WASHINGTON, D.C. – Below are the prepared remarks of U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and a key architect of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, during consideration of the legislation by the U.S. House of Representatives today.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this historic legislation to fix our broken health insurance system and finally bring affordable health coverage to every American.
We are truly on the verge of making history.
Never before has the House or Senate approved a bill to guarantee every American access to affordable health care. Never.
Not that we haven’t tried.
The fight to reform this nation’s health care system has spanned nearly 100 years, across generations and many great leaders, from Teddy Roosevelt to Franklin Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy to President Clinton to my own personal hero, Ted Kennedy.
But time and again these efforts were stymied by special interests.
The need for reform is dire.
***
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this historic legislation to fix our broken health insurance system and finally bring affordable health coverage to every American.
We are truly on the verge of making history.
Never before has the House or Senate approved a bill to guarantee every American access to affordable health care. Never.
Not that we haven’t tried.
The fight to reform this nation’s health care system has spanned nearly 100 years, across generations and many great leaders, from Teddy Roosevelt to Franklin Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy to President Clinton to my own personal hero, Ted Kennedy.
But time and again these efforts were stymied by special interests.
The need for reform is dire.
Hundreds of thousands of people are losing insurance each month. At least 36 million Americans have no coverage at all – including nearly 50,000 people who live in my district in Northern California.
Over half of all personal bankruptcies are due to a medical incident. Businesses are chocking on bloated health care costs. Innovation is being stifled. Our competitiveness is undermined.
But this year is different. This time is different. The American people cannot afford to wait any longer, and today we will cast a history-making vote to guarantee all Americans access to quality, affordable health insurance.
We must not fail again.
An unprecedented effort by the House led us to this milestone. Three committees and our diverse Caucus worked together in an extensive and coordinated fashion, with one purpose – to fulfill a decades-old, and yet still urgent, promise.
We engaged the public in one of the most transparent debates of federal legislation in history, including over 2,000 events across the U.S. since July alone.
The result is a bill that reflects what we have heard from workers and families, from small business owners and economists, from seniors and college students, from doctors and nurses.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act will directly meet the needs of Americans and the goals that President Obama set for reform: it lowers costs for families and businesses, protects people’s choice of doctors and health plans, reduces the deficit, and ensures access to quality, affordable health insurance for all Americans.
For the first time in U.S. history, all uninsured Americans will be able to purchase quality, affordable coverage through a new Health Insurance Exchange, where they will be able to choose from a menu of options: a public health insurance option or several private plans.
And for those that already have insurance, our bill will grant them the security of knowing that their coverage will always be there.
Never again will Americans worry about losing their health care if they change or lose their job.
Never again will someone be denied health care coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
Never again will a patient have to worry about their insurance company rescinding their policy when they need coverage the most.
Never again will a small business owner have to worry about unpredictable and unaffordable premiums.
Our bill, H.R. 3962, will end the many injustices that workers, families, and businesses face in today’s system. It will finally make health insurance work for consumers – not insurance CEOs.
Let me be specific about what our reforms will mean for the American people:
• No more co-pays or deductibles for preventative care;
• No more rate increases because of a pre-existing condition, gender, or occupation;
• An annual cap on out-of-pocket expenses;
• Guaranteed affordable dental, hearing and vision care for children;
• Lower prescription drug costs for seniors;
• Young people will be able to stay on their parents insurance through their 27th birthday; and
• A ban on lifetime caps on what insurance companies will pay, so patients will never again be one treatment away from medical bankruptcy.
In my district, the 7th district of California, that means:
• 406,000 residents who receive coverage through their employer will benefit from insurance reforms;
• Credits in the Exchange will help 123,000 households obtain affordable health insurance; and
• 13,800 small businesses will have access to provide affordable coverage for their employees.
As I mentioned earlier, this legislation meets our commitment to fiscal responsibility.
Every piece of this bill is fully paid for through a combination of revenue raised by placing a surcharge on the wealthiest Americans and savings generated by making Medicare and Medicaid more efficient.
These reforms will strengthen Medicare for seniors and shift our system’s focus from quantity of health procedures to quality of care and producing healthier outcomes for patients.
The Congressional Budget Office reports that our bill will reduce the deficit by more than $100 billion over the next decade and slow the growth of health spending, leading 11 chief health care economists to declare our legislation “vital to the nation’s fiscal and economic future.”
As with previous efforts to reform health care, this bill received an enormous amount of public scrutiny. In the last few months, opponents of health reform have conjured up every falsehood imaginable about this bill in an effort to scare the American people and once again try to stymie reform.
But as I said, I believe that this year is different. Our legislation has been tested in public and the momentum continues to grow in support of the bill.
The American people have seen through the lies and distortions. And they are not fooled by the hoax of an eleventh-hour Republican bill that is nothing more than a cruel rebuke to the needs of families. Their bill would do nothing but maintain the status quo and guarantee insurance profits at the expense of tens of millions of hard working Americans.
The American people understand the true meaning of our bill. They know it will cover 96 percent of the American people. They know that, under our bill, if they lose their job they will continue to have health coverage for their children, spouses and families.
They know that this bill means that if they have cancer, the insurance company can no longer pull the rug out from under them while they’re in the middle of treatment.
They know that this bill will protect them, through any economic cycle.
Nearly fifty years ago, as he was fighting to expand health care benefits, President Kennedy said,
“All of the great revolutionary movements of the Franklin Roosevelt Administration we now take for granted. But I refuse to see us live on the accomplishments of another generation. I refuse to see this country and all of us shrink from the struggles which are our responsibility in our times.”
The struggle for health insurance reform is our responsibility today. This is our moment to revolutionize health care in this country.
We have arrived at this historic moment thanks to the hard work of so many people.
I would like to thank my good friends and colleagues, Chairman Rangel and Chairman Waxman, and our three subcommittee chairs, Representatives Rob Andrews, Frank Pallone and Pete Stark, and especially Dean John Dingell. We could not have had better teammates in this journey.
I would also like to thank the Democratic Leadership, our Speaker, Ms. Nancy Pelosi, the Majority Leader, Mr. Steny Hoyer, our Whip, Mr. James Clyburn, and all the members of leadership for the countless hours they spent working with the committee chairs to arrive at this point today.
And of course we could not have completed the work on this bill without the work of our incredibly talented staff, who worked long nights and weekends for months on end. They are the unsung heroes of this process, and I know all our colleagues join me in thanking them for their extraordinary work.
From my staff I would like to thank Mark Zuckerman, Alex Nock, Danny Weiss, Michele Varnhagen, Megan O’Reilly, Jody Calemine, Tico Almeida, Meredith Regine, James Schroll, Rachel Racusen, Aaron Albright, Amy Peake, Courtney Rochelle, and Mike Kruger.
Finally, I’d like to pay tribute to my mentor and friend, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Health care was the cause of Ted’s lifetime. Our effort would have been impossible had he not carried the torch of justice and equality for all those years.
I know I am not alone when I say that I sincerely wish Ted Kennedy could be with us today to see his dream of quality, affordable health care for all become a reality.
Mr. Speaker, this is the most important bill I have ever worked on during my many years of service in Congress.
I could not be prouder to have helped to write this bill, to encourage each of my colleagues to support it, and to cast my vote in favor of the Affordable Health Care for America Act.
We stand at the doorstep of history.
Let us go in.
Over half of all personal bankruptcies are due to a medical incident. Businesses are chocking on bloated health care costs. Innovation is being stifled. Our competitiveness is undermined.
But this year is different. This time is different. The American people cannot afford to wait any longer, and today we will cast a history-making vote to guarantee all Americans access to quality, affordable health insurance.
We must not fail again.
An unprecedented effort by the House led us to this milestone. Three committees and our diverse Caucus worked together in an extensive and coordinated fashion, with one purpose – to fulfill a decades-old, and yet still urgent, promise.
We engaged the public in one of the most transparent debates of federal legislation in history, including over 2,000 events across the U.S. since July alone.
The result is a bill that reflects what we have heard from workers and families, from small business owners and economists, from seniors and college students, from doctors and nurses.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act will directly meet the needs of Americans and the goals that President Obama set for reform: it lowers costs for families and businesses, protects people’s choice of doctors and health plans, reduces the deficit, and ensures access to quality, affordable health insurance for all Americans.
For the first time in U.S. history, all uninsured Americans will be able to purchase quality, affordable coverage through a new Health Insurance Exchange, where they will be able to choose from a menu of options: a public health insurance option or several private plans.
And for those that already have insurance, our bill will grant them the security of knowing that their coverage will always be there.
Never again will Americans worry about losing their health care if they change or lose their job.
Never again will someone be denied health care coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
Never again will a patient have to worry about their insurance company rescinding their policy when they need coverage the most.
Never again will a small business owner have to worry about unpredictable and unaffordable premiums.
Our bill, H.R. 3962, will end the many injustices that workers, families, and businesses face in today’s system. It will finally make health insurance work for consumers – not insurance CEOs.
Let me be specific about what our reforms will mean for the American people:
• No more co-pays or deductibles for preventative care;
• No more rate increases because of a pre-existing condition, gender, or occupation;
• An annual cap on out-of-pocket expenses;
• Guaranteed affordable dental, hearing and vision care for children;
• Lower prescription drug costs for seniors;
• Young people will be able to stay on their parents insurance through their 27th birthday; and
• A ban on lifetime caps on what insurance companies will pay, so patients will never again be one treatment away from medical bankruptcy.
In my district, the 7th district of California, that means:
• 406,000 residents who receive coverage through their employer will benefit from insurance reforms;
• Credits in the Exchange will help 123,000 households obtain affordable health insurance; and
• 13,800 small businesses will have access to provide affordable coverage for their employees.
As I mentioned earlier, this legislation meets our commitment to fiscal responsibility.
Every piece of this bill is fully paid for through a combination of revenue raised by placing a surcharge on the wealthiest Americans and savings generated by making Medicare and Medicaid more efficient.
These reforms will strengthen Medicare for seniors and shift our system’s focus from quantity of health procedures to quality of care and producing healthier outcomes for patients.
The Congressional Budget Office reports that our bill will reduce the deficit by more than $100 billion over the next decade and slow the growth of health spending, leading 11 chief health care economists to declare our legislation “vital to the nation’s fiscal and economic future.”
As with previous efforts to reform health care, this bill received an enormous amount of public scrutiny. In the last few months, opponents of health reform have conjured up every falsehood imaginable about this bill in an effort to scare the American people and once again try to stymie reform.
But as I said, I believe that this year is different. Our legislation has been tested in public and the momentum continues to grow in support of the bill.
The American people have seen through the lies and distortions. And they are not fooled by the hoax of an eleventh-hour Republican bill that is nothing more than a cruel rebuke to the needs of families. Their bill would do nothing but maintain the status quo and guarantee insurance profits at the expense of tens of millions of hard working Americans.
The American people understand the true meaning of our bill. They know it will cover 96 percent of the American people. They know that, under our bill, if they lose their job they will continue to have health coverage for their children, spouses and families.
They know that this bill means that if they have cancer, the insurance company can no longer pull the rug out from under them while they’re in the middle of treatment.
They know that this bill will protect them, through any economic cycle.
Nearly fifty years ago, as he was fighting to expand health care benefits, President Kennedy said,
“All of the great revolutionary movements of the Franklin Roosevelt Administration we now take for granted. But I refuse to see us live on the accomplishments of another generation. I refuse to see this country and all of us shrink from the struggles which are our responsibility in our times.”
The struggle for health insurance reform is our responsibility today. This is our moment to revolutionize health care in this country.
We have arrived at this historic moment thanks to the hard work of so many people.
I would like to thank my good friends and colleagues, Chairman Rangel and Chairman Waxman, and our three subcommittee chairs, Representatives Rob Andrews, Frank Pallone and Pete Stark, and especially Dean John Dingell. We could not have had better teammates in this journey.
I would also like to thank the Democratic Leadership, our Speaker, Ms. Nancy Pelosi, the Majority Leader, Mr. Steny Hoyer, our Whip, Mr. James Clyburn, and all the members of leadership for the countless hours they spent working with the committee chairs to arrive at this point today.
And of course we could not have completed the work on this bill without the work of our incredibly talented staff, who worked long nights and weekends for months on end. They are the unsung heroes of this process, and I know all our colleagues join me in thanking them for their extraordinary work.
From my staff I would like to thank Mark Zuckerman, Alex Nock, Danny Weiss, Michele Varnhagen, Megan O’Reilly, Jody Calemine, Tico Almeida, Meredith Regine, James Schroll, Rachel Racusen, Aaron Albright, Amy Peake, Courtney Rochelle, and Mike Kruger.
Finally, I’d like to pay tribute to my mentor and friend, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Health care was the cause of Ted’s lifetime. Our effort would have been impossible had he not carried the torch of justice and equality for all those years.
I know I am not alone when I say that I sincerely wish Ted Kennedy could be with us today to see his dream of quality, affordable health care for all become a reality.
Mr. Speaker, this is the most important bill I have ever worked on during my many years of service in Congress.
I could not be prouder to have helped to write this bill, to encourage each of my colleagues to support it, and to cast my vote in favor of the Affordable Health Care for America Act.
We stand at the doorstep of history.
Let us go in.
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