Health Care Appointment

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the speech which the Senate just heard from the minority leader on the Republican side is consistent with the Republican position on health care reform. They opposed it. They voted against it. They want it to fail. They do not want to give this health care reform a chance.

It is interesting that although they oppose health care reform, I have yet to hear the first Republican Senator come to the floor and suggest: Well, the first thing we need to do is to make sure we eliminate--eliminate--the tax credits and deductions for America's small businesses to help pay for health insurance that were part of the health care reform plan.

I have never heard them say that. They opposed the plan. Do they oppose the help we are going to give small businesses across America to afford health insurance for their employees? That is what repeal is all about.

Secondly, I have never heard a Republican Senator come to the floor and say: We want to repeal the $250 check which will be sent to thousands of Americans currently under Social Security, Medicare prescription Part D, to help pay for the gap in coverage in the so-called doughnut hole. That was part of the health care reform plan. So those who come to the floor asking for repeal of health care reform obviously want to repeal this check for senior citizens. I have not heard that said one time.

I have also been waiting for the Republicans who want to repeal health care reform to stand before the Senate and say, honestly, openly: We want to eliminate health care insurance coverage for 30 million Americans who will have it for the first time in their lives--30 million uninsured Americans who will have health care insurance coverage because of health care reform. To repeal health care reform is to repeal that coverage for 30 million Americans.

I have yet to hear the first Republican come to the floor and say they want to repeal extending health insurance coverage and the peace of mind that comes with it. I am waiting for the first Republican who wants to repeal health care reform to stand before the Senate and say: We want to take away the power given in this health care reform to individuals so they can fight health care insurance companies that turn down coverage for families because of preexisting conditions. It happens every day in Illinois, in Oregon, in Arizona, in Kentucky.

The bill we passed gives American families a fighting chance against those health insurance companies. Those who are calling for repeal want to take away the power of families to fight for health insurance coverage when they need it the most.

I have yet to hear the first Republican who calls for repeal of health care reform go to families with kids in college and tell them: We oppose that provision in health care reform which extends family health insurance coverage for young people until they reach the age of 26. Those of us who have raised college-aged students know that is a blessing to have those kids--I call them kids--those young people under your family health care plan after they graduate from college until they reach the age of 26--a period of time when some of them are off taking a trip of a lifetime after graduation or looking for a job and do not have health insurance coverage.

I can recall calling my daughter Jennifer: ``This is Dad. I am so happy you graduated from college. Do you have health insurance?'' ``Oh, Dad, I feel fine. You know, I'm healthy and strong.'' ``No, Jennifer. You need health insurance.''

The law we passed, the health insurance we passed, is going to give a family coverage to protect their kids until the age of 26. Those who want to repeal it want to undo that provision. But I have yet to hear them say that on the floor.

They have a different strategy. Senator DeMint of South Carolina made it clear when the health care reform debate started that the purpose of the Republican effort was to defeat health care reform.

In his words: We want health care reform to be Barack Obama's Waterloo in politics. He was very clear. They wanted the President to fail, they wanted health care reform to fail, and they still do. Their latest strategy was to stop the President from putting in place a person to run the program--someone who would try to make it work, someone who would look at the things we have done in Congress and make sure they work in the real world.

Last week, President Obama made a very sensible move, after waiting patiently for the Republicans to give us a chance to vote on a man to serve and to oversee Medicare and Medicaid as Administrator of CMS. His name is Dr. Donald Berwick.

CMS has been without a permanent Administrator since 2006, and it is time this important position be held and filled for the good of American families. This man, Dr. Berwick, is eminently qualified for this role. He is a Harvard pediatrician and policy expert who was committed to improving health care long before our debate started and who today is one of the foremost experts and leaders in health care quality and patient safety. The President appointed him last week when we were gone because my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the Republicans, had made it clear they intended to elongate this debate on his appointment as long as possible, to rehash argument after argument instead of just giving us an up-or-down vote to let this man serve the Nation and serve all of us who want quality health care.

Rather than work in a bipartisan way to get things right, to make sure we implement the health care reform that is decades overdue, the Republicans took a political position and held to it. The President was right to come down on the side of helping American families deal with health care rather than to engage in this never-ending political battle.

The Republicans delayed Dr. Berwick's nomination by bringing up the same talking points and the same Republican arguments we have heard again today and over and over again. They are entitled to their point of view, but Dr. Berwick is entitled to an up-or-down vote. The President decided he couldn't wait any longer and made this recess appointment.

By blocking nominees such as Dr. Berwick, the Republicans are blocking progress on improving health care in America. According to RollCall, a publication on Capitol Hill, the coordinated Republican message is called second opinion. I have seen some of my friends on the Republican side of the aisle come to the floor with large posters that say ``Second Opinion.'' A Republican Senate aide says the effort is intended ``to draw attention to the consequences of the health care law that the White House hopes people miss.''

Well, whose second opinion is this? It is the same opinion we have heard from Republicans from the start who consistently voted against health care reform and refused--refused during the course of the debate--to put on the table any proposal which would extend health care coverage to 52 million uninsured Americans, help to hold down the costs, and give people a fighting chance against health insurance companies. Time and again, they criticized our efforts and never proposed a viable, comprehensive alternative.

Starting this year, we know children will never again be excluded from health insurance because of a preexisting condition. That is in health care reform. Adults will no longer be dropped just because they get sick. Young adults will be allowed to stay on their parents' plan, as I said earlier, until age 26. These are real changes we are going to see this year. That is the way it should be--health insurance that is there when you need it, not the kind of health insurance where you pay premiums for a lifetime and pray to God you don't go to the hospital and get a diagnosis that says you are headed in for a surgery or a long-term illness and you are not going to have health insurance coverage. That is the reality for too many American families.

The Republicans have never offered an alternative. They have voted against this consistently, and now they want to stop President Obama in every effort to try to make this work for America.

I believe most Americans, even those who have questions about health care reform, believe it deserves a chance. They believe we ought to give it our best human efforts to make it work for America. They want to see us work together. They don't want to see these filibusters, they don't want to see these blockages, and they don't want to see the consistent policy of saying no to everything.

Don Berwick is a well-respected, accomplished, leading authority in health care. We are fortunate to have his expertise at the forefront of the agency charged with making many of the changes in health care delivery. He has the respect of Democratic and Republican leaders, including Mark McClellan, the CMS Administrator under President George W. Bush; Gail Wilensky, the CMS Administrator under President George H.W. Bush; Nancy Nielsen, immediate past president of the American Medical Association; Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association; John Rother, executive vice president of the AARP; and Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. The list goes on and on. He deserved a vote. The President deserves a team to make the law work. The American people deserve something more from the Republicans than the word ``no.'' That is all we have heard in this session.

Now comes an election in just a few months, and the party of no is asking for another chance. This is the same party whose economic policies drove us into this economic recession under the previous President. After driving that car in the ditch, as the President has said, they are asking in November for the American people to give them the keys again and let them start it up all over. Well, we have learned a bitter lesson, and we are not going to repeat it. With so many millions of Americans out of work, with this economy struggling to survive, we cannot and should not return to the policies of the past. We cannot accept no for an answer when it comes to moving America forward.

I am glad the President made this decision to make a recess appointment of Dr. Berwick. He deserved a vote on this floor. He deserved a chance to have his day of service to our country. Sadly and unfortunately, the Republican policy of voting no and saying no to the President has led him to this conclusion and this interim appointment. I wish Dr. Berwick the best. We should now try to work with him to make this policy even better, to make sure more Americans have the peace of mind of having affordable health insurance when their family needs it the most.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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