Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act of 2011
Floor Speech
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I want all Members to pause for a moment and think about your family, think about your community, and the people you represent. I want you to put in your mind Alzheimer's and the effect that it has on the individuals and families. Now are you envisioning the effect of Alzheimer's, not only on the individual but on the family?
I want you to put in your mind that terrible auto accident that left that young child totally disabled. I want you to put in your mind the diabetic, think about the diabetic, long-term diabetes, and the effect that it has.
Now, the point of my amendment is not to kill this bill but rather to amend it in such a way that it can be taken up on the floor with all of us supporting this.
Long-term care is a major challenge for families, for individuals, and for this Nation. Today 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer's, and at the end of this decade, it's expected to double, more than 10 million.
Keep that vision of the Alzheimer's patient in mind. It may be someone in your family or in your circle. Twenty-four million Americans have diabetes, 26 million have heart disease. Think of that stroke victim. You know that person. They've been our colleagues, disabled, and in many cases, totally disabled.
What this amendment does is to deal with a profound problem in America. How do we care for those who are disabled, unable to care for themselves for a lengthy period of time? How do we do that? There is no effective way to do it today until that individual and family is flat broke.
There is no mechanism today to deal with this problem unless you have become totally bankrupt, no assets, and then you get to go on the Medicaid program, a burden on our general fund and on every State's general fund.
This amendment offers a solution. This amendment says that we will keep the CLASS Act in effect but seek a national voluntary insurance program. Now, I happen to know insurance, and I happen to know that all of the long-term insurance programs out there have failed to work because they are narrow, because they've been unable to reach across the broad spectrum of America to provide a broad base of risk. You need a very, very large pool to deal with this very large and very expensive problem.
If my amendment is adopted, we will be able to go forward and to repair the CLASS Act into a voluntary insurance program that would involve the entire Nation and thereby provide a premium that is affordable. The present programs do not.
As we know from the CLASS Act itself and the work done by the Department of Health and Human Services, it too is flawed. But the problem remains. The problem has not disappeared. It is in fact in every one of our families and, quite possibly, with us as individuals.
We need a solution. Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, we have to find a solution to this problem because now it falls back. When all other resources are gone for the individual and the family, it falls back onto the general fund of the State and the Federal Government. Not a good solution at all.
So I ask for your support on this. If you adopt this amendment, we will immediately vote on the CLASS Act itself, and it will be repealed, but not real. It will be maintained as we work forward towards a solution. That's our task here. That's our task as Members of Congress. Find solutions for the real problems that face every American.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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