Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act Of 2009--Motion To Proceed

Floor Speech

SERVICE MEMBERS HOME OWNERSHIP TAX ACT OF 2009--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - November 20, 2009)

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from Ohio for sharing those stories. It tells the compelling reasons why tomorrow night's vote to move to this bill is so important, and we are all honored to be a part of that.

After a lot of hard work, it is amazing that our country really is now closer than we have been in decades to passing a real health insurance reform bill that will help provide our families and our businesses with affordable and stable health insurance coverage. There is a lot of debate and there is a lot of work still ahead of us, but it should not go unnoticed that this is a big moment for our country, and you know what. It couldn't come soon enough.

Our economy is hurting. Americans across the country are so worried about keeping their jobs and making their mortgage payments. The last stress people need today is to worry about the cost of getting sick or being dropped from their insurance plan or opening the mail and seeing yet another premium increase.

Health insurance premiums for families in my home State of Washington have more than doubled in the last 10 years, and they are rising at a rate that is five times faster than people's salaries. Families and small business owners are paying more and more for their coverage, and often they are getting less and less in return. These numbers demonstrate clearly what families and small business owners across my State of Washington understand all too well. The status quo in the health insurance system is unsustainable and the cost of inaction is just too high for them to bear.

The news we got back from the Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday is encouraging. It shows the American people that our bill, our legislation will save money while protecting Medicare, and it ensures that families and businesses can take back control over their own health care choices.

If we do not pass this bill, health insurance premiums are going to continue to skyrocket. If we fail to act, health insurance companies will continue to deny patients coverage simply because they are sick. And if we let another year go by without reform, more and more families are going to lose their coverage and more and more businesses are going to collapse under the growing burden of the cost of health insurance. It doesn't have to be this way. We have been talking about reforming our health insurance system for a very long time here. Now we owe it to the American people to give them more than just talk; to give them, finally, the stability and security of a health insurance system that will be there for them when they need it and that cannot be taken away from them if they get sick or if they lose their jobs.

Six months ago, I sent a letter to my constituents asking them for their stories and their thoughts on health insurance reform, and the response I got was overwhelming. I received over 10,000 letters and e-mails from people across Washington State sharing their health care stories with me. Those stories came from small business owners, from employees, from moms and dads who told me how they are struggling with the cost of care today. So many of them cannot afford the status quo and deserve health insurance reform that allows them to keep coverage if they like it, gives them additional options if they don't, makes their care more affordable, and guarantees, finally, stable coverage that cannot be taken away when it is needed the most.

I have come to the floor many times over the last several months as we have worked to put together our Senate bills and I have shared some of these stories on the floor. Now that we have a plan on the table, I wish to tell two of these stories once more to really demonstrate the desperate need for us to move quickly and to get this bill passed.

Chris Brandt, from Spokane, WA, told me a story about his problems finding coverage. Chris told me he is a healthy young man who works for a small business that cannot afford to provide coverage to its employees, so Chris, as do a lot of Americans, had to find coverage on his own through the individual market. He told me that after paying his mortgage, his car payment, and his student loans, the only insurance he could afford is a catastrophic plan that might keep him out of bankruptcy if he gets sick. But even the cost of that plan has doubled--has more than doubled in the last 2 years.

So here is a man named Chris who wants insurance. He doesn't want to be a burden to anybody else if he gets sick, but he cannot keep up with the rising cost. We have to have a system that encourages people such as Chris to get high-quality insurance that covers preventive care so that those small, inexpensive medical problems can be treated before they become large, expensive medical problems. That is what will keep our families healthy, and it will save money in the system in the long run.

I also received a very compelling story from a woman named Patricia Jackson who lives in Woodinville, WA. Like a lot of working families, the Jacksons told me they have insurance through their employer and they pay their premiums each month directly through Patricia's paycheck. But also like a lot of our families, the burden of those premium payments is rising too quickly. Patricia told me that to care for her family of four, she paid $840 a month in 2007--$840 a month. In 2008, her payments jumped to $900 a month. This year, Patricia paid $1,186 a month. Now, before this year is even over, she got a new bill and her rates have been hiked to $1,400 a month. That is an increase of over 66 percent for her premiums in just 3 years.

Patricia, not surprisingly, told me she and her family can no longer afford to pay this, and she is not alone. Family health care coverage rose over 86
percent between 2000 and 2007. That is an increase in my State of over $5,600 per family. Wages during that time period only grew 16 percent.

The largest private insurance company in my State sent out a letter in August to all of the people who get insurance through them and told them they were raising rates by 17 percent--17 percent. Some of my small business owners are telling me premium increases are going up 40 percent. This makes families and businesses have to make choices about what they can pay.

Families are really struggling today in this tough economic climate. It is the worst since the Great Depression. They cannot afford these cost increases. So the bill we are about to bring to the floor will finally--finally--make insurers compete for the business of the American people. That is what families and small business owners in my State and across the country want and need, and it is what they deserve.

The bill we are going to bring before the Senate will make health insurance more stable. It will end the unfair and deceptive insurance company practices such as cherry-picking and cancelling coverage because of preexisting conditions. It is going to reward what works in this system and change what doesn't. Finally, it will start reining in those costs so that health care can become more affordable. It is going to allow people such as Chris to get high-quality coverage, and it is going to rein in the costs for people such as Patricia. This is more important now than ever before as our economy struggles and the cost of that care continues to rise.

We have been talking about health insurance reform for a long time, and while we were talking, families and small businesses have suffered. It is now time to end the politics and end the partisanship and come together to bring our families and our small business owners the health insurance reforms they deserve.

As we move forward in this debate, I am going to be working very hard to make sure that the needs and priorities of Washington State families and businesses are preserved and that we move forward in a way that ensures that the future health of our families and the strength of our economy is there. So I urge all of our colleagues to work with us now in a very constructive way over the next several weeks as we debate this bill. and to rise above the partisanship. Let's make health insurance work for our families, our economy, and for our country. That is what this debate is about.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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