the delay in treatment. Ultimately, it was her son who tried to protect his own family from the bills, hence the delay in treatment. What does that teach him about access to health care? Eileen feels terrible that her son suffered so long trying to save the family financially.

Eileen asked us in Congress to help hardworking families like hers. And she added that, by the way, my husband is Republican, but sees this as an important issue, too.

Families are bipartisan, families are nonpartisan. Whether they're registered to vote, whether they vote, whether they're Republican, when they're independent, whether they're green, whether they're libertarian, whether they're Democrat, what kind of system forces a 14-year-old kid not to tell his parents that he's hurt because he's worried about his mother crying because they can't afford the treatment?

Under health care reform now before Congress, families like the Fink family would have the option of getting insurance through the exchange, a low-cost option that people who are self-employed or work for small businesses would have that would give them the same negotiating power and leverage as multinational corporations. Families like the Finks would also receive affordability credits and have the guarantee that they would have no more than $10,000 out of pocket in medical expenses each year, preventing them from bankruptcy and from having to worry and having to worry their children about the cost of medical care.

It is urgent that this United States Congress keep families like the Finks in mind, soccer moms and soccer dads across the country, any of whom could be affected by the breakdown and the failures of our current medical system.

It's for families like the Finks that I call upon my colleagues in the United States Congress to pass health care reform and send it to President Obama's desk before the end of the year.

Thank you. I yield to the gentleman from Minnesota.

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Mr. POLIS. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota. A friend of mine, a resident of Thornton, Colorado, but it might as well be Fresno, California, or Houston, Texas, or Mobile, Alabama, it doesn't matter, Lynn Zimmerman of Thornton shared her story with me. She wants to see a public health care option similar to Medicare in this country.

Two of her sons are working for minimum-wage jobs currently, and they can't afford health care insurance. Those in their community that earn between $1,000 to $1,200 a month can barely pay rent and car insurance, barely put food on the table. How can they expect to pay for health care on top of that, which they frequently, in the case of her two children, don't receive through their job? Their employers don't offer a health care package, and they are no longer college students so they can't be on Lynn's plan.

Lynn is a teacher, and a darn good one. But she shared with me that her health care plan has gotten so expensive that it is an issue every time the teachers union goes through negotiations with the district.

The district can't afford health care coverage for their employees. In order to afford the health care coverage, teachers have been taking pay cuts for a decade. They still get a nominal pay raise, but the portion of the health care plan has been raised more each time they negotiate, and their take-home pay has been cut.

Lynn tells us that the current insurance programs spend too much time and money trying to deny payment for procedures that are covered under their health care plan. Lynn suggests, and with a tremendous amount of common sense, why don't we get rid of the people pushing papers and denying coverage, the very people that are driving costs in our system?

That speaks to the critical reason of having a public option as an alternative, to provide real competition for insurance companies, so insurance companies with exorbitant CEO pay, insurance companies that spend the money that we pay them with our premiums hiring people to deny the very claims that we retain them to pay out on, will be held competitive and forced to be competitive to retain their customers.

Having a public option which is revenue neutral--they will have only the premiums that we allocate to them to pay out in claims--will help keep the insurance companies honest in their competition as a critical component of health care reform.

Lynn finally implores Congress to act now and make good on our promise to the American people to improve the access and quality of health care so that Lynn's sons can have access to an exchange, a low-cost option that gives them buying insurance as individuals the same negotiating leverage as a multinational corporation with 100,000 people, that gives her sons affordability credits, for an individual up to about $42,000 a year. Her sons making $12,000 to $15,000 a year will get affordability credits that will pay for almost all of the cost of insurance through the exchange.

What a transformative difference health care reform will make in the lives of the Zimmerman family and in the lives of millions of other American families like the Zimmerman family that are the backbone of America.

I yield back to the gentleman from Minnesota.

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Mr. POLIS. You know what strikes me with the moving stories that my colleagues the gentlelady from Illinois has shared and the gentleman from Minnesota? You know, it doesn't matter whether you're from Texas or Minnesota or Illinois or Arizona or Colorado or New York. Kids everywhere get broken wrists. People anywhere could have a congenital heart condition. These are not the fault of the individual. These are preexisting conditions. It could happen to you. It could happen to me. It could happen to your sister, your brother, your cousin.

We all want to have that there, something there in case our own family faces this kind of situation. We all want and should be demanding and can demand now, by supporting health care reform, preventing discriminating based on preexisting conditions, preventing exclusions based on preexisting conditions. The gentleman in the story that my colleague and friend from Illinois just shared with us would have access to an exchange, a low-cost option that would give him the same negotiating leverage as multinational companies with hundreds of thousands of people in buying his health care insurance, with a public option that would give him the choice and keep the competition and ensure that there was intense competition within the exchange.

Depending on people's income level, up to several hundred percent of the poverty line, they will get affordability credits. For a family of four, up to $70,000 a year in income, they'll get affordability credits. And if they don't get their insurance through work, they'll be able to purchase them on their own through the exchange. It doesn't matter. Could be somebody from Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Texas, New York. These are American families we're talking about, and health care reform can help make American families stronger.

I yield back to the gentleman from Minnesota.

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Mr. POLIS. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota for the time.

I want to share with you the story of Gerry from Boulder, Colorado. Several years ago, Gerry wanted to have an MRI on his left shoulder to determine the cause of rotator cuff pain that was becoming increasingly bothersome and disabling, but it took his insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, over a year to approve the procedure. In the meantime, he had to deal with that pain every day.

Gerry also shared that when his son turned 25, he needed to have his own health care insurance policy. And his son is healthy but takes an antidepressant. As a result, the insurance companies list him, like tens of millions of other Americans, with the scarlet letter--a preexisting condition. And he has to pay over $300 a month for a basic policy for a healthy 25-year-old, and that's despite the fact that his doctor wrote to the

companies indicating the condition is very stable and is not currently in treatment.

Gerry's doctor now charges a membership fee so that he's able to have the ability to see less patients for longer amounts of time. He needs to have several clerical staff just to handle the insurance claims of the different companies. Each company, of course, requires different information.

Gerry and his wife pay a combined $7,200 a year in health insurance premiums, and they have coverage, but they still have to pay about $10,000 a year out of pocket for prescription drugs.

Gerry shares with us that our system may work when you're young and healthy, but it fails as you age and need care. What kind of health care system fails when you need health care? When you don't need health care, it works. When you need health care, it fails.

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Mr. POLIS. That's right. When you don't need to go somewhere, the car works fine. The minute you need to get to work, the minute you need to go somewhere to visit your family, the car doesn't work. What kind of car is that? That's a lemon.

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. It works fine. Although, let's remember, you're continuing to pay premiums, often very high ones every single month, even when you don't need it.

Mr. POLIS. That's right. And let's say you get in one accident or one speeding ticket, you're uninsurable for the rest of your life and you can't drive.

Well, these are our bodies we are talking about, not cars. And if you have one illness, one preexisting condition, you are virtually, if you try to buy insurance on your own, uninsurable for the rest of your life through no fault of your own. And that's what Gerry's son is going through at 25. Just takes an antidepressant, healthy kid, can't get insurance, pays a lot for a very basic program that isn't even comprehensive.

There are tens of millions of American families like Gerry's and others that will benefit from us passing health care reform now.

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Mr. POLIS. People wonder why there's such passion with this issue created on both sides of the aisle. It's because this issue is an issue of life and an issue of death.

One of my constituents from Boulder, Colorado, asked her name not be used for her very personal story but wanted me to share it with the people of the country and my colleagues in Congress.

She tells us that she doesn't even consider her story unusual. Her sister was 62 and hadn't been able to afford health care for most of her life even though she worked as a legal secretary.

Sixty years ago, her son, the niece of my constituent from Colorado, became very depressed at age 24. He was a part-time student, he didn't have access to any health care, let alone the mental care he so desperately needed. And 60 years ago on the night of July 4, he went to a park and shot and killed himself. The devastation to her sister and their entire family, as any of us know, is beyond words, beyond explanation.

``Isn't my nephew as important as any politician or rich person in this country?'' And that could be a question that any of us asks. She writes that health care is a right for all citizens, and there must be a robust public option. This could be any American family.

We're talking about lives like the life of this young man with mental health parity, with access to mental health service. He first of all could have been on his parents' plan up to age 26 under our plan. If he wasn't able to participate in the parents' plan, he would of gotten affordability credits for his own plan to get insurance through the exchange, including a public option.

How many lives must senselessly end like this before Congress acts? It's stories like this that continue to multiply; and until Congress takes action, we're going to have more unnecessary deaths. And that's why people get so passionate about this issue. We're talking about life and death; we're talking about people from across the entire country and what health care reform really means to them and their loved ones and their security.

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Mr. POLIS. Thank you. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota.

You alluded to other topics.

I want to take this opportunity to remind our viewers that for the cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, not only could we cover every American with health care, but we would reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years. And I know that that is a topic that many of us plan to return to as well.

But I would point out, to put things in perspective, there were those on the other side of the aisle that didn't ask, didn't worry how much it would cost to invade and occupy not one, two countries; didn't ask how long it might cost to be there 10 years, 20 years, how much to

increase it 40,000 troops, 60,000 troops, 80,000 troops.

But there's a new-found commitment of fiscal responsibility when it comes to health care. And I am proud to say that the Democratic plan fully pays for health care reform. Not only will it fully pay for health care reform, but it will reduce the budget deficit over 10 years and help rein in growing health care costs.

I think it's important to put a human face on what health care reform means for American families.

I want to share with my colleagues in the House the story of Deborah Abbott Brown from Boulder, Colorado. Deborah, like a lot of Americans, lost her job about a year ago in the recession so she was faced with COBRA payments. Her COBRA payments would have been $1,800 a month to continue the health care for her family. She couldn't afford that. That was more than her mortgage payment, and at the same time she was losing her income. How could she afford $1,800 a month in COBRA payments?

So she wanted to turn to--being responsible and wanting to keep her family with some kind of insurance--she turned to the individual insurance market in Colorado to try to find affordable coverage. She thought, You know, I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount and maybe we'll have some kind of high deductible or catastrophic plan. But she soon found out that her family was denied coverage on the individual market even though one of the companies she applied for was the same provider of the COBRA care that she couldn't afford.

The reason is that her husband, Deborah's husband, had recently turned 50, completed his baseline colonoscopy, as was recommended by his physician, and was told that the procedure counted as a surgery and in the individual market they would not offer insurance to anybody who had a surgical procedure in the last 3 months. Deborah was shocked. How can a common medical procedure when there were no findings be the basis for denying coverage?

That's when it dawned on Deborah, as it dawning on millions of Americans every day, that insurance companies work for their own profit. They unreasonably deny insurance in the individual market when they don't provide needed insurance profits. That's when Deborah became a convert and told us that's why the public option is a must.

This is a routine occurrence. Families across our country--California, Illinois, Minnesota, Texas--they want to do the right thing. She wanted to get COBRA, but for $1,800 a month, she said let's find an affordable option. Oh, your husband had a routine preventative procedure that he should have had--and it was a good thing he had from a medical perspective--came out clean but, oh, he had a surgery in the last 3 months.

This is what American families are being told, and this is where we in Congress have a historic opportunity to fix and make a health care system that's good for American families.

I yield back.

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