Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I thank you, and I thank the chair for his courtesy as well.

At this time of the year, millions of Americans are out in the stores doing their holiday shopping. That is because we Americans enjoy our free markets and our free enterprise system. Whether it is for a holiday or we are shopping for a car or food or a house, we Americans believe we ought to have quality choices in our marketplace, and Americans, our people, ought to be rewarded when they shop wisely.

The American economy works this way for just about everything except health care. Today, American health care is mostly a competition-free zone. Insurance companies enjoy extraordinary privileges as monopolies. Insurers are exempt from the antitrust laws, and in scores of American towns, our people can only get their health care under the heel of just one health insurance company.

Today's health insurance market is essentially dysfunctional, and for most Americans, they have no way to hold the insurance companies accountable. It has been that way since the middle of the last century, since the days of wage and price controls. For literally 60-plus years, American consumers have not been in the position to be able to hold the insurance companies accountable and to get the value for their dollar that they get in every other part of our economy.

Changing this broken health care marketplace is the heart of real health reform. The legislation we will vote on tonight--and, I might add, the chairman of the Finance Committee is on the floor, and this essentially began with his white paper when we started working on it in the Finance Committee--the legislation we are going to vote on tonight, in my view, starts the long march to empowering consumers, to turning the tables on the insurance lobby, and to getting more value for our health care dollar. This can be done through a part of the health reform debate that got some discussion in the Finance Committee and then, because people liked it and didn't know much about it, has since essentially gotten lost in the discussion; that is, the health insurance exchanges.

For folks listening at home today, an exchange is going to be like a farmers market. Various types of health plans are going to be marketed through the exchange, and for the first time--this was an area in which Chairman Baucus and I had a great interest in the committee--it is going to be possible for folks to make apples-to-apples comparisons of these various health plans.

There are requirements in the bill that keep the low-quality products out of the exchange. Chairman Baucus and I got interested in the need for consumer protection particularly early on in programs, back in the days after Medicare got established when seniors were buying 15 or so private policies to supplement their Medicare and most of them weren't worth the paper they were written on. So with these exchanges as they are designed, that is not going to happen. People are going to get value for their dollar on day one.

There are also some important consumer protection requirements, and I particularly wish to commend the Presiding Officer of the Senate, whose work I have been following. These consumer protection requirements will ensure that now when a consumer pays a dollar in a premium, they are going to get a lot more back in benefits for their dollar. This protection is called a loss ratio. People are going to hear a lot about that concept. It is new, but it essentially means the insurance companies can't walk off with their premium dollar, use it on administrative expenses, use it on salaries, but will instead return it to the public and the consumer in the form of benefits and premiums. I commend the Presiding Officer, the Senator from Minnesota, for ensuring this was all put in place. In my view, these ideas ought to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans--these market-oriented consumer protection principles--simply because they are just common sense.

So should section 10108 of Senator Reid's managers' amendment on which the majority leader, Chairman Baucus, and I worked very closely. It is entitled ``Free Choice Vouchers.'' This section creates something that has never existed before: a concrete way for middle-income Americans who cannot afford their health care to actually push back against the insurance lobby and force insurance companies to compete for the business of covering those middle-class folks in the insurance exchanges. Unlike today, where if a hard-working, middle-class American can't afford just the one health insurance policy available to him and, thus, is out of luck, with this new provision, there will be a different health care marketplace, with free enterprise choices that can actually drive down costs for the middle class while ensuring those choices are of good quality.

So the big hurdle, it seems to me, in setting up a new health care marketplace, which began with Chairman Baucus's white paper in the Senate Finance Committee, is getting these exchanges and getting these vouchers in place.

We are going to be able to build on it. In my view, I think we will have additional opportunities to build on these ideas before the legislation goes to the President. For example, Senator Collins, our Republican colleague from Maine, Senator Bayh, and I have written bipartisan legislation that has been endorsed by the influential National Federation of Independent Business and we are working to include that proposal in this legislation. This bipartisan proposal would permit employers who are in the insurance exchange and who voluntarily choose to do so--let me emphasize that this is a matter of a voluntary choice by employers--if they choose to do so, they could give their workers a voucher so that those workers could shop for their coverage. What this means is for millions of employers and employees, the amendment would provide the opportunity to have a choice of American health care plans.

These are unquestionably challenging days for American employers and workers trying to be as competitive as possible in tough global markets. For employers who want more ways to help their workers and the employers' bottom line and for workers who would like more take-home pay and lower health expenses, this bipartisan amendment can be a lifeline. We hope our colleagues of both parties will agree and join our effort, and this can be part of the legislation that ultimately will go to the President.

Let me close with this. My great hope is that long after 24/7 cable TV has moved on to other topics, Democrats and Republicans here in the Senate can figure out a new strategy for working together, a bipartisan strategy that will let us, together, tap the full potential of real health care reform. That potential is for holding down costs, getting more value for our health care dollar, and, finally, achieving quality, affordable health coverage for all Americans.

I offer this thought because I have long felt both parties have valid views on this topic. I believe our party is absolutely right in saying you cannot fix American health care unless all Americans get good-quality, affordable coverage. If you don't do that, too often uninsured folks will shift their bills to insured folks, there won't be enough prevention, and you won't be in a position to get the most value for the health care dollar.

I continue to believe our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have valid points as well. They make valid points about the role of marketplace forces, the role of competition, the role of choice.

There has to be a way in the days ahead--one of the things that has pleased me is Chairman Baucus has said we are going to have a lot of oversight hearings and a lot of work in the days ahead to actually implement this. None of us think we can create a new health care marketplace where there hasn't been one for 70 years in a matter of minutes. So I am very pleased Chairman Baucus has indicated we will be doing a lot of the painstaking oversight work in the days ahead to actually implement this transformation in American health care, and I think the chairman knows I will be his partner in those efforts to get this implemented.

So after a year of tough financial hardships, let's find a way to bring to this Senate floor bipartisanship, common sense, and the good will that is public service at its best.

I close by saying that I look forward to working with the chairman of the Finance Committee, who I know shares these views as well.

With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source