Senator Tom Harkin on The Affordable Health Choices Act Of 2009

June 17, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) delivered the following opening statement as the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions began to consider health reform legislation today, the Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. Following is the text of his remarks, as prepared for delivery.

“I salute our committee chair, Senator Kennedy, for his tireless, relentless, courageous leadership – across many years – in advocating for comprehensive health reform. .

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“As we begin markup of the Affordable Health Choices Act, we are on the cusp of achieving his great goal – the great goal shared by most of us on this committee, on a bipartisan basis:

- To ensure affordable, high-quality health care for every American;
- To reduce costs for families, businesses, and government;
- And to achieve these things while protecting people’s choice of doctors, hospitals, and insurance plans.

“And there is one other great goal that enjoys strong bipartisan support on this committee. This is our opportunity to recreate America as a genuine wellness society – one that emphasizes wellness, fitness, good nutrition, and disease prevention . . . keeping people out of the hospital in the first place.

“We all know the statistics: The United States now spends a staggering $2.3 trillion on health care – more per capita than any other country in the world. Yet the World Health Organization ranks U.S. health care only 37th among 191 member nations – on par with Serbia.

“Yet, in spite of all this spending, nearly 50 million Americans are uninsured, and millions more are under-insured – when they become sick, because of coverage limitations or sky-high deductibles, their insurance is woefully inadequate for their medical needs.

“This is why I feel such a sense of urgency about fixing our broken health care system.

“We must make health insurance work for everyone, not just the healthy and the wealthy.

“We must extend coverage to all, and we must make sure that insurance plans cover the basic medical needs, so people with insurance are no longer left medically or financially vulnerable.

“We have to bar insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and make sure the premiums charged are fair.

“We also must improve the quality of care, and expand the use of information technology, which will not only help doctors provide better care, but will help to reduce costs.

“We must strengthen the health care workforce, so that we will have enough doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, oral health and mental health providers, public health professionals, and integrative health practitioners, to provide care throughout our cities, our small towns, and our rural areas.

“And, of course, we must have a renewed emphasis on wellness and disease prevention.

“Currently in the United States, 95 percent of every health care dollar is spent on treating illnesses and conditions after they occur.

“The truth is that, right now, we don’t have health care system, we have sick care system. If you’re sick, you get care. But we spend peanuts on prevention. The system and all of the incentives are focused on pills, surgery, hospitalization, and disability.

“The good news is that, by reforming the system and focusing on fighting and preventing chronic disease, we have a huge opportunity. We can not only save countless billions of dollars; we can also dramatically improve the health of the American people.

“That’s why I have laid down a marker: If we pass a health reform bill that extends coverage but does nothing to reform our broken system by emphasizing prevention and public health, then we will have failed.

“And we do not intend to fail.

“Mr. Chairman, I know that there are many amendments to the Prevention and Public Health title of the bill, Title III – to be exact, 171 amendments. We’ll begin working our way through those amendments. Some I don’t object to, others I do. I don’t want to begin that discussion today.

“But I want to reiterate my continued commitment to reporting out the strongest possible bill we can in the area of prevention and public health. The lens that I will apply to each of these amendments is whether they will accomplish my goal of putting prevention and public health at the forefront of our health reform efforts.

“In the days ahead, I look forward to working with my colleagues to make this title even stronger.”

Source: Senator Tom Harkin