the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be dispensed. .the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. brown: just before walking into this chamber i attended a historic rally on health care reform right across the street. today, thousands, thousands of americans, some from every state in this country, traveled to washington, d.c., for one of the largest health care lobby days in the history of the nation. i joined these citizens -- volunteers almost all -- representing more than 1,000 organizations, more than 30 million people fighting to ensure that every american has access to affordable health care coverage. i'm inspired by their activism and america and inspired by the

message i hear from these americans and the message i'm hearing from hundreds of thousands of middle class ohioans. their message is: don't let the special interests hijack this health insurance reform. the message i hear is to make sure health reform includes strong public option. let me tell you about a to you individual people, americans like joseph demand we change. joseph, an ordained pastor, a doctor of psychology wrote that as a child he suffered a stroke and became paralyzed and blind the his father's insurance expired and his family had no coverage. they struggled to provide the care he needed. as an adult, joseph was concerned that too many americans are not receiving the medical care they need. joseph would like to see a pins option that will bring down costs and help all americans lead a productive life. the spirit and energy of the people i met today, thousands of people from around this nation,

were demanding change, reaffirms why health care reform is so important. health care reform is about cooping what work -- keeping what works and fixing what's broken. middle-class families from all over the country demand health care system that reduces costs, that enhances quality of care, and provides choice, choice either of private insurance plan or choice of a public option. it's their choice. the existence of both will make the other behave better, will make the other work better and will improve the quality of care for all americans. good old american competition. people are reminding elected officials in the senate and the house, that americans like ken from findly, ohio. he lost his manufacturing job a few years ago after working in the industry, in an industry for nearly 30 years. shortly before losing his job, he began having serious health issues, unexplained seizures and memory loss. in and out of the hospital and out of a job, ken was forced to find expensive private insurance

after being denied social security disability and not old enough, yet, to be eligible for medicare. unfortunately for ken the price of the private insurance was simply too high. near-death seiw years ago ken was hospitalized again and diagnosed with lupus. after a month-long hospitalization he entered a nursing home for rehabilitation. this was done without insurance. tens of thousands of dollars in medical expenses ken had to withdraw from his 401(k) savings early facing tax penalties, i might add, ultimately draining his lifetime savings and putting his retirement security in jeopardy. it is unacceptable that ohioans that who worked hard -- it is not acceptable that ken has to fight for health insurance to take care of the disability. the time for reform is now. the help committee accomplished a lot on quality and revenges

and wellness because of the contribution of the efforts of the presiding officer today from north carolina. we have done well with workforce shortage issues and written good language, good legislation on fraud and abuse and we, clearly -- the most point and difficult work is in front of us. we have more work to do to make sure health care reform is about providing people with affordab affordable, quality health insurance that protects what works and fix what's wrong. i need my colleagues to explain something that's confusing. i hear as we talk about the public option, i hear the insurance industry tell us over and over they can do things better, their marketing and skills and bureaucracy and well paid executives, they can do better and as they argue against the public option they say the government can't do anything right. what puzzles me is why the insurance industry is the public

option will put them out of business. they say the government can't do anything right but they are afraid the public option will put them out of business. i encourage today the gas root activism -- grass root volunteers want to remind congress health care reform is about helping sheryl is recently diagnosed with diabetes. her husband died just four months ago and with no income, her insurance cost more than 400 a month. with no income, sheryl cares for disabled adult son and an yo autistic grand dawmplet she writes she has had choices and our system is broken and unaffordable for her, some of her neighbors and too many americans. she writes, she needs health care reform now before all of her savings are lost. that's why it's so important we do this now, that president intm right, we don't wait until next

year or the year after. some people say the economy is too bad. we can't do it now. those are the same people who said, the economy is bad, we can't do it now. on a committee that i sit on, 14,000 americans are losing their health insurance every day. it is people like sheryl that i talked about and ken and people -- and kathleen and joseph, people -- kathleen i'll speak about in a minute. people are losing their health insurance every day. 14,000 americans every single day. for us to wait an additional six months or a year or some people say let's wait until the next election, until the voters again say they need -- we need health care reform, 14,000 people every day losing their health insurance. health care reform is about helping small businesses like kathleen -- small business owners like kathleen from rocky river, ohio, a suburb just west of cleveland, one of kathleen's finest employees suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. kathleen's premiums have increased to $1,800 a amongst

and after trying to purchase another plan, she was turned down because of her employee's arnlg riteic condition. if one of your employees gets very, very sick to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dlarks everybody's premium goes up because it is such a small insurance plan. then so often the small business person has to give up and can't insure her employees. kathleen is being victimized, as are they are employees, by that phenomenon. she doesn't want to fire her finest employee, nor should she have to. madam president, i stand ready to work with my colleagues to design a public insurance option that will help provide hild-class families with economic stability, with stable coverage, cost, and quality. i stand with the thousands of volunteers who were here today across the street demanding real change in our health care system. they're showing the world how change in america happens. their being a i havism is important. the stories of the people they're fighting for, like whom i just mentioned -- joseph, ken,

sheryl, a understand kathleen. that's why we can't wait any longer. we need health care now and a strong public option now. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: