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U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan's remarks — before and after passage of the health reform bill
To hear what Congressman Tim Ryan said tonight on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to help Democrats' efforts to pass House Resolution 2692 (officially titled The Affordable Health Care for America Act), the health reform bill, click here.
The measure passed 220-215 just minutes ago, largely along party lines.
Following the vote, Ryan released this statement:
"For too many years, due to plant closings, personal hardships, and
medical catastrophes, tens of thousands of families in my congressional
district have lost their health coverage been priced out of the health
insurance market through no fault of their own. They've been pushed off
their health care policies, denied insurance due to pre-existing
conditions and ended up in bankruptcy. But now, finally, we have passed
a critical milestone toward universal, affordable health care for all
Americans.
"No longer will people be denied coverage because of some pre-existing
condition. No longer will our families go bankrupt because of health
care costs. No longer will health care be out of reach for thousands of
our friends and neighbors. This reform should have happened thirty
years ago, but I am proud to support it today. The Affordable Health
Care for America Act will require legal residents of the United States
to have health insurance, so they do not show up at the emergency room
without insurance, resulting in taxpayers getting stuck with their
medical bill. The Democratic health reform bill will create new
insurance exchanges for individuals and families to reduce the cost of
purchasing insurance, establish a public plan to be administered by the
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ensure competition in
the marketplace, expand eligibility for Medicaid, and fill-in the
so-called "donut hole" for prescription drugs in Medicare Part D.
"This is a great day for America. This legislation will improve access
to affordable health and help control skyrocketing health care costs.
Already Americans pay more and get less in health care benefits than
other countries. Yet millions remain uninsured and thousands are losing
their coverage every day. Make no mistake; our most expensive option is
to do nothing. Without this bill, rising costs will make insurance
unaffordable for many employers and employees and uncontrollable
increase will continue to be a major factor in spiraling federal
deficits. Without comprehensive reform, catastrophic health care
expenses will continue to be a major cause of personal bankruptcy. By
eliminating preexisting conditions exclusions we will help doctors to
make health care decisions instead of insurance companies.
"I was born after Medicare and Medicaid were enacted, but I just cannot
imagine America without these vital programs. I believe that in the
years to come we will look back and wonder how we ever went without
having health care for all."
In Ohio's 17th Congressional District, The House Committee on Energy and
Commerce provided the following estimates:
* Improve Employer-Base Coverage for 355,000 Residents;
* Provide credits to help pay for coverage for up to 180,000
Households;
* Improve Medicare for 109,000 Beneficiaries, including Closing
the Prescription Drug Donut Hole for 9,100 Seniors;
* Allow 14,000 Small Businesses to obtain affordable health care
coverage and provide tax credits to help reduce health insurance costs
for up to 12,300 small businesses;
* Provide coverage for 43,000 uninsured residents;
* Protect up to 1,700 families from bankruptcy due to
unaffordable health care costs;
* Reduce the cost of uncompensated care hospitals and health
care providers by $20 Million.
- Requires free registration.
Comments
Hey Timmy ....GOODBYE IN 2010
This is the biggest intrusion yet by the federal gov't in our personal lives.
We as a country will have the opportunity to tell these left wing Pelosi followong liberals that this is not what the voters want. Next year we have the opportunity to allow the 219 Dems & 1 Republican who voted for this monstrosity how it feels to be unemployed!
In an IDEAL America, everyone would have health coverage, and maybe no one would get sick, but in this America we have dug ourselves into a financial hole and instead of climbing out we look for bigger shovels.
It is what over 1 trillion dollars? Great idea, flawed in execution.
Ryan is quite the puppy to Pelosi.
So glad Ryan voted with. He'll have my vote again in 2010, and all those I can round up for him. 1 trillion dollars is nothing compared to the money we've spent and continue to spend in that money pit war that has seen NO results for anyone except those profiting off of the war. Disgusting.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Gee Wally, how much will that new 5% tax on your income be?
I'm really curious about what supporters of this bill think are going to happen if this bill becomes law. I would appreciate their responses.
Do you think that the Federal government can afford to provide unrationed care to everybody without denials of treatment?
Do you think it will stay on or underbudget? If so, based on what?
Will the elderly face rationing after $426 billion in Medicare and Medicaid cuts?
How will small businesses handle the imposed huge surtax and up to 8% in new payroll taxes? How will that affect wages and the unemployment rate?
This bill includes a $2 billion tax on those who already have health insurance, $20 billion in taxes on medical devices, $8 billion in taxes on anyone who buys over-the-counter drugs with money from their health-savings accounts, and $140 billion in higher taxes on drugs. Also, this bill will drive up premiums. A family of four with an income of $78,000 would pay $13,800 for insurance a year by 2016, according to CBO. Their tab would average $11,000 without the bill. Why is this a good thing in your view?
I would truly appreciate a thoughtful and intelligent response from a supporter of this bill.
Nonsocialist.....Look at the current state of health care in this country for the people that have insurance.
If a person with a preexisting condition had an opportunity to change employment and better themselves they couldn't if their new insurance wouldn't cover their existing conditions.
Thousands of people with insurance go bankrupt every year due to outrageous deductibles and co-pays.
Thousands of people with insurance die every year because their insurance refuses to pay for treatment.
In the last ten years insurance premiums have risen three times as much as wages. Thousands of people every day lose their coverage due to these rising premiums.
Insurance companies make billions in profit by denying treatment. They don't preform operations, exams or treatment of any kind. Their sole purpose is to make money as a middle man while doing absolutely nothing for the actual health care of anyone.
Everything I mentioned is undeniable and the result of the insurance companies being in charge. For these reasons someone has to step in for the good of the American people. If someone doesn't step in the state of health care in this country will continue to keep going in the direction it is going in. Many people like myself believe that someone has to step in. If it isn't the government then who will step in?
Jimbo will soon take Timmy's seat in congress away from him. Who do these liberal democrooks think they are fooling with this UHC bill? Not even the unions are for it - it takes away our right to choose and that is just plain wrong. I already pay for the medicaid and welfare in too much taxes. Timmy got it wrong again and he will pay with his seat.
JImbo for Congress!!!
Cambridge,
Thanks for the response. I agree with you about nearly everything you say. I'm not defending the status quo, although it is better than Pelosi"care", but nearly anything is. I'm just saying that the "solution" here is worse than the problem. I think the GOP (DSP-lite) proposals are almost as bad. Both proposals expand the flaws of our current model.
Another question:
Name one example of socialized medicine anywhere that's solvent and doesn't significantly delay or deny care.
CamBilge and all the other socialists can't want to be enslaved by their socialist masters. Utopia for the useless idiots. Enjoy.
@Nonsocialist-Maybe I can speak to a few of your questions.
In Ohio-
Group coverage is classified a Small 2-99 employees and Large -100+
The bigger the group, the better the rates/person because there are more people to share the risk.
If a group changes its plan with the same ins co- NO pre-existing exclusion. If it moves its coverage ot a new insurance company-NO pre-existing exclusions. If a new employee is hired by a company that has a group plan in place- NO pre-existing exclusion.
If an employee is laid off and the company has an insurance plan is place, the employee may continue the coverage for his family under COBRA. The employee pays 35% of the premium, the company pays 65% of the premium and receives a tax credit against payroll taxes due the IRS. The employee may deduct his premium on his Federal & State income tax return.
Ohio has instituted tort reform regarding mal-practice cases. The explanation here is pretty involved so I'll skip that.
As far as the cost of health insurance continually increasing at between 8-15% per year. The solution here would be for the insurance companies to create larger risk pools by establishing regional or national associations whereby the risk could be spread over several million people instead of several hundred thousand. The problem here is each state has a Commissioner of Insurance who oversees the licensing and business conduct of insurance companies who do operate in their respective states. This is the reason that larger pools extending across state boundaries can't be established. If they could, it would make a huge difference in the cost.
One thing that Congress could have addressed is removing the 71/2% of AGI floor that taxpayers have to meet to deduct medical expenses. I find it very odd that people can deduct all their property taxes, State income or Sales taxes (whichever is higher), mortgage interest, mortgage insurance and charitable contributions at 100%, but not 100% of their medical expenses. This would really help a lot of families.
Bye Timothy, you better get your resume posted on Monster.com!!
Nonsocialist- Japan has a very good healthcare system which uses private insurance-not gov't run.
The one thing there is everyone has to buy it. So under this premise, the risk pool is the entire country.
We have other underlying problems in this country which causes our healthcare costs to rise. An example is Medicare which does not pay enough to the provider to cover many of the costs, so those with private insurance make up the difference. Pelosicare, with its $500+ billion cuts will only make the problem worse.
Another is Medicaid which is beng expanded under PelosiCare. Almost 60% of the cost of this is paid by the states. With many of them already in financial ruin from the poor eceonomy, how are they supposed to pay for this- the answer- you got it- HIGHER TAXES at the state level.
A further problem are all the undocumented aliens here in this country who use the emergency room as their family doctor. This may sound very harsh, but if you are not a citizen- you have no rights- therefor you are not entitled to the medical care! Go back home where you came from and get your healthcare there. You are not our problem.
This approach will end the situation where someone sneaks across the border, has a baby here in one of our hospitals and now the baby is an American citizen because it was born here. I'm sorry, but I feel this is wrong, too. For a baby to be born here and receive automatic citizenship, at least one of the parents should have to be an American citizen. Otherwise, all bets are off.
Tigerlily- I agree with you on the war. The US needs to stop playing policeman for the entire world. The wars we are fighting have gone on for several thousand years. Let them kill each other off and we won't have to worry about them anymore.
We should get out of Afghanistan, bring ALL our troops home from overseas. Close the bases there (the end of foreign aid) and let them patrol OUR borders to keep the illegal aliens OUT and stop the flow of drugs IN from Mexico and Obama's buddies in Central & South America.
SkyKing310B,
Great points. Like Cap-and Trade, this is yet another anti-jobs, tax-raising fiasco.
What is frustrating is that there are potential solutions that could be voted on (as you allude to), but aren't. These possible solutions empower the American citizens and not the rulers, thus are ignored by the rulers.
What is ironic is that the current model of coverage-based decisions is expanded by this bill, and will increase waste of health care resources. It will worsen the problem they claim to attempt to fix!