Congressman Gerry Connolly's motion to wring $1.1 trillion in deficit reduction from the health insurance reform bill passed the Budget Committee on a unanimous, bi-partisan vote on March 15.

Connolly's motion instructs the House Rules Committee to report the final reform bill in a way that reduces the federal budget deficit by at least $100 billion over the next ten years and up to $1 trillion in the following decade.

"Responsible health insurance reform is a significant component of long-term deficit reduction," Connolly said.  "We must not lose this opportunity for real deficit reduction."

"My top priority for health insurance reform has been reducing costs for families, businesses, and government.  This motion will help ensure we do just that," he continued.
 
Health care costs have risen consistently and sharply over the years.  They have gone from 5 percent of GDP in 1960 to 18 percent today.  Without reform, that trend will continue.  By 2040, health care costs will be a staggering 34 percent of GDP.  The Kaiser Family Foundation’s recent study found that without reform, 8 percent of companies would be dropping health insurance for their employees this year.

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The full text of Congressman Connolly's statement at the House Budget Committee is below:

Remarks by Congressman Gerald E. Connolly, 11th VA
House Budget Committee Hearing
March 15, 2010
Markup of the Reconciliation Act of 2010

Mr. Chairman, I introduced this motion because responsible health insurance reform is a significant component of long-term deficit reduction.  This motion supports an amendment that would codify and quantify that deficit reduction by requiring health insurance reform to reduce the deficit by more than $100 billion in the next decade and more than $1 trillion in the following decade.

Health care costs have risen consistently and sharply over the years.  They have gone from 5 percent of GDP in 1960 to 18 percent today.  Without reform, that trend will continue.  By 2040, health care costs will be a staggering 34 percent of GDP.  We all know that federal costs of health care, specifically Medicaid and Medicare, have risen along with overall health care costs.  Just as the rising costs of health care have far outstripped income growth – causing family premiums to increase by 50 percent over the past 7 years – so too have federal health care costs. 

Without responsible reform, Medicare costs will rise from 6 percent of GDP today to 15 percent by 2040.  That is why it is so critical that we take action to responsibly lower the deficit, and this motion will ensure that we do.  Failure to do so will allow the debt to continue to spiral out of control, imperiling Medicare services and increasing the burden on future taxpayers.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has stated that the health insurance reform legislation will reduce the deficit by more than $100 billion in the next decade and more than $1 trillion in the following decade.  We have the opportunity to reduce the national debt by a trillion dollars and contain the rising costs of health care, both for family premiums and the federal debt.  We must not lose this opportunity for real deficit reduction.

The Kaiser Family Foundation’s recent study found that without reform, 8 percent of companies would be dropping health insurance for their employees this year.  Because the rising costs of health care have been ignored for too long, employees in those companies will lose their health insurance this year.

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