Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 3962, Affordable Health Care For America Act, And Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 3961, Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous materials into the Record.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from New York?

There was no objection.

Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 903 provides for consideration of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, under a structured rule. The rule waives all points of order against consideration of the bill except those arising under clause 9 or 10 of rule XXI and provides 4 hours of debate controlled by the Committees on Energy and Commerce and on Education and Labor.

The rule makes in order the amendment in part C of the report if offered by Representative Stupak or a designee. The rules makes in order the substitute amendment in part D of the report if offered by Mr. Boehner or his designee.

H. Res. 903 also provides for consideration of H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physician Reform Act, under a closed rule. The rule waives all points of order against consideration of the bill except those arising under clause 9 or 10 of rule XXI, and upon passage of the bill, the Clerk is directed to add at the end the text of H.R. 2920 as passed by the House.

I am pleased to yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) for a unanimous consent request.

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Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, let me say, once again, to get to this great debate, we are greatly in your debt, Mr. Speaker, to find ourselves here this morning.

The legislation that we take up today is the culmination of a fight for health care reform that dates back at least a century and has been one of the greatest political struggles of our era. It shouldn't be this way. Many years ago, every other western nation enacted broad health care coverage for its citizens but not in the United States. Only in this country has there been such a visceral anti-government urge to resist something that benefits almost everyone. Only here do efforts to bring about improved health care for all Americans crash against entrenched interests and corporate resistance. And only here do arguments about reforming insurance spark ideological attacks from the far right.

One need only to have looked at the windows of the Capitol earlier this week to see the manifestation of that anger. Thousands of protesters showed up to threaten us into not voting in favor of this bill. If they expected us to run for cover or vote against this bill, they are going to be disappointed. Hearing those extreme views only made most of us more confident that we are doing the right thing here today by approving this bill.

Throughout the years, those same voices of opposition, whether it's Republicans or corporate interests, have rallied against reforms. It is worth pointing out for the record that Republicans who want to participate in this process did. We had more than 100 hearings, heard from 181 witnesses, Democrat and Republican, and considered hundreds of amendments. Fully 121 were approved in the committees, including 22 from Republicans. Their input has been heard when they wanted to participate.

In 1912, President Theodore Roosevelt split from the Republican Party to lead a more progressive effort and champion health care for all Americans, but he lost the next election to Woodrow Wilson and the effort failed. Later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt would lead another charge on this front as part of the New Deal platform. While Roosevelt was able to win passage of Social Security over great and extreme opposition, again by the same people who oppose this today, he was able to enact Social Security in 1935, but he was not able to extend that coverage to all Americans for health.

Still later, President Harry Truman made another try for health care, followed by President Lyndon Johnson, who was able to pass legislation in 1965 that implemented Medicare and Medicaid. Once again, it passed over Republican opposition that extends to this day.

President Richard Nixon followed up on President Johnson's Great Society by seeking to expand Federal programs and favoring broad health insurance. Sadly, those efforts were again derailed.

By the time President Clinton attempted to revisit the issue in 1993, the debate had become so polarized and fraught with special interests that the entire process collapsed almost before it started. I don't need to remind most of my colleagues here about the awful vilification of reform embodied by the ``Harry and Louise'' television ad campaign and by mail house threats to senior citizens that going to what they called the ``wrong doctor'' could result in a $10,000 fine and perhaps prison time.

These ads and those mail-order ads were paid for by big contributions from insurance companies and were led by the Republicans. And the same forces are still fighting us. The insurance industry and the big drug companies have partnered with the extreme right fringe to try to stop this effort in its tracks. We saw a lot of that this past summer.

Let me say this loud and clear: Eliminating the stranglehold that big insurance companies have on health care is one of the best parts of this bill, and, for the first time, 85 percent of the premium dollars have to go for health care, not for outrageous salaries and compensation.

We are poised for victory. We stand here today on the brink of history, with the opportunity to make good on a promise that will forever improve the lives of nearly 36 million Americans who have no health insurance. This is the most important vote we will ever take, and I am proud to stand here today.

With this bill we can end the constant worry by people who don't have insurance to cover sudden illness or an accident, who are the parents of a child who had severe brain trauma before he reached his teenage years and within a year or two could reach his lifetime cap on insurance, and though he was not yet a teenager, would be forever uninsurable in the United States of America.

We will stop telling women, as we discussed last night in the Rules Committee, that they have to pay 48 percent more for health insurance because, as it was explained last night, it is all right to do that because women have different diseases. We want to have an end to that.

How many small businesses in little towns in America have had to close up or to end coverage for employees because they could not afford exorbitant insurance premiums? Small business has to compete with big business and gets no break on providing insurance for their employees.

And now this year we have literally thousands of organizations on our side favoring the bill. From AARP, who would never go for any bill that in any way would hurt senior citizens because that is their life's work, the Consumers Union, the American Cancer Society and the American Medical Association, they have all joined in this cause.

The reason we are here at this moment is because of the leadership of our Speaker, Ms. Pelosi, who is a powerful leader, a compassionate woman, and an inclusive colleague who deserves all the credit for bringing us here to this momentous event that we face today, the most momentous in the history of America.

Before we vote, it is also fitting that we recall the words of the late Senator Kennedy, who spoke as far back as 1978 about the lack of health care coverage in this country. Senator Kennedy said, ``One of the most shameful things about modern America is that in our unbelievably rich land, the quality of health care available to many of our people is unbelievably poor, and the cost is unbelievably high.''

I agree with Senator Kennedy. We cannot afford not to pass this legislation.

Now is our chance to fix our health care system, improve the lives of millions of Americans, and make more corporations in America competitive in a global economy.

With great heartfelt thanks to our great Speaker pro tempore this morning, Mr. Dingell, I reserve the balance of my time.

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