Nationalized Health Care – Yes That Is What Passed The House Lastnight
Here is the portion of the floor proceedings I wanted to highlight from last night. It starts with Democrat Waxman introducing Democrat Dingle. (emphasis mine) I didn’t highlight all the blatant lies, distortions, or misleading rhetoric, but just some of the more scary portions that expose how this is not about solving a man made crisis of today, but rather fulfilling the decades old dreams of socialist Democrats from Generations ago.
Yes, this bill that passed the House is all about Nationalized Health Care. A take over of the health care system, not reform, but assuming government dominance and control. This was not a reaction to high health insurance costs, but rather checking off another agenda item from the radical big government leftists. Leftists who have committed generations of Congressional effort into tearing down private sector industry after industry in their goal of turning America into a Marxist state where Government, not the people, controls the outcome of the citizens, current and future generations.
I weep for America. But more importantly, if this bill becomes law, I weep for the future generations in America who will not know what freedom is like.
Sphere: Related ContentMr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, to close the debate on the Democratic side, I yield the balance of my time to the dean of the House, to the lead author of the underlying bill and to a man who has fought longer for national health insurance than anyone in this institution. I yield the balance of my time to Representative JOHN DINGELL from the State of Michigan.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Michigan is recognized for 5 minutes.
(Mr. DINGELL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I am here tonight to urge my colleagues to vote against the Republican substitute and for the bill reported by three committees after long and hard work.
I want to tell the House–all Members–how proud I am of the discussion that has taken place today. I want to commend the three committees and their chairmen, including my good friend, the chairman of our committee, Mr. Waxman, for the work they have done.
You, Madam Speaker and the leadership, we thank you for the extraordinary leadership which you have given us in bringing this to the point where we are tonight. Thank you.
I won’t begin by spending much time on the bill offered by my Republican colleagues. It is really no substitute for H.R. 3962. According to The New York Times–and I think this sufficiently disposes of the matter–the Republican amendment does “almost nothing to reduce the scandalously high number of Americans who have no insurance, and it makes only a token stab at slowing the relentlessly rising costs of medical care.”
Interestingly enough, under the Republican amendment, individuals would pay up to $2,821 more, and families would pay up to $8,188 more under the Republican plan when compared with H.R. 3962. It’s not in the public interest that we should do that.
Having said that, this is historic legislation. It addresses two of the most terrifying problems we have in this country:
The first is what was the problem when my dad introduced the first legislation in 1943, that there are now some 47 million Americans without health care. This will give many of them adequate health care and a decent choice of what they will have before them at the best possible price through an exchange, which will make it possible for them to choose without having to worry about understanding the language of Philadelphia lawyers and reading fine print that can only be read with a magnifying glass.
The bill does something more. It takes care of an economic problem that will be visited on us in 2080 when the costs of health care will equal the gross domestic product of the United States. That will bring us to a fine economic mess if we permit that to happen. Health care and GDP costs will be equal.
Now, the bill carries out the President’s suggestions: deficit neutral. It provides coverage for 96 percent of Americans. It offers everyone, regardless of income, age, health status, the peace of mind that comes from knowing that they will have real access to affordable health insurance when they need it.
It does away with preexisting conditions, which the bill offered by my friends in the minority does not; and it sees to it that, when you go to bed at night, you’re going to wake up knowing in the morning that you’re going to have health insurance. It can’t have been dropped by your employer, and it can’t have been canceled by your insurance.
There is a practice, on which we just had hearings, that is engaged in by the insurance companies. It is called “rescission.” They can cancel your insurance policy by the simple device of rescinding your policy because they say you have some preexisting conditions, and they can do it while you’re on the gurney, being rolled into the operating amphitheater.
The bill is going to give choice and honest competition. It is going to bring security to our seniors, and it is going to reduce out-of-control health care costs that are crushing American business.
It costs $4 an hour less to make a car in Canada than it does in Michigan. Why? Because the Canadians have a program of national health insurance which ensures that the manufacturer can compete and out-compete Americans because he doesn’t carry that economic burden.
Today, this may be a tough vote, but it was in 1935 when we passed Social Security. I hear my colleagues tell us that the economy, jobs and financial system overhaul, are desperately needed. True. But that was the case in ‘35 when we passed the Social Security Act.
Now I hear my Republican colleagues tell us this is going to stand between–or permit a government bureaucrat to stand between the insured and the doctor and each other. In point of fact, it is going to permit the government to stand between the insurance bureaucrat and the insured, and it is going to stand between him and the doctor so that the doctor can provide the care he wants.
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The problems this historic legislation aims to address are real and worsening for American citizens, business, and governments. When my Dad introduced this legislation sixty some years ago, it was a simple humanitarian problem. Today it is one of impending economic disaster to America.
H.R. 3962 meets the goals President Obama outlined for us earlier this year: it is deficit neutral; it provides coverage for 96 percent of Americans; and it offers everyone, regardless of income, age or health status, the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will have real access to quality, affordable health insurance when they need it; that preexisting conditions will not bar them from insurance; that loss of job or dropping of coverage by employer will not deny insurance.
This bill will stop discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions, and it will stop rescission--the practice in which an insurer searches for problems with patients’ policies while they are waiting on a gurney for emergency care.
Additionally, this bill will ensure choice and honest competition; bring security to our seniors; and will reduce the out-of-control health care costs that are crushing American businesses.
Now is the time for health care reform. We can’t afford to wait. We must offer big solutions for the big problems that face the American people. We must succeed.
Mr. Speaker, I have heard from a number of my colleagues, and I appreciate the fact the vote before us today is a tough vote.
I understand there are numerous competing issues confronting the American people–the economy, jobs, financial system overhaul. That was so in 1935 when we enacted Social Security over just about the same objections.
However, we know that no issue has caused the American people to suffer longer than the issue of inaccessible health care.
History and the American people will ask what we did here this day when presented with a real opportunity to ease the strain of rising health care costs and provide quality, affordable health coverage for all.
Mr. Speaker, the vote for me today will be on behalf of American families who are forced to decide whether they will pay the mortgage or their health insurance premium.
[Page: H12961] GPO's PDFMy vote today is for American business–big and small. They are confronted with the real burden of providing quality health care for their workers or fall victim to their foreign competitors.
My vote today is for the federal government, and state and local governments throughout the country which are being stretched to make room for larger and larger health bills.
Mr. Speaker, my vote today is also personal.
It is a vote to fulfill the legacy left by a little, skinny Polack with a broken nose and a mustache who served as a proud Member of this distinguished body.
My father, John D. Dingell, Sr., was a part of the original New Dealers–a brand of big thinking Democrats–who believed that health care is a right, not a privilege and government had a responsibility to protect it people; provide for their basic rights; and ensure opportunity for all.
So, it is in that tradition that I urge my colleagues to act today to pass this bill.
Join with the AMA, the AARP, the Consumers Union, the American Cancer Society, the different medical specialist groups, the Nurses and others who support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, we have an opportunity today, to do something meaningful for the American people and for American business.
We can take advantage of this opportunity or we can shirk our responsibilites and allow the calamitous situation that faces our people to contine to grow out of hand, overwhelm the federal budget, force more and more families into bankruptcy, and shift more jobs overseas.
Reform is neither easy nor cheap, but the cost of inaction is far greater–in terms of lost lives, quality of life and dollars. If we don’t reduce costs we face certain economic disaster.
So, today, we must overcome the naysayers, the loyal opposition, the lies about our plan, the fear that causes us to think the status quo is the safe thing to do.
We must overcome all of these things and we must act boldly, with conviction, and deliberately–not because of our own righteousness–but because there is no other acceptable alternative.
I urge my colleagues to vote “yes” on H.R. 3962 and give the American people the relief they so desperately need.