The Question Of Health Care
Floor Speech
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Mr. FLEMING. I want to thank the gentleman again, faithful virtually every week to have this leadership hour and talk about such weighty issues as health care.
But to follow up on your very point, and that is today, the big question is why all these increases in private insurance rates. Well, there are several reasons, but the main reason is that private insurance premiums help subsidize Medicare and Medicaid. Why? Medicare and Medicaid underpays the providers, the gap is getting larger, and so providers have to make it up in order to survive in business on the private insurance which has to escalate in relation to that.
So that is something you will not hear from Speaker Pelosi or the President. He wants to demonize the insurance companies. As a physician, I am no big friend
of the insurance companies. But fair is fair. If we are going to fix this problem, we have got to start, in my opinion, by looking at cost savings. We are going to have to be real about and realistic about where the real costs are coming from.
Again, you are right. Half of medicine today is under government control, and that is the part that is bankrupting the system.
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Mr. FLEMING. Well, first of all, let me say something that I think is not as obvious, but if you think about it, it should be very clear. Coverage under health care does not mean access to health care. Look at Cuba. In Cuba, you have universal health care, you have universal access, and it's all free. The problem is there is no health care in Cuba. They have one colonoscope for the whole country. Antibiotics, medications. Nonexistent. So what good is 100 percent universal coverage?
Now how does that apply to us? Well, what we're really doing in effect with this bill is taking two big entitlements, which is Medicare-Medicaid. The States can't afford Medicaid. The Federal Government cannot afford Medicare. Medicare will run out of money in 8 years. On top of that, we're taking out half a trillion dollars for Medicare, not knowing how we're going to make up for it, and then we're going to take the money and tax people and create a whole new entitlement, stacking one entitlement after another.
Bottom line here is, there's two ways to save costs, to bend the cost curve down in health care. One is to have a giant system like that, and create bureaucrats who are going to control things and micromanage, and ultimately save money through long lines, a waiting list, and rationing. The other, the one I prefer, is a free market where we attack the doctor patient-relationship and we empower the patient, make him into a consumer, where he has clarity and transparency, where he has health savings accounts, for instance, and he can go and decide and have patient choice as to what the cost, what the providers are going to be, and where he can get his best value for the money.
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Mr. AKIN. You know, I just today was talking to my constituents back in the State of Missouri and we were having this forum. I spoke in pretty strong terms. I told my constituents that this bill, first of all, would destroy the quality of health care in America. The second thing it was going to do was it was going to destroy the Federal budget. And that if I were to put this bill on a scale of all the legislation I've seen since I've been in Congress--and I'm getting a little older; this is my tenth year--that this bill is more than twice as bad as the next worst bill that I've ever seen. So this bill is altogether in another category.
I spoke before a group this last weekend, and I looked out and there were a lot of other legislators I'd served with in the State of Missouri. I said, We've all served in the majority, we've served in the minority. But I said, The last year and a half, we've served in the wilderness. I said, The difference of the wilderness is that I walk up as though I were walking up to the edge of the Grand Canyon and contemplated what happens if you go over that abyss.
It appears to me tonight, gentlemen, and tell me if I'm not overstating this, that we are standing on an abyss. And that if we step off the edge by passing this bill, America will not be the same country she's ever been in the past, and we will not be able to recover from that.
Mr. FLEMING. We're in the closing moments. I just want to touch on the process. We've heard about the Corn Husker kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, the Gatorade Carve-out for the Medicare Advantage in Florida.
Mr. AKIN. All special deals, yeah.
Mr. FLEMING. All special deals. And today we find out that yesterday or the day before our Speaker, Speaker Pelosi, made this comment, she said, We're going to have to pass this bill in order to find out what's in it. Now, we're talking about one-sixth of the entire economy here, and our Speaker has the audacity to say that we need to pass this crazy 3,000-page bill just to find out what's in it? And with that she's referring to reconciliation.
Mr. AKIN. That's an amazing quote, isn't it? We have to pass the 3,000-page bill just to find out what's in it.
Mr. FLEMING. Well, we learned with the stimulus bill that you didn't have to read it to pass it, so I guess maybe it just correlated with that.
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