House Proceeding 07-30-09 on Jul 30th, 2009 :: 1:30:30 to 1:35:39
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1:30:26 to 1:30:46( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: when we are trying to help all americans. could you share with us the public option, what this does for america and what opportunity it gives to people who don't have insurance. mr. mcdermott: well, mr. chairman, you raised the issue, i think, that is probably our biggest and most tough issue to

1:30:30 to 1:35:39( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Jim McDermott

1:30:47 to 1:31:07( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: deal with, and that's the question of fear. people continue to try and convince people that they have to be afraid. we had a speaker here just a moment ago, who had a beautiful picture of a little child and the fear was that the government is going to come and take over their health care. now, nothing could be further

1:31:08 to 1:31:29( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: from the truth in what we put together. if you look at america, you have 150 million people in private insurance. and then you've got 50 million people in medicare. and got 50 million in medicaid and then you got 50 million who don't have anything. now these people who have insurance today in their

1:31:30 to 1:31:52( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: employment, each month when 300 ,000 they are over in the basket with the people who don't have health insurance. so we're not talking about people who aren't trying or people who haven't been paying their taxes or haven't been working, but talking about us, the middle class, is in danger in this present system because

1:31:53 to 1:32:18( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: if your employer stops paying your insurance, you don't have anything. and you are over here trying to buy it for yourself. wouldn't matter if you are older, got a problem, problem kid, whatever, you are going to have a very tough time. now the swer to that is for the government to say here is a public option that you can buy

1:32:36 to 1:32:56( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: into at an affordable price. now, the problem with individual insurance, most people by the time they're 30 or 40, you know something's started to go wrong, whatever, and the premium for those kinds of insurance programs is $1,000 a month. many people are paying $12,000 out of pocket trying to buy an individual program. that is unreachable for most of the working class in this country.

1:32:57 to 1:33:17( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: the only solution is to have a government subsidized program that they can buy into. people say, there it is, the government is going to make all of the decisions. no, you're going to buy an insurance program that will be paid for by a government mechanism, but the delivery of the health care is going to be by private physician, private hospitals, private nurses, the whole thing is private. mr. rangel: how could the government get in between the doctor, the hospital and the

1:33:18 to 1:33:38( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: patient? what are they talking about? mr. mcdermott: well, it's part of the scare tactics. ifou watch television tonight when you go home, you will see commercials on there saying that the government is somehow going to get between -- and they did it in 1993 and 1994, it was

1:33:39 to 1:33:59( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: harry and louise and harry says, you know that mrs. clinton, she's going to take away our health care. they are doing the same thing now making it appear it's going to happen, when no such thing is being planned. there's no question that the government is not going to be between you and your docr and making a decision on what needs

1:34:00 to 1:34:20( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: to be done. mr. rangel: why would the private insurance companies be against the public option? i mean, if the congress is saying and the president wants that we have 50 million people out there with no health insurance, another 25 million with low health insurance and we

1:34:21 to 1:34:41( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: are now going to give them subsidy, we're going to give them enough money so they can walk in and get the type of health plan they want, why would the health insurance companies out there fight against campaign against, put ads against the public option? why do they do this?

1:34:42 to 1:35:02( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: . mr. mcdermott: it says to insurance companies you can't cherry pick the healthy patients you want to take care of and leave the sick ones to somebody else. what we say is, if you're an insurance company, you got to cover everybody. you got to open the doors wide and let anybody come in. insurance companies don't want that.

1:35:03 to 1:35:23( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: what they want are healthy patients who pay a premium for whom they have to pay out very little money. then they did give the rest to the stockholders. there's nothing wrong with that. that's the preenterprise system. but they are afraid if we have a government system, that is there for the people's been fit and has a 3% over-- benefit and has a 3% overhead, where an average

1:35:24 to 1:35:39( Edit History Discussion )

Jim McDermott: insurance company overhead is 14%, and they know the people are going to take the lower premium in the government plan. or they are afraid of that. so they say, we can't -- you got to put us on a level playing field.