Health Care Costs

HEALTH CARE COSTS -- (House of Representatives - October 05, 2004)

(Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, average Americans confronting the exploding cost of health care today are continuing to feel the pain, and the Republican leadership of this body who can ease that pain is doing nothing.

We know now that in the past 4 years the cost of health care for the average worker has increased three times faster than the increase in wages. More than 14 million Americans now spend more than one-quarter of their paycheck on health care. Yet House Republican leadership offers no promise of a solution.

These numbers confirm what we hear every day from workers being forced into unconscionable choices. What do we have to offer a parent who must choose between housing and health care? What solution can we promise business owners, particularly small business owners, who must tell employees that they will no longer cover their health benefits?

On one of the most fundamental crises of our time the leadership of Congress is deafly silent. The responsibility, Mr. Speaker, resides here. If the Republican leadership of this House and the President of the United States are not committed to solving this problem, one that costs Americans so much of their paycheck, what excuse can they offer working Americans?

The Republican majority and the President can choose to make health care a priority. I wonder how much longer American workers can afford to wait for leadership.