that's the way cobra works. a good program, but a bit of a cruel hoax, if you lose your job, it is pretty hard to pay your premium and your employer's premium at the same time. she's considering borrowing against her house to pay for her health insurance for cobra for 18 months, she will get a little bit of help now, because in the stimulus package, we took he care of some of that. she that's to find a way until 65 to cobble together insurance. terry, a small business owner nearby in columbus, expects to pay 35% more this year to cover his employees. he wants to cover his employees, but he has a 30% increase. what's he supposed to do? especially when his business, i don't know a lot about his business, but so many small businesses are squeezed more and more because of the economy. so we know these stories, and that's why it's so important, mr. president, that we -- that we address health care reform this year. now, we want to do several things. first of all, anybody that's in a health care plan that they're happ

as an example, cobra gold, some may have participated in cobra gold in exercise. this is an exercise in thailand held every year. this year five countries involved, ten countries as observers. ten countries india and prc included sent observers to watch chips, soldiers, sailors, coast guardman to have a live field exercise in a dynamic vibrant way and it concluded with shifting from war-fighting if you will or exercising the capability and hope we don't have to do it but exercising the capability shifting over to humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and united nations peacekeeping operations. so it started out fairly aggressive and ended up not just peacemaking but peacekeeping all under the umbrella of exercise cobra gold. we're in our 35th year never had participation been more vigorous and more spirited. so that's the readiness piece. it is essential for us to be able to field forces that can move out and exercise across the full spectrum in a military operational capabilities that you would expect. the third, is the presence. junior officers in our headqua

my son had open heart surgery when he was a baby, and we were on cobra, but even on cobra paying $366 a month in the 1980's, that on the cover my son, we still ended up paying $10,000. host: how to fix that? guest: you have heard president obama talk about that. to keep people out of an emergency rooms. i think that is part of what happened with tobacco regulation bill. guest: there needs to be a lot of personal responsibility in health care. if you are not doing your part to ensure that you are watching your weight and taking measures to make sure that your health is good, the costs will be borne by all of us. people need to take a certain responsibility. another thing is that it is important that we have care, you see it through out people who need the care the most, and you see they have been neglected by the system. we have to insure that visiting physicians don't get to a point where it comes so devastating that they take on huge costs and require such care. host: right of you -- both of you right youwrite, there is an article this morning that says that the journalism rules in t

we were on cobra, thank god. even on cobra, paying $356 per month in the 1980's, which was one week's pay, that only covered my son. we're still ended up paying about $10,000. host: how about that? guest: that is something you hear president obama talk about. there is a much cheaper way, a health program, to keep people out of these emergency rooms. on the tobacco bill, they want to stop kids from smoking now. that will either be lower cost in the future. guest: one thing that is lost in the debate is there used to be personal responsibility and health care system. if you're watching your weight and walking and taking measures to make sure your help remains on the upside, the costs will be borne by all of sprint people need to take a certain responsibility. it is important that we have care. what has happened is that the people need the care most have been neglected by the system. one thing that needs to be part of reform is ensuring that we have people visiting physicians but do not get to a point where they're

last year, gary was laid off, he couldn't afford the more than $800 a month cobra costs. after obtaining health insurance from a company that promised equivalent payments of medicare for surgery, gary's wife underwent surgery. after a week of recovery, they received a hospital bill of $210,000 with a hospital letter saying they lacked insurance. gary talked to his provider, who agreed to pay $400. $400 out of $210,000. fortunately -- fortunately for her family -- for his family, the hospital absorbed the remaining costs. but that shouldn't happen that way either because of what that means to the local hospital. with gary and his wife still three years away from age 5, they deserve health reform that works for -- 65, they deserve health reform that works for them now. a public health insurance option will also expand access of affordable health care in rural areas that are often ignored by private -- by a private insurance market which tends to target big cities with more of a density of population, a concentration of consumers. too often, as randall of west liberty, ohio,

cobras this or cobras that don't mean anything to them. so at 60 and 62 they have no place to go. they should be able to turn to us because they believe in their government and they believed in free enterprise. i think about the self-employed guy with an autistic son, two other children in their family. he is so stressed between lower profits, rising costs. he needs a mental health benefit. their marriage needs counselling and the tension and aggravation and fear that they're working under. he needs to be able to have health insurance for his family and he needs to also have that mental health benefit. i think about the young girl who is 24 years old with crohn's disease, a law student 21 years old with kroen's disease. she doesn't have access to a doctor, she's going to get sicker, she's going to end up in the hospital, she could face even death. what about the water and the farmers that i represent? we all want to eat local. but we also have to have water and farmers to do that. you don't think about me representing farmers, but i do. and i represent watermen, they're called fis

it shows we have even added to the insanity of the increased costs of cobra coverage and others this year in congress. we have gone in the wrong direction. what we need to do is put patients back in charge. we need to be providing a subsidy for individuals, in the individual market, and not just businesses, to get out there and be able to choose what they need if they are put in a situation where they've got to access that type of coverage. again, it goes back to the republican plan. we have in the plan the ability for the individuals to participate with a larger group of people so the costs are brought down and risks for insurance companies are brought down and they can have the ability to choose basic coverage for themselves. host: time for one more call, marcello from west haven, connecticut. caller: good morning, a gentleman. i will be 80 this november -- host: happy birthday. what a cut thank you. -- caller: thank you. i have been a registered democrat 21 cents. as far as i'm concerned, both parties seem to want to spend money, one plan or another, but if we go that -- go back,

there are millions of them, and they go to a program called cobra, which i might note, mr. president, is the only federal program named after a poisonous snake. and colleagues here have improved it certainly in the stimulus to try to provide additional assistance. but it is still part of a dysfunctional system. and part of the reason why is that that system hasn't changed a whole lot since the 1940's. much of the rules with respect to coverage, and certainly, in my opinion, has led to the lack of portability revolves around the fact that in the 1940's, when there were wage and price controls, big decisions got made that affect health care today. now back in the 1940's, the rules made some sense for those times. people would usually go to work somewhere and pretty much stay put for 20, 25 years until you gave them a gold watch and a 20,000-calorie retirement dinner. that's not what the workforce is about today. today the typical worker changes their job 11 times by the time they're 40. so what they need is portable health care coverage, coverage you can take from place to pl

were able to use the color program which was cost prohibitive previously, -- they are able to use the cobra program. i thank you and your teams for your dedication in moving this forward. having said that, i am not satisfied. we have got more work to do. the biggest concern that i have moving forward is that the toll that job losses take on individual families and communities can be self reinforcing. people lose jobs, they pull back on spending, and that means businesses do not have customers, and, suddenly, you start seeing more job layoffs. our whole task here with the recovery act is to reverse that negative cycle into a positive cycle, and that is going to take some more, so i am pleased to note that having put the infrastructure in place, -- i am pleased to note that having put the infrastructure in place, -- pleased to know, now we are in a position to relieve things, so the goal here is that we are going to create or save 600,000 jobs over the next 100 days. joe highlighted some of the specifics that we are making to keep the recovery moving forward, keeping teachers in the classroom

like an elephant, pumpkin -- >> bob: yeah, elephant, pumpkin cobra sort of thing. that's a wide strike zone by tim welke. guzman doesn't like it. this is a pitcher that just walked the other pitcher. let's see if he's -- >> rob: go ahead. northrop grumman on the pitch track here. 1-1, he backs it around. >> bob: guzman took a defensive swing. on the run, inning over. nationals had two runners. they've strand three already in a 1-1 game. fastest upload speeds. and we're giving them a mini netbook. well, i'm sticking with cable. so's ted. (voice) no i'm not! he's just goofing. (voice) no i'm not! (sighing) ted has betrayed me. (announcer) switch to verizon fios tv, phone and internet today and get an ultra-sleek compaq mini netbook. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities coors banquet has been brewed in one place... and one place only: golden, colorado. it's followed one tradition: use the best high-country barley... and only rocky mountain water. and it's been brewed under one motto: never compromise. now maybe this means we're a little set in our w

of the recovery act, if even when they lost their jobs many of them were actually able to use the cobra program that was cost prohibitive previously. so we've got some good news to report. i've been receiving the weekly reports from all of you. and i thank you and your teams for your dedication in moving this forward. having said, that i'm not satisfied. we've got more work to do. the biggest concern that i have moving forward is that the toll the job losses take on individual families and communities can be self-reinforcing. people lose jobs, they pull back on spending, that means businesses don't have customers and suddenly you start -- you start seeing more job layoffs. our whole path of the recovery act is to reverse that negative cycle into a positive cycle. and it's going to take some work. so i'm pleased to know that having put the infrastructure in place, having gotten your teams up and running, many of the criteria by which money is going out in a responsible way that protects taxpayers having been created, now wee in a position to really accelerate. and so the goal here is tha

because of the recovery act, even when they lost their jobs many of them are actually able to use the cobra program that was cost prohibitive previously. we have some good news to report. i have been receiving weekly reports from all of you and i think you and your teams for your dedication moving forward. having said that, i am not satisfied. we have more work to do. the biggest concern that i have moving forward is the toll that job losses take on individual families and communities can be self reenforcing. people lose jobs, they pull back on spending, that means businesses do not have customers, and suddenly you start seeing more job layoffs. our whole task here with the recovery act is to reverse that- cycle into a positive cycle, and that is going to take some work. i am pleased to know that having put the infrastructure in place, having gotten your teams up and running, many of the criteria about the money going out to protect taxpayers has been created. now, we are in a position to get really started. the goal is we're going to create or save 600,000 jobs over the next 100 days. joe

insurance, all kinds of other help the people need when they get thrown out of their jobs, subsidizing cobra. that has contributed to some of it. some of it is that i have proposed some investments in education and energy and health information technologies. there was an article in "the new yorkitim -- "the new york times" shows that everything i have proposed, everything we've done in bailing people out, all of the stealth accounts for maybe 7% of what you have seen in terms of increase in debt and deficit. the real problem is medicaid and medicare. that is the nightmare scenario. if we can bend the cost curve so health care inflation is no more than ordinary inflation, we match up with the amount of increases were seeing on your paychecks, wages, incomes, and we're going to be ok. if we do not get a handle on this, we're not boy to be ok. it does not matter about eliminating earmarks, that will not make any difference. we will still be consumed by a huge debt for the next generation. that is why it is so important. that is why we're getting it done. that is why i need your help. think to e

she and her family went on cobra, as expensive as it is when you are unemployed, for as long as they could and then paid $27,000 a year for insurance in the individual market where medical underwriting runs rampant and the cost of the bureaucratic cost of a single policy and individual market is 40, 40% off. she recently traded at plan because of the expense for a bear bones policy that cost her $15,000 a year but doesn't cover prescription drugs and has a 5,000-dollar deductible. so she starts off paying $20,000 for medical care. that's just the start. she writes in the letter this is not what insurance is about. the bill of course today takes a number of steps to ensure americans don't make the same fate as an mcinturff panel. it provides better regulation of the insurance industry banning existing exclusions and preventing insurers from denying coverage based on medical history eliminating annual and lifetime benefit caps. blogger will be allowed insurance companies to stay one step ahead where those insurance companies will ensure you if you are healthy and inexpensive but well,

did the invention, the sheer genius that transformed the 1908 model t ford into the 1968 shelby cobra0. in the course of one single human lifetime goal of speeding tickets. [laughter] compare this to progress in the previous mode of transportation. worse production, course design -- unchanged for thousands of years. and you know when it comes to creativity with the horse and did the research on this one riding, i lifted up. you know and nobody thought to put a stirrup, nobody thought to hastert from a saddle until about 580. the strip was invented. people have been riding horses for thousands of years and its effect until 500 a.d. to invent this. where they put their feet? it automobile design and engineering have proceeded at the same pace as course design and engineering we would be powering ourselves down the road by running with both of our feet stuck through a hole and the floor like fred flintstones although it may come to that with the 2010 at obama mobile. [laughter] but most important of all, most important of all was the car's fulfilled the ideal of what america's founding f

but because of these pre-existing conditions, once cobra runs out, how are they going to get health insurance? how are they going to afford, struggling maybe to find a new job, but how are they going to be able to go out with no tax deduct -- deductibility and purchase a health insurance plap that's three and four times the amount of a standard plan for everybody else? what i would say, madam speaker, to the association of health insurance plans, why don't you grant those individuals credible coverage just like we did in medicare part d, the prescription drug benefit? if you have a credible insurance plan that covers prescription drugs, say on a supplemental plan, and then you lose that after four or five years, then you shouldn't be penalized when you get into part d and indeed the law says you won't be penalized. why should the insurance company penalize these people who in good faith all those years have put that money, that premium that the insurance industry has an invested and had a good return on their investment, when these people all of a sudden are in a high-risk situation? i think

she and her family went on cobra for as long as they could, then paid $27,000 a year for insurance on the individual market. the individual market is where the administrative costs run 30%, 45,% where medical underwriting runs rampant. she traded that plan, $27,000 a year plan, $2,500 a month almost, for a bare-bones policy that cost only $15,000 a year. only. but doesn't cover prescription drugs and has a $5,000 deductible. that means before she gets one dollar of care paid for by insurance companies she's paying $15,000 for the premium and $5,000 for the deductible. she writes in her letter this is not what insurance is supposed to be about. the bill before us today will take a number of steps to ensure that americans do not meet the same fate as ann and her family. one, it provides for better regulation of the health insurance industry. this is an industry that, in some sense, it's an industry that's sort of a step ahead of the sheriff. it's an industry that always tries to figure out how to beat the system, always tries to figure out how to insure you because you're healthy and we

insurance and all kind of other help that people need when they get thrown out of their jobs, subsidizing cobra so they can keep their healthcare. that's contributed some of it. the some of its that i have proposed some investments in education and in energy and in health information technologies. but there was just an article in the "new york times" yesterday that showed that all that stuff, everything that i've proposed -- my stimulus package, what we've done in terms of bailing out the financial system, all that stuff -- that accounts for maybe 7, 8% of what you've seen in terms of increased debt and deficit. the real problem is medicaid and med ca carry. that's the nightmare scenario. if we can bend the curve, the cost curve down so that healthcare inflation is no more than ordinary inflation, it's matching up with the amount of increases that you're seeing on your paychecks in your wages and your incomes, then wee going to be ok. and if we don't get a handle on it we're not going to be ok. it doesn't matter that we eliminate earmarks or do all that other stuff. that won't make any differen

so you take cobra plus a tax credit plus the ability. and remember, that $200 every two weeks is about a third of the cost or a fourth of the cost of the health care that she's actually receiving. why be critical of a government-run plan, insurance plan? and i'm not alone on this. the fact is, is the government hadn't proved itself responsible in any health care program that has run so far. you put it into the political nature. what ultimately happened with the public plan is if in fact, you can get insurance from a public plan cheaper, everybody's going to move there. and what is estimated is 120 million americans will leave the insurance they have today and go to a government plan. the cheap with that is the government plan won'ting fiscally viable. so what will happen is we'll convert it from a government plan to a government medicare plan, very similar to what we have for medicare but then we won't be able to fund it. so rather than pass on another $38 trillion to our children what we need to do -- and i agree with you. the insurance

third, cobra health insurance premiums have been cut by 65%. 54 million older citizens across the country have received $250 in emergency relief checks in the mail. and, finally, in this section food assistance benefits have increased by 13% just when vulnerable americans need them. tax credits and other recovery act incentives is starting to drive new consumer spending and creating new product demand. energy efficiency are providing fresh opportunities for manufacturers or contractors that make or install green products. and the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit is proving to be a bright spot in the hard-hit housing industry. the recovery act aided to state governments is helping to protect critical safety net programs and saving teaching and law enforcement jobs. over half states have qualified for the state fiscal stablization funds that are saving teaching jobs and improving education. andtate governments are making up shortfalls in medicaid funds thanks to the recovery act. infrastructure improvement projects funded by the recovery act are bringing new jobs to hard-hit communit

we have to maintain support for the vital extensions of unemployment insurance and cobra health insurance. these are subsidies, while millions of americans -- they need these subsidies while millions of americans continue to face job loss and extended periods of unemployment. these are stop gap measures but this has to be seen as necessary just to stop the hemorrhaging and get people some relief so that they can survive and sustain themselves until the jobs that we are working so hard to create are created. we've got to maintain support for and invest in education and job training programs as congresswoman fudge talked about earlier. and fully support initiatives such as the affordable housing trust fund and the neighborhood stabilization program which our colleague, congresswoman maxine waters, who chairs the housing and opportunity subcommittee of the financial services committee worked so hard with the congressional black caucus' support to bring some stability to our hardest-hit communities. but we all know we have to do more. we need to raise and index the minimum wage so that every

medicaid, medicare, cobra and schip -- even though we pay taxes, we did not produce a big fully. when you come from a territory, things are different. we are willing to carry our burden fully, as any other state, but certainly want to partake in the process as well. host: in terms of health care, whether you advocating for? what does puerto rico need? guest: us governors one flexibility, but in terms of puerto rico specifically, i want to assure in terms of managing we participate fully. right now we are capped, recently 17% of the federal contribution where as the minimal states are 50% and four states with our demographics, it is 83%. so we are putting up for the rest at the state level. that affects the health care of my constituents. separately, on medicare, medical providers, both physicians, hospitals, and so on, are not treated equally in many ways. and i want to make sure that even though we are paying for medicare taxes, payroll taxes, that we get the same treatment. the same thing with s-chip -- small children that need medical services, and want to make sure that we co

health care effectively ended when they got their pink slip at their job because they can't afford a cobra payment, they are uninsured or underinsured and when they use the hospital emergency room as their primary care physician, they're costing all of us paying into the system four or five times more by using the hospital room, the emergency room, as their primary care physician. we need to cover all people. and to those americans who might be listening tonight, we need to understand that the american people -- the american taxpayer right now is paying to make sure that every man, woman and child in iraq has access to universal health care coverage. now, it's inconsistent that we would pay for iraqis to see the doctor that they want to but not americans. the second p is that we have portability. is that our workers, when they get that pink slip, god forbid, that they can take their health care from job to job to job. portability, covering all people and certainly one of the third p's, one of the third p that we have in our five p's is making sure that we provide incentives for prevention

. $750 million in federal taxes is paid by the workers and savings of unemployment, cobra, food stamps, john training of almost $-- job training of almost $3 billion. this bill almost pays for itself. but the beauty of it is the fact that it returns the supply chain, it gets people working again. it gets the economy moving again. instead of communities having to come to washington looking for money, the money gets restocked. simply because of the payment of the taxes. vote for h.r. 2751. this is a real stimulus. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlewoman from ohio is recognized. ms. sutton: thank youing madam speaker. at this time, it's my honor to yield to the distinguished gentleman from michigan, mr. kildee, two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for two minutes. mr. kildee: i thank the gentlelady for yielding. madam speaker, i rise today in strong support of h.r. 2751, the consumer assistance to recycle and save act. this bill will provide incentives for the purchase of new, more efficient vehicles. helping to

been unemployed now, been over a year, and went through, you know, all of my employer's $700-plus cobra plan for medical which has been exhausted now. i have been collecting unemployment with please i can't. i do not -- want to seem ungrateful but i have been informed that i am receiving too much money collecting in order to receive medical from the state, medicaid plan. because i do have medical conditions that, you know, that i'm desperately in need of medical attention. i don't even know where to turn. you know, it's either collect and pay most of my bills, you know, just general housing, utilities, and put food on the table or maybe cut that in half and get the medicaid plan until i find a job. then i wouldn't be able to pay all the other utilities. necessities, yeah. so, you know. it's unbelievable to think that that's making too much money, but that's where the cutoff is. host: we'll leave it there. thanks. guest: under our bill if it were to become law, she would have $5,700 that would be in the supplement, in addition to what she has today that could be apply for a plan whether

he relies on cobra and paying a monthly premium of $1,300, it is set to expire in one year when skip will have no insurance at all. ara, she is covered through her husband's employer, which according to her is a small luxury many small business owners don't have. after graduating from colorado state university in 2004, their daughter abbey found a job with a large company in new york city, she said that she couldn't get health insurance until she worked for the company for 1 year. after months of employment she was diagnosed with an ovarian tumor, the expenses were too much, so her parents had to take out a loan to pay for the medical bills. this experience brought to light all too clearly how close we are to losing everything due to a health issue. the current system is hurting our small business people and their employees. take bob monoa, they are torn between providing health care coverage for employees an keeping their business afloat. last year the business paid out $36,000 to cover a health care plan for bob and his partner and other employees. bob said, as business owners, we