congressional_record: CREC-1994-10-08-pt1-PgE47
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| CREC-1994-10-08-pt1-PgE47 | 1994-10-08 | 103 | 2 | WHAT REALLY KILLED HEALTH CARE REFORM THIS YEAR? | HOUSE | EXTENSIONS | FRONTMATTER | E | E | [{"name": "Philip M. Crane", "role": "speaking"}] | 140 Cong. Rec. E | Congressional Record, Volume 140 Issue 146 (Saturday, October 8, 1994) [Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 146 (Saturday, October 8, 1994)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [Congressional Record: October 8, 1994] From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] WHAT REALLY KILLED HEALTH CARE REFORM THIS YEAR? ______ HON. PHILIP M. CRANE of illinois in the house of representatives Friday, October 7, 1994 Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, history may remember the 103d Congress for the attention that was given to the issue of health care reform. Despite all of the debate that took place, however, health care reform legislation will not be brought to the House floor for consideration before adjournment. As my colleagues consider the reasons for the downfall of health care reform this year and prepare to revisit the issue in the next Congress, I urge them to read the following editorial which recently appeared in a newspaper that circulates in my district in Illinois The News-Sun. I agree with the editorial's observation about the public's rejection of President Clinton's big government approach to health care reform and urge my colleagues to take a closer look at the free market alternatives that have been proposed. Lessons in failure At Issue: The failed exercise in health reform should show the way to President Clinton and Democratic congressional leaders. George Mitchell's bitter pronouncement that there will be no health reform this year illustrates one reason that the effort to remake one-seventh of the U.S. economy was doomed from the start: He made a partisan issue of it. Health reform died, the Senate majority leader declared, because the Republicans killed it. This files in the face of political reality. Democrats enjoy a 56-44 majority in the Senate and a lopsided 256-178 edge in the House. If Democrats had fallen in line behind either President Clinton's health reform plan or Mitchell's scaled-down plan or Rep. Richard Gephardt's alternative plan, they could have passed a health bill this year. Mitchell claims Republicans have an effective veto in the Senate, even though they constitute a minority. Yet, while it is true the Democrats would have had to muster 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster, Mitchell could not raise even 51 votes for his or any other plan. Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole was quite right when he said, ``The Republicans didn't kill health care. The American people did.'' Poll after poll after poll showed that, after a thorough public debate, most Americans did not look favorably upon the reforms put forward by either the White House or Democratic leaders in Congress. They didn't like the idea of the government injecting itself into the health care system. They were understandably wary of any plan that would put the government between them and their doctors. And that's precisely what the Clinton-Gephardt-Mitchell plans would have done. All would have limited a patient's choices in doctors and hospitals. All would have imposed a one-size-fits-all basic health plan. And all would have required massive new taxes. The Democratic approach gave short shrift to the fact that 85 percent of Americans had health insurance. Instead their proposals, which placed a priority on universal coverage were directed primarily toward the 15 percent of Americans who lack health insurance for some period or another. The White House also ignored the fact that 80 percent of Americans are satisfied with the medical coverage provided by their insurance. Instead, the administration, decided to depict the insurance industry as greedy concerns that brought the health care system, in Hillary Clinton's words, ``to the brink of bankruptcy. Finally, Clinton-Gephardt-Mitchell conveniently overlooked the fact that 75 percent of Americans are happy with the quality of care they receive. The death of health reform is a textbook example of how misbegotten public policy can go awry in the face of popular opposition. If President Clinton and Democratic congressional leaders have learned anything from this failed exercise, perhaps they will work with Republicans next year to craft a far less intrusive health reform plan that most Americans can support. ____________________ |