Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I thank Senator Baucus.

I am pleased to be here to join in this effort to talk about the importance of what we are doing with health care reform. We have waited so long for health care reform, and yesterday it became a reality. Today, we celebrate a reformed health care system that President Obama has signed into law. With this historic step, we have ensured that more Americans have the health care security and stability they need. We have ensured that families will have choices for coverage even if their jobs do not provide it. We have ended denials for preexisting conditions, and we have a guarantee that no one has to pay more for health insurance if they get sick and that the insurance coverage cannot be taken away. We no longer allow insurance companies to put lifetime limits on the amounts of benefits they will cover.

But insurance reforms are not the only thing we have done. We have made health care more affordable for those who need it most and made it easier for small businesses to provide coverage for their employees. We made important steps to encourage everyone to take advantage of preventive care, and we have created incentives for people to enroll in wellness programs and encourage communities to address the public health of their citizens. Finally, we are changing the way doctors provide care, making it better coordinated and more patient-centered.

I am pleased we are here building on the success of the health care reform legislation that was just signed into law. Our resolve is strong, make no mistake about that. We must continue our work in making a good bill even better.

The legislation we are now considering makes great strides to strengthen the new law. It will provide more tax relief to families to help them afford health care and more help for seniors to pay for prescription drugs.

I have talked with seniors throughout New Hampshire who struggle with the high cost of prescription drugs. The Medicare doughnut hole, as it is known, causes great stress in family budgets when seniors have to pay full price for the drugs they need, people such as Sue Quinlan from Portsmouth, who recently wrote me about her experience with the doughnut hole. She wrote:

This year, because of my illness, my drug costs have doubled, and in September I experienced the ``donut hole.'' This meant that when my Total Drug Cost reached $2,400 for the year, I was on my own.

She went on to say:

You know you are in the donut hole when a drug you have been paying $90 for is now $364.47. You know you are in the donut hole when the mail order prescription company calls to warn you that your order is going to cost $720.82 and wants to confirm that you really do want them to send it, and you have no choice except to send it unless you want to stop taking the medications. You know you are in the donut hole when the pharmacist gives you a sympathetic smile when they hand you your order.

Under this bill, seniors such as Sue no longer need to worry. They will get a discount on medicine critical to their health, and we will begin to close the doughnut hole. Seniors will now have access to affordable drugs on which they depend. We have all heard the story of seniors breaking their pills in half or skipping their daily doses because of the cost. Under this bill, a senior with high cholesterol and heart disease who relies on Lipitor and antihypertension medication to stay healthy now can take these drugs with peace of mind and less financial stress.

This bill will expand affordable coverage to 32 million Americans. The bill will provide the same Medicaid deals for every State so that the Federal Government will help share in the burden the States face in providing coverage for new populations. The bill also builds on the previous bill to attack waste, fraud, and abuse in our health care system.

This is a historic time. Today, we build on that historic legislation with improvements to make it stronger and even better for American families and seniors.

I yield the floor.

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