The System Must Change

Floor Speech

Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, there are those who contend that we are moving too quickly, we're moving too swiftly, and that we must slow down. In fact, this translates into we really should not go forward at all. And to these who would contend that we should stop at this point, that we should simply let it go, my response is: we cannot let health care go, because it won't let us go.

The system is not sustainable. It is unsustainable as currently implemented. Currently, we're spending about $2.5 trillion per year on health care; $2.5 trillion is a big number. It's difficult to get your mind around $2.5 trillion; $79,000 a second, however, is a number that we can comprehend. And that is what we are spending--$79,000 per second. By 2018, depending on who's counting and how you count the numbers, we will be spending $139,000 per second. That would be more than 20 percent of GDP.

We cannot sustain the current system. It must be revamped. This system has to change: 46 million people uninsured, depending on who's counting, when you count, and how you count. In my State of Texas, 6 million people uninsured and 1.4 million children in the State of Texas are uninsured. In Harris County, where I reside, 1.1 million people are uninsured. The system cannot continue as it is constructed.

We spend $100 billion per year in emergency rooms; $100 billion per year to cover those who are uninsured. That's money that could be well spent in a physician's office and would save us a lot of money and would also help us to deal with preventive measures as opposed to responding to illnesses when they become almost dire.

The system must change. We currently have a system wherein there are many people who are too young for Medicare. They make too much to receive Medicaid. And they don't make enough to buy their insurance. The system has to change. We cannot allow preexisting conditions to continue to prevent pregnant women from getting proper treatment. Pregnancy is a preexisting condition under the current system. The system has to change.

We must find a way to muster up the courage to take on this challenge. If we could pass and did pass Social Security when the polls were against it, if we passed other crucial measures when the polls were against them, we can pass health care reform. And for those who contend that in this country how you got here will depend upon whether you will get treatment, my response is this: if you commit a crime in this country and you harm someone, and we should harm you as the culprit, when we capture you, we will give you aid and comfort. In this country, if you are an enemy combatant and you hurt our warriors in battle and we should capture you and you have been wounded, we will give you aid and comfort. In this country, if you're on death row and you're going to meet your Maker next week, we will give you aid and comfort if you're suffering this week, and send you to your Maker next week.

If we can give the enemy combatant, the person on death row, and the person who is a criminal aid and comfort, surely we're going to give it to people who find themselves hurt and in the streets of life. The system must change.

Dr. King said it best. He said, On some questions, cowardice will ask, Is it safe? Expediency will ask, Is it politic? Vanity will ask, Is it popular? But conscience asks the ultimate question and that is, Is it right?

This is the right thing to do. I stand where Dr. King stood when he told us we must do that which is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but do it because it's right.

Source