as you can see here from the older chart showing 49 million uninsured, a large number of uninsured were uninsured temporarily, only five months. another 25% only for six months, leaving about 53% uninsured for a long time, a group we all agree should be addressed. when you take 45.7 million people uninsured, remove noncitizen, remove the people who haven't signed up for government programs they're already eligible for, remove people who have higher incomes than most americans and should buy it anyway and remove the temporarily uninsured, you get down to a number of 7.8 million this might not be a big enough number. mr. murphy: one of the interesting demographics, -- mr. dent: one of the interesting demographics, over half, 55% of the people lacking coverage in america are under the age of 35. many are insureable. college-age kids up to 35. they tend to be more insureable than much of the rest of the population. i believe we do have suggestions and proposals of ways to cover that population, get them into an affordable catastrophic coverage they need in the event something dramatic happe

which was to insure the uninsured. on the budgetary impact of the insurance budget provisions. on a preliminary cbo tax estimate that the major provisions of title one of the affordable health choices act with the healthy insurance coverage will result in the net increase of the federal deficit of 1 trillion for the fiscal year of 2010 to 2019. that estimate preliminarily reflects the subsidies provided to the purchase coverage through the new insurance exchanges that would amount to $1.3 trillion. the average subsidy per exchange in enrollee would rise to $6,000 in 2019. now there are savings that are calculated in here so the net number becomes $1 trillion. the proposal would not change the tax treatment of health insurance premiums, nevertheless, the reduction in the number of people receiving employer-based health insurance coverage relative to the current law projections would affect the government's tax revenues because the total compensation costs are determined by market forces. cbo and joint task staff estimat

the second is that we cover the 47 million uninsured. unfortunately, even though we add perhaps $2 trillion to $3 trillion to the federal debt and a lot of new state taxes, the bill that we're considering in the senate health committee will only reduce the number of -- will only cover 16 million more people who are not now insured. in other words, we've reduced the uninsured to -- the number of reduced from 47 million to 30 trillion. i think that's a flunking grade as well for a bill. then what about allowing you to keep your insurance if you like it? well, the congressional budget office also had something to say about that. it said that if the kennedy bill as it is presented were enacted, 15 million people would go from private insurance that they now have to an existing or a new government-run health care plan. you might do that because you choose to or you might do that because your employer says i think i'll quit offering the insurance you now have. so this doesn't seem to fit what the president is suggesting we do. so with all resp

a lot of uninsured fit that category.t the same time there are people who are uninsured who don't have access to coverage today and we want to guarantee that they have access to coverage and access that they can afford. affordability is always kind of a hard to define term. what you are willing to pay, what is appropriate to play and what you would like to lay may be different things. we want this to be as affordable as possible. we would not have coverage paid for by taxpayers for people at 500% of the poverty level. we will not have coverage where the taxpayers pay for families who make over $100,000. that is not going to be part of our plan. we are going to look at the numbers where we have to help people. we might start by looking at the numbers that the percentages we allowed for medicare part d for st

and talks about covering the uninsured, there's usually a cheer. that's 48 million more paying customers. but he also talks about something that's not as popular with many health care proirks and that is reducing the cost of this system. what happened in mcallen, texas, is unacceptable, that you can have health care providers trying to run the bill in an effort to make more money for themselves at the expense of the government, at the expense of health insurance companies but frankly not to the benefit of those who are being treated. the senator from kentucky frequently comes here and talks about how much he dislikes -- i'll use that word -- government-related health care. let's make it clear. i don't know anyone, including the president or leaders in congress, calling for a government health care plan to cover for everyone. that's not what we're asking for. we want to try to make sure that there is private health insurance that is held accountable and is competitive so that we can help bring down the cost. imu to argue that there is something fund

that way there will be no reason at all for anyone to remain uninsured. [applause] >> indeed, it's because i'm confident in our ability to give people the ability to get insurance and affordable rate that i'm open to a system where every american bears responsibility for owning health insurance. so long as we provide a hardship waiver for those who still can't afford it as we move toward the system. the same is true for employers. while i believe every business has a responsibility to provide health insurance for its workers, small businesses that can't afford it should receive an exemption. and small-business workers and their families will be able to seek coverage in the exchange if their employer is not able to provide. now here's some good news. insurance companies have expressed support for the idea of covering the uninsured. and they certainly are in favor of a mandate. i welcome their willingness to engage constructively in the reform debate. i'm glad they are at the table. but what i refuse to do is simply create a system where insurance companies

many of the uninsured today actually qualify for existing programs. 10 million of the uninsured today -- among other things, employees should have the opt out aggressively as opposed to aggressively having to opt in. there are things like that that can make a big difference in the system in a hurry. on the ground work that the government will never compete fairly, look at what is happening in the auto industry. the government run general motors with gmac financing cars close to zero. before credit is quite a bit above zero. -- the ford credit is quite above thzero. the government will not compete fairly. we think there's a marketplace we can help create. our members are going to come up and talk about that. they're going to come and talk about elements of the plan that will be working with folks to draft. while we are almost always last in line with the resources available to congress these days, we're going to be working hard now to bring these concepts and the legislative language is quickly as we can. >> thank you for a leadership on the solutions group. i want to think leader boeh

, and i like it because it shows very clearly how being uninsured is related to income levels. so far, the middle and upper middle class there are some uninsured but it's not a big phenomenon yet. but what i am thinking as and it's coming decade the status of being uninsured, absent health reform will creep up this income distribution very fast and the very people who are now bickering should there be public or not, should it be 1.6 trillion, those very people will be on insured and if they get sick they will be in very dire street and by trying to figure out whether i should feel sorry for them. because if they don't support health reform now i will write down that i won't be sorry for them. [laughter] they, however, will be very sorry. now, i do need to set aside. how much -- the choice americans face in health care now is to fold. either we need to raise taxes to be our brothers and sisters keepers, those in the lower and middle class in the years ahead. and here i would remind you if you google osd tax revenue different countries you will discover we are the least taxed nat

a lot of the uninsured fit that category. there are people who are uninsured who do not have access today. we want to ensure and guarantee they have access to coverage and access they can afford. affordability is a hard to define terms. would you are willing to pay and what you would like to pay could be different. we want this to be as affordable as possible. we will not have coverage paid for by taxpayers for people at five under% of the poverty level. -- 500% of the poverty level. we will look at the numbers. we may start by looking at the numbers with the percentages for we allow medicare part "b" and figure out how to tell those up and dial closedownthose down. we want your

so how is it that we're going to afford the uninsured access to affordable coverage? the tenant that we're operating on and our plan is based around is we want to provide access to a basic plan for all americans and to coverage in terms of a basic plan. we do so by making sure we keep down costs and incorporate the ability for folks to pull together, to access lower cost, to bring private sector into the game and keep go out -- government out. so i applaud the efforts that have resulted in the plan today. i looked for to working with president obama, speaker pelosi, to make sure that we do arriving at a consensus so we can have some health care reform in this country. >> thank you. we have had a hardworking group and that group continues to work to be part of this debate and part of the solution, the health care solutions group hopes to be just exactly that. and republicans in the house are for a health care plan that's more affordable, that everyone has access to regardless of any pre-existing condition they had with a renewed focus on quality and the doctor-patient

de guest: they are much closer to the happiness of the uninsured -- things.uest: they are much closer to the happiness of the uninsured, and they do it through rationing. they do not provide mri's to a lot of people. they have to wait for even a simple surgery. you talk about wanting to have a hybrid system, but the government is putting its heavy hand in favor of the single payer plan. for some time, people will switch out. we saw this yesterday, with the proposals to cut $313 billion from medicare and medicaid. government is constantly putting more and more mandates on what private insurance as to provide. they will have a hard time competing against the subsidies that will be given a single payer plans. guest: there will lead be a huge subsidy for single payer. >guest: we are already talking about it. guest: in most states there are only a couple of places where countries -- companies are running an oligarchy. competition is not working the way that you are saying it is. i think that the administration is proposing something that is a well thought out bala

uninsured and underinsured. there is enough money in the system to pay for those people who are uninsured and underinsured. in fact, we hear that families have found that nearly 7%, in 1987, 7% of their median household income was being used and dwoted for health care and now it's grown to 20%. in fact, americans spend more than any other industrialized country in health care for a working family. yet our health care, life expectancy is on par with cuba, on par with cuba. so we have got to make fundamental changes. as the gentlewoman said, to focus on prevention. four cents of every dollar is focused on prevention, yet we have some of the worst chronic diseases that continue over this period. we want to stress that folks will have more choices and bean counters won't decide, but doctors will decide the type of health care they get and there is enough money in the system to pay for itself. those are the delee guideposts and the beacons we are using as we are drafting legislation in the house. . ms. pingree: i wan

. >> you also said that 46 million voters are uninsured. is that uninsured today? >> that is crucial. experts will tell you over a two-year period, twice that many people go through some time of lack of interest. >> are the ones that are at a sonically uninsured during the course of the last 12 months? >> that is as a point in time. 82 million over some two years period. >> a the provide the date on that. i would appreciate that. >the breakdown is helpful to fid how we get them in injured. it to be helpful to know if that lead to those folks are and why they are not insured. you also mentioned that the president's goal, and it is reiterated over and over, that if you like your current plan if you can keep it. do you know where that is in the bill? >> absolutely. things like the employer mandate is part in making sure that large employers provide health insurance. >> i am asking if an individual like their current plan and maybe they did-through their employer or maybe their plan does not doecomply with every parameter of the draft bill, how are they going to be abl

what they're talking about is people who are uninsured. but let me talk about the numbers that make up what they're talking about as 45.7 million americans who are uninsured. that's not true either. 9.5 million of those are noncitizens, 12 million of them are eligible for public programs suched a -- such as medicaid and medicare. 7.3 million have incomes over $84,000 and choose not to purchase health insurance. 9.1 million are only temporarily uninsured, that brings us down to 7.8 million american citizens, lower income, long-term uninsured. a much different figure from the 45 million they tout all the time. and a preliminary report by c.b.o. says that they want to spend $1 trillion on this. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana rise? >> request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to honor a fallen hero who was laid to rest in

-- uninsured, paying out of pocket costs. so congresswoman hirono, you talked about think 47 million uninsured, over half of all americans last year reported that they had to forego -- forgo or postpone some health procedure or prescription drug they need sosmed we know it goes way beyond those who are uninsured into most americans and now i got a new report today, 60% of all personal bankruptcies are due to health costs and 75% of those people have insurance. so-called. that is, until they get sick. mr. ellison: may i intrument? ms. schakowsky: sure. mr. ellison: and be -- feel free to interrupt. but you made a point i want to talk about. medical bills underlie 60% of the u.s. bankruptcies. this is according to a recent study. washington, reuters, medical bills are involved in more than 60% of u.s. personal bankruptcies. an increase of 50% in just six years. now, we've had a certain kind of folks running this place over the last six years, right? the u.s. researchers reported on thursday, more than 70% of the bankrupt famili

47 million americans uninsured today. it leaves 30 million of them i will uninsured. we know that it expands one failing government program -- medicaid -- and creates another, putting washington in between you and your doctor. it reduces the ability of employers to give incentives for wellness and prevention. it doesn't increase it, it reduces it. it freezes 58 million low-income americans into a medicaid program that offers sporadic, substandard care. it's so expensive it will literally bankrupt states, and our government accountability office has told us it wastes $1 for every $10 it spends. that's $32 billion a year, three-fourths as much as we spend on all the prescription drugs for senior americans. and, according to unbiased government officials, its addition to the national debt are astronomical. the congressional budget office told us yesterday that the kennedy bill so far as it's written will add $1 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years, and that doesn't include medicaid expansion or the expansion of reimbu

i wouldn't want to wait that long with the uninsured. >> i'd just like to offer this notion.ou know, i believe that having payment reform advance quickly is really a choice. it's a choice. i mean, you know, kind of makes you think about what your responsibilities and what your job is. and clearly the elimination of clinical waste in the delivery system is -- it's almost the more benign kind of activity we could be involved in at least as payors. what you have to realize at the same time is that people die as a consequence of this wait. and people are harmed, 5 million incidents each year of clinical harm, unnecessary c-sections and c-sections are a serious operation. it's not -- you know, it's not without its implications. i mean, there's a whole list of those things. as a matter of fact, one of the books we brought is out on the table and it's called study after study. how many studies will it take? it includes over 500 examples of overuse, underuse or misuse of care all from referee clinical journals. and the folks who did that study estimate that there's $690 to $700 billi

there are 47 million uninsured americans. there are not. despite those claims, and i'm quoting from crisis of the uninsured, 2008, by the national center for policy analysis. we have 12 million illegal aliens here. we have 14 million uninsured adults and children who are qualified for programs but have not enrolled. we have 18 million people who are uninsured who live in households with annual incomes above $50,000 who could afford it. we have 18 million who are uninsured but most of them are healthy and don't need it. 85% of u.s. residence are privately insured and enrolled in a government health program. therefore, 95% of u.s. residence have health coverage or access to it and the remaining 5% live in households earning less than $50,000 annually. that's about seven million people. i'm getting so tired of hearing these misstatements made all the time. it's day after day after day that we keep getting these figures put out that are wrong. but let's go back to this bill and to what's in this bill that we find really egregious. i'm going to

only temporarily uninsured 9.1 million. that brings us to 7.8 million who are american citizens, lower income, and long-term uninsured. we have to continue to correct the misleading numbers given on this floor every day by our colleagues across the aisle. we are going to continue to do that. with that, madam speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back her time. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from virginia, mr. connolly, for five minutes. mr. connolly: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, i rise today to highlight the economic health care reform. as my friend from north carolina just indicated there are a lot of misleading statistics on health care. in fact we just heard a few from her. we have heard a great deal about the human cost of failing to reform health care. 46 million americans lack health care insurance. a child without insurance, for example, is five times more likely to die of appendicitis than a child that has access to health care insurance. the loss of any life is tr

but it only reduces the number of uninsured by 16 million people. $1 trillion for 16 million people. the remainder of the bill has not been scored. my math shows that $62,250 per person and that covers one-third of the 47 million who are said to lack insurance and it doesn't take into account the estimated 119 million insured who will be switched from private coverage that they currently have to the government program. so what will the total cost be? mr. president, there's another concern that hasn't been much discussed, but needs to be raised. it is a major concern for america's seniors. over the weekend the administration proposed trimming medicare's budget to pay nor new public plan. this is exactly the wrong thing to do and it only mean one thing, rationing and waiting lists for america's seniors. seniors want congress to strengthenedicare and make it more efficient and make it solve enter. ey want it to serve as intended, pay for the health care of seniors. they do not want the resources drained to pay for the new plan of 47 million uninsured plus the 119 million currently insur

and we know the uninsured keep growing because -- why? they can't afford the premiums or insurance companies won't take them because they're an individual or they may have had high blood pressure or something like that. they don't get the coverage that they need, and they don't -- they don't avail themselves of prevention. we have too much obesity in this country among our kids and adults, and we know prevention in and of itself could bend that cost curve. if someone really understands nutrition and diet and they get help in making sure they change their lifestyle or their kids don't get into the lifestyle of eating sugar and fattening foods all the time, all the rest, it has an enormous impact on what happens to them when they get older. diabetes -- we know this is a major problem. we can turn that around, and later the heart risk that goes with it, the stroke risk that goes with high blood pressure. these things can be controlled. we took a first step in the direction of prevention when we passed the bill on smoking which for the first

host: we have been reading there are about 46 million uninsured americans. if the government can provide coverage for these individuals, it would cost about $1.50 trillion over the next few years. does that sound right? guest: we have seen different estimates. most experts say that we will need at least $1 trillion over the next decade to cover these uninsured that you talk about. we also need to put in place some of the other elements of reform that we frequently hear mentioned. it would not just be the simple math just to cover those 46 million. it would be the cost of the package. the administration puts the figure at about $1.20 trillion over one decade. they are then quick to say that after we get in place some of these things like better technology for medical records on line, more efficiency in the system, they suggest there could be savings further down the road. host: we're getting tweets about mandating insurance when you cannot insure jobs. they say it is ridiculous. caller: thank you for talking my call. i am a small medical equipment provider in

he told doctors the existing system leaves too many uninsured and force doctors to practice defensive medicine out of fear of malpractice suits. his comments are about a half an hour. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you. i've watched the president. he goes thank you, thank you, and you sit down. [laughter] >> good morning, everyone. it's a great honor and privilege for us to welcome back home to chicago the president of the united states, barack obama. [cheers and applause] the president will be coming in in just a soaked. just a couple words to him. mr. president, we appreciate that you've taken the time out of a busy schedule to join us and we're grateful for your efforts to make the path toward health system reform as open and inclusive as possible and in particular that we have been included in those efforts. you have said that a test of the american ideal is whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history or whether we act to shape them. america's physicians want to help shape a better future for our patients and our country. [applause] we know firsthand t

one-third of the uninsured are already eligible for free medicaid. we find out once they enroll in the program they still cannot see a doctor because medicaid pays doctors so little that very few doctors will take it. so low they are rolled down to the e.r. just like they were before so what is a point*? why bother having coverage when nothing in your life changes? and four the s-chip program one-third of the uninsured children that are currently eligible were enrolled in the program within the past 12 months. they know how to get enrolled and they founded of so little value they did not bother to read and roll. -- three enroll if we don't listen to level set what they tell us it is simply not attractive they do not find value even when it is free to should be listening to them and revising our insurance program to suit the market instead of dictating to them. if we insist on dictating to them that they buy coverage that they don't value we are basically telling working people and joe the plumber that before he feed his children, before he puts gas i

have always handled the uninsured. because to put in a law that says every undocumented worker has full rights, you could do it. germany doesn't have does it. it does send a signal for people to come and i don't think there is bipartisan support for that at all. [laughter] >> so i think we would just have two leave them, deal with them and pay this money and handle it through the back door or have neighborhood health centers for them. i do believe this nation would know how to handle that. if we have everyone who is legally here covered, this would not be an unmanageable problem at all. >> great. there are also several questions concerning the incentives for your program on what was in smoking sensation. in addition there is a separate question but related, do you do with anything with children with special needs? kind of a load off to the site, but if you go for those. >> so incentives around -- >> smoking first. >> we look at smoking as a comprehensive way as possible. so we have smoking cessation programs in place t

there will be no reason at all for anyone to remain uninsured. [applause] it is because i am confident in our ability to give people the ability to get insurance at an affordable rate that i am hoping that we will have a system where every american bears responsibility for owning health insurance so long as we provide for that. the same is true for employers. every business has a responsibility to provide health insurance for its workers. small businesses who cannot afford it should receive a small exemption. small-business workers and their families will be able to seek coverage in the exchange if their employer is not able to provide for it. here is some good news. insurance companies have expressed support for covering the uninsured. they are in favor of a mandate. i welcome their willingness to engage constructively in reform debate. but what i refuse to do is create a system where insurance companies suddenly have a whole bunch of more customers on uncle sam's dime but failed to meet their responsibilities. [applause] we are not going to do

-- still leaves 50 million people uninsure. we can get access to everybody out there as long as we start spending less or start controlling the rate of growth. i think we're going to talk about all of these things tonight as the 30-somethings come to the floor, that we're going to talk about health care as health care reform as a moral imperative, a matter of consciencefish this nation, we're going to talk about it as an economic imperative and from the perspective of getting care to people who don't have it today and trying to lower the cost of care so all of us, whether or not we have it or don't have it, don't continue to pay for a system that far too often provides very expensive care without having accompanying results. so i'm glad to be here on the floor today with my good friend who i've joined here for a number of special order hour, mr. altmire, and ms. baldwin has joined us as well. i'll be glad to yield the floor to you. mr. altmire: i cannot think of a bigger issue to be dealing with right now. we have so many issue

you find out that the vast majority, 70% of the uninsured were very happy with their health care. the kaiser survey was redone in canada. when you compare the canadians who have a similar system to what obama is proposing in terms of having government insurance with private providers, you find the uninsured in the u.s. are about as happy as those under the government's system in canada. the notion of changing our health-care system is to bring up the uninsured, but if you look at canada -- if we had something similar, it would lower the level of happiness of the insured rather than doing the reverse. host: john lott, if you recently read a piece "is the stimulus working?" guest: no, it has increased unemployment and decrease the rate of growth in the economy. when you have $1 trillion your moving around, you are moving around jobs associated with it. you have many people would have spent on things they wanted, and now is spent on things the government wants. it takes time to move jobs from those sectors to other sectors. while people are searching -- you give money to alternative

and so they become de facto the uninsured. if you can't get access to health care, we don't have enough community health centers that senator sanders talked about, the 1,200 or 1,300 that we have around the nation that, is out of the question or maybe point out afrpg wrath where building a handful of 75 practicing physicians accept medicare. senator harkin championed this section of the bill for us. but to look at ways in which we may be able to accommodate a situation where someone is -- why they're a medicare or medicaid recipient if, you can't get health care, it seems to me at that point the status doesn't do you much good at all and how we might accommodate that kind of a concern, where that problem arises. i presume most of the rural areas, it may be others as well. i thank you immensely for that. >> i'd like to make a comment. in many of our villages, the health care to the individuals in those villages is provided through ihs. so we have, again, you've got another government plan. and as long as we have appropriately f

the fact is, if you look at the uninsured, it's being exaggerated to exaggerate a crisis. again, you've got a lot of folks and noncitizens, those who could sign up for government programs who haven't. you could get that number to 20 or at the most 25. to get those people insured with private policies is a fraction of the cost of the government takeover. we can win this if we engage the american people. they are not stupid. they are alarmed at what this government is doing. they are ready to stand up and speak out, if we give them a plan to get behind. we need to stop a government takeover, we need to get every american insured so every american has access to health care. thank you. [applause] >> thank you for those presentations on legislation. i'm going to call on the panelists here to talk about various aspects of reforming health care and the debate over reforming health care. if i could ask mr. motley to come up first, the communication director of the -- to discuss how the media has been covering this debate. >> i want to thank you, grover, and everybody at a.t.r. bri

they are trying to exaggerate the number of people who are uninsured. they are talking about government a government plan that can do things no government plan has ever done. freedom that works. competition that works. choices that works. we know what works in america. >> [inaudible] >> let me just expand on that very briefly. i would echo the sentiments of senator demint. clearly, the government running anything, crowds, private sector out of the market, as i mentioned the public option in health care and other kinds of things, for example, the housing market, secondary market for mortgages looks like fanny and freddy. it is a public option. it is a disaster. that's what happens when the government gets involved in these kinds of things. i want to opponent out one thing that the president said yesterday and i would again echo the senator's comments. up to this point the president simply has not been telling truth about his proposal. yesterday, though, he began to march down a road that bore a little more resemblens to the truth. when he was press on th

and yet, as i think many of you are aware, from all of this spending, more of our citizens are uninsured, the quality of our care is often lower, and we are not any healthier. in fact, citizens in some countries that spend substantially less than we do are actually living longer than we do. make no mistake, the cost of our health care is a threat to our economy. it is an escalating burden on our families and businesses. it is a ticking time bomb for the federal budget, and it is unsustainable for the united states of america. guesthost: as president obama ws out his health care agenda, working out details. one proposal would see health- care benefits taxed that are worth more than $17,000 taxed. another would put the cap at $20,000. all those details will be the discussion points for our first hour on "washington journal" today. 202-737-0001 for republicans. 202-737-0002 for democrats. 202-628-0205 for independents. email at c-span.org, and twitter us at c-span/wj. aside from the funding issues, which we will get to, could you walk us legislatively through the process that is going to ta

think we've made in the clinton years when they tried to reform health care is they focused on the uninsured, not on the insured, who want their coverage to be better and premiums lower and out of pocket expenses to be lower. if you can't persuade those people this will be good for them, they're going to be against it, especially if they're saying through one means or another they're being asked to pay to help provide coverage to other people. as i've heard said before, altruism is not a good political strategy. if middle class voters are being asked to pay a tax on the health benefits they get from their employer, if they're asking -- if they're being asked to pay a tax on a can of soda or anything, if they see it's only going to provide insurance to other people, they're not going to like it. >> let me go back to the politics of all of this. are there members of the house or senate and you say if he or she supports or opposes these people, that tells me something. who are they? >> the bellwether in the senate is olympia snowe of maine, she's closely involved in talks with the chairman of t

as you pointed out and the uninsured pays somewhere in between. what you pointed out clearly, what happens is that cost has shifted and more costs -- so your private health insurance goes up, not because what you do but what the government has done, and that is not pay the freight. if we get a public plan that will offer a lot of benefits, it won't pay the cost of services, once again causing a shift to the private health insurer. over time, i'm afraid you will end up with a single-payer system and that's not what the american people want. and that's something that will be discussed in great detail in the future. mrs. lummis: i might mention the three officers of our freshmen republican class who couldn't join us this evening. and two of our more unique members who i hope will be able to join us. our class president is steve austria of ohio. and he was -- the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentlelady has expired. mrs. lummis: may i have a couple more minutes? the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. lummis: he got jessica's law and a

, most of the people who are uninsured are uninsured because health care is too costly, so let's allow these individuals -- are plan says allow those individuals to access a larger pool of people, so small business, individuals can get into a much larger pool and insurance companies say the risk is then spread out over a lot more people and therefore you can bring down costs. so we want to have access for people to get into affordable coverage. our plan would subsidize those individuals, help them with their payments of a can have access to a basic plan. what we don't want is washington or any state government sitting there and saying you have to have the kind of plan that we say you have to have. that is where we have gone wrong in this country. we have gone wrong because the government has said this is going to be the plan, the price that we pay providers, and so we tried to address this terrible price fixing going on through the government right now. where we say the best doctor gets paid the same as the worst dr. in this country. we are trying to address what is wrong with this sys

we say we have about 46 million uninsured in america. here's how that breaks down. you've got about 6.4 million who actually have medicaid today but they're under counted in the census. we have another 4.3 million who are eligible for medicaid or schip or another government program, but they haven't signed up for it. we need to make more of an effort to get people to sign up for the programs they're eligible for. you've got about 9.3 who are noncitizens. many of those are illegal in the country and the taxpayer should not be paying for their health care. we've got about 10% who have incomes of 300% or more over poverty and they're just not buying health care. an i've had some of those work for me when i was in business. i would offer to pay -- most of oir insurance. i'd pay $500 a month and they would pay $50 and some people turn it down because they don't want to pay $50. some people don't want to buy insurance. we have some people between 18 and 34 years old who don't have insurance and 10.6 million who are uninsured. and if we look at this, at least half of these

our reforms, the amount we pay hospitals to treat uninsured people should go down as well. in reducing these payments gradually as more and more people have coverage will save us over $106 billion and we will make sure the difference goes to the hospitals that need it most. we can also save about $75 billion through more efficient purchasing of prescription drugs. and we can save it -- [applause] at about $1 billion more by rooting out waste, fraud in a broader system that no one is charging more a service that is worth or charging a dime for a service that they don't provide. let me be clear, i am committed to making these cuts in a way that protects our senior citizens. in fact, these proposals will actually extend the life of the medicare trust fund by seven years and reduced premiums for medicare beneficiaries by roughly $43 billion over the next 10 years and i am working with the aarp to uphold the commitment. now for those of you who took out a pencil and paper, all together these savings mean that we have put about $950 billion on the table. and that doesn't count so

>> guest: is clearly the healthcare system we have now with the uninsured been free riders of the rest of us getting substantial health care but sort of off the books with cost shifting from the taxpayers already paying. the question is conceptually simple to solve the problem of the uninsured -- you do that by giving them money. now the question is is that money well spent? we can argue about that and there's also a question about mandating health insurance something again and nation with a libertarian streak that we want to preserve is comfortable with. >> host: louisiana, this is shelley on the republican line for mr. will. >> caller: mr. well, i am sure the and it is pretty large insurance company. my husband is working. i am disabled and he makes less than $20 an hour. our deductible is $5,000 each. now, in order for us to get any medical help we have to pay that $5,000 ahead of time in order to get any medical treatment so the only thing they can afford a is office visits and the doctors around here, they will not accept us, as we come up with that $5,000.1. i don't know where yo

so this section says, hey, since we know the uninsured are a major source of expenses and not to mention significant source of loss of quality of life for american citizens, let's take, while we're getting affordable, accessible healthcare for all americans in the time that intervenes, let's take and proceed to reach out and do disease management for those who are uninsured that that will have both a tremendous return in terms of the quality of life of citizens and a return in terms eventually in terms of the cost of health care. that certainly appears to me to take a very common sense approach in using the dollars very smartly. 5 billion a year, yes, it's a big number, but it's .2%. it's two out of every $1,000 a year we currently spend on  health care dedicated towards managing key diseases that drive health care costs and loss of quality of life and so certainly, this piece which seems to be the significant factor in this section or in this title really comes across as let's apply common sense. the management of major diseases that drive health care costs and decrease quality of lif

about $1100 of the insurance that you pay for your family actually goes to cover the uninsured. in order to cover their costs, health care providers have to spread the cost among their other patients. and the result is that we pay that $1100 more. i'm not happy. say i'm disquieted. by those who create a fear in all americans that all americans be taxed by health care reform. just the opposite is true. those of us with health insurance are being taxed right now with the uninsured $1 is 00 -- $1100 a year just because we don't have health care reform. we want to get health care costs, if you want to get those down, you're going to need to make sure everyone has insurance. the she could thing -- second thing is to make sure everyone has health insurance. the patient advocate foundation -- [applause] has been a true leader with respect to pre-existing conditions, and so you well know that the coverage of pre-existing conditions with premiums that are based on community-wide ratings is essential. i met a woman in cleveland in march of 2007, and i'll talk about her a little later, but

climb this bill is conducive giving to improve the health care delivery when you have 47 million uninsured people when this bill is finished spending $2.3 trillion we don't have a plus is still have 30 million uninsured so philosophy seems to be disconnected from the goals which are to cover everybody in america, and everybody insurance in debt that costs of health insurance in the eye years and certainly this amendment is a time to get us back on track toward having affordable event here. >> senator white house. >> just two points. with respect to spending will we have very significant market failure with an eye on prevention sign of health care in this country would hear it if you are an entity that is insured and you want to put the other and prevention per m you have to take all the trouble and all the rest into the recruiting and you don't get the savings. if the savings will approve 15 years later wandering that person is not likely to be insured and 15 years later. and they may very well be on medicare. i think it is very important that we admit the reality that if we're born to sol

we almost always sill to consider the cost of the uninsured among us. and, this is another thing i think a lot of people americans are uninformed about. if you have health insurance today you think you are paying for your family but you are paying more than that. about $1,100 of the insurance that you pay for your family actually goes to cover the uninsured. in order to cover their costs healthcare providers have to spread the cost to provide services, have to spread the cost among their other patients. and, the result is that the pay that $1,100 more. i am not happy. i am disquiet did. buy does it create a fear in all americans that all americans will be taxed by healthcare reform. those of us with health insurance are being taxed right now. at $1,100 a year. just because we don't have healthcare reform. we want to get healthcare cost. we want to get this down and we need to make certain everyone has health insurance for ago the second thing we need to do is to make sure when people are sick they get the care they need, whether not they get sick the da

so we are not different than the people that are uninsured. my daughter is under the same insurance company, i will not name them, and her deductible is $300. i don't know if she has to come up with that first or not. host: why such a difference between yours and hers? caller: i have no idea, she works for a bigger company. guest: there is a lot we don't know, and that is a $4,700 difference in the deductible. and i would like to know what the insurance provider market is like in louisiana. it seems one thing we ought to do in this country, people in louisiana ought to be able to buy their insurance from new jersey providers. i don't know why we have this antique system. and to give people like the last caller, a bigger range of choice to pick from all the health providers in this country. host: we only 13 minutes left and no question has brought you to the subject of tarp program and financial markets and what you think of obama's announcement of regulation? guest: on his announcement, i don't know. i don't understand all the instruments that

>> i am uninsurable. the only way i could get insurance through being a registered nurse, hugo back to work at a hospital in the covered under a group. they cannot deny you that way. i have done a lot of research but as far as individual policies for the rest of my life i am uninsurable. >> because of your preexisting condition? >> because of my cancer. once you have cancer you are uninsurable forever. >> thank you. i apologize. i did not see you there but five minutes of questions. >> that will teach me to wear a light-colored suit. >> thank you mr. chairman. i want to express appreciation to the witnesses for coming today. >> none of us can condone the abuses in the system and you have pointed out some of these to be in that category. i know that it's a great deal of effort on your part to come and we appreciate your courage and we appreciate your time you devoted to it. i do not have any questions. i think your testimony speaks for itself. thank you mr. chairman and i yield back. >> that was pretty qui