reform. i've talked about the high cost of health care and how we need to get a handle on the amount of resources we spend as a nation on health care. i've talked about the need to improve with prevention and wellness and talked about the public insurance option and why i think it's so important to have a public insurance option but today i want to talk about a different issue: what happens if we do nothing. because i think the people of this nation need to understand that our current health care system is causing huge challenges for the people of our nation. whether you have health insurance or don't have health insurance you are impacted by the fact that your openings are limited. 4remaryland citizens will contie to lose health care each day if we do not reform our health care

system. there scurptly are 760,000 marylanders that have no health insurance today. that number has been growing during this economic crisis. and now 230 marylanders are losing their coverage every single day. so there are people in our community that currently have adequate health insurance -- at least they think they do -- but they are liable to wake up tomorrow and find out because their company going out of business or their employer can no longer afford to provide health insurance for employees they no longer have health insurance to count on. marylanders is seen 11% increase in the number of uninsured since 2007. what does this mean? as the number of uninsured increased there's more and more cost-shifting. that means those of us who have health insurance are paying higher premiums than we otherwise would have to pay

because we're paying for those who don't have health insurance. it means those of us who pay our doctor bills or hospital bills are paying more than we should because we're paying for those who cannot pay that are bills and have no health insurance who are part of uncompensated care. and it's a never-ending struggle because as we cost shft mor coso those who have insurance, insurance becomes more expensive and less people can afford insurance is we have a higher number of uninsured. and that is happening today. marylanders with health insurance are paying more. if we don't fix the system those in my community and in your community that have health insurance are going to end up paying more. the average family premium in maryland costs $1,100 more each year because of our health care system failing to cover everybody because we have

cost-shifting, because we haven't gotten health care costs under control. the fact that health insurance premiums for maryland families have been increasing rapidly over the past eight years going up by 64% from 2000 to 2007. now, mr. president, whether you pay that premium directly or your employers contribute to it it's part of your family cost. it reflects in the compensation that you otherwise would receive in salaries as an employee -- 64% increase for marylanders since 2000. for family health care coverage the average annual premium rose from $7,200 to almost $12,000 during that period of time from 2000 to 2007. and for individual health coverage the average premium rose from $2,600 to $4,100. if we do nothing, if we fail to

enact health care reform, if we do nothing to control the escalating cost of health care and do nothing to help those uninsured, if we don't deal with the wellness and prevention, if we depths deal with medical technology and dealing with a more cost effective system, the trends will continue and we will see these type of double dight t increases meaning more marylanders and more in this country cannot afford their current insurance coverage. let me mention one other fact which is something that we all talk about. we want to maintain choice. it's one of the prime objectives of health care reform to maintain choice. choice so you can choose your doctor. sois sho that your doctor and yourself make decisions concerning your medical needs. and choice, i would hope, in what type of health coverage is out there to meet your need.

right now, two insurance companies in maryland hold 71% the maryland market. for most marylanders who have health insurance through work, they don't have a choice. we want to offer more choice so we can keep costs done. you can tailor a health care plan to meet your family needs. we can do better. the current status quo should be unacceptable to everyone in my state whether they currently have good health care coverage, or they are a small business owner or work for a large company. let me give a couple of examples of stories from maryland. let me give this one. a constituent named katherine from baltimore wrote me a letter. "mr. cardin, i received my health insurance bill from an insurance company, and the premium for next year went from $660 to $968.

this is a quarterly bill. we have a high medical expenses and cannot afford this increase. i cannot go to another insurance company because i am high risk and i have been turned down from other medical insurance companies. i cannot receive medical assistance because they say we make too much. i am 51 years of age. i called my insurance carriers and asked about the increase, i was laughed after and told either accept it or go somewhere else. i asked if i could pay monthly i was told, indeed, not. what am i to do? i need medical help but no one wants to help me. please, could you please look into this matter and see what you can do for me." this is a person who has health insurance. and if we don't do anything that person is going to lose their health insurance. quite frankly, the access to quality care will also be jeopardized. to give you another story about

a small business owner, alexis if baltimore owns a small software production company that oversees i.t. for the city of baltimore. he competes against larger companies for business. he wants to do the right thing. so he has health insurance for his employees. he has 20 employees. and he pays half of the costs for the employees' coverage. well, some of his employees came in and said, look, can't you help us with family coverage. and he would like to provide fell coverage for his employees. he just can't afford to do it and be able to compete against larger companies. he goes on to tell me his premiums are increasing much faster than what is happening with the larger companies he has to compete against. he doesn't have the options that the larger companies have. well, the status quo discriminated against small companies and their health care

plans. what we need to do in health reform is deal with these issues. and that's why, mr. president, i come to the floor. i know there's different views as to what we need to do with health care reform. i would hope the one option that would not be on the table is the status quo. we cannot let the katherines of our community say that we're not going to do anything to help you. we have to listen to the cat ripkatherines who are saying, looking, get a handle on what is happening with health costs, whether we have health insurance or whether we don't have health insurance. get a handle on helping those who depths have insurance so we don't have the cost-shifting that guess on, that we can provide quality health care for all and bring down the costs of health care in our communities. listen to alexis who says, look, help the small business owner do the right thing for employees and help bring down the cost of health care. so, mr. president, i just urge my colleagues -- we can have a

robust debate as to what should be included in health care reform but i hope at the end of the day we will listen to our constituents and provide the type of reform that will allow for people in our community that access to affordable, quality health care and make the costs manageable, bring down the costs of health care and provide programs to keep people healthy. if we do that, then i think we are listening to our constituents and we will help our economy and help our nation. with that, mr. president, i would yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: scaikd my intern be accorded privileges of the floor. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be dispensed. to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. merkley: i rise to address a defining challenge of our time: the restructuring of our nation's energy supply. reforming our energy policy is critical for multiple reasons: to improve our national security, to create jobs and rebuild our economy, to protect our children and our communities from the damaging effects of carbon pollution. today i want to focus on just the first of these: improving our national security. mr. president, it has been said before and it will be said again but it deserves repeating until we in congress act to change it: our nation is addicted to

foreign oil. this dependence makes us vulnerable to the whims of nations that do not have our best interests at heart. this afternoon i'd like to examine this problem in some detail and consider the implications for national energy policy that would strengthen our national security and end our addiction to imported oil. i want to emphasize there is a cure if we as a nation focus on smarter, wiser use of