Repealing Mandatory Funding for State Health Insurance Exchanges

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank my friend from New Jersey.

Mr. Chairman, this is all about creating a mechanism for competition--fair, open, fully disclosed competition.

The exchanges actually come from maybe 20 years ago. I know that in California when I was elected insurance commissioner in 1991, we established an exchange program. It passed the legislature. Unfortunately, Governor Wilson vetoed that legislation. Had it gone into place, there would have been a marketplace for insurance consumers. Right now consumers are at the whims of the market. They have no power.

An exchange is simply a way to accumulate the purchasing power of thousands or hundreds of thousands of individuals and small businesses so that their risk is spread out over that large population. Right now small businesses and individuals simply are at the mercy of the insurance companies. They have no way to spread their risk, and, therefore, their rates are exceedingly high, and in many cases it's impossible to get insurance.

For the life of me, I don't understand why the Republicans want to repeal the exchanges. I always hear from them competition and free market. This is exactly that. This is competition, in which the health insurance companies have to compete with a similar policy, four different kinds of policies, a very rich one and a very basic one, and they have to compete on quality. What's the problem with that? And they'll be able to get insurance. Right now they can't. So they're going to repeal it. It makes no sense.

It also makes no sense that the Republicans would go out and terminate Medicare. Hello? You're going to terminate Medicare, a guaranteed insurance policy for everyone over 65? Oh, I know, only those who are below 55 years of age will never see Medicare. It's gone. It's history. Oh, you're going to give them a voucher, a small percentage of the total cost 10 years out? Good luck. And you throw them to the whims of the insurance companies without an exchange.

What's this all about? I think Congressman Miller may have had it right. How do you view the world? People need health care. Insurance is a way to get health care. An exchange is a way to spread the risk for a large pool of people so the risk isn't there and access to the market.

California has an exchange. California last year established a law to put in place an exchange. It was signed by a Republican Governor, folks. Are you listening? Governor Schwarzenegger signed the exchange program. It's going into operation in a year and a half so that people in California can get insurance. Two million people will not be able to get insurance if this bill were to pass. And the only thing you offer is the termination of Medicare? Oh, and by the way, you're going to reduce Medicaid by $700 billion.

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