Senate Proceeding 07-28-09 on Jul 28th, 2009 :: 1:20:55 to 1:34:10
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1:20:52 to 1:21:14( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: shower in an army base would have their lives at risk. mr. presi floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. to take just a few minutes this afternoon to discuss the recent developments on the health care issue and particularly with senator

1:20:55 to 1:34:10( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Ron Wyden

1:21:15 to 1:21:36( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: friend and colleague and the efforts to make sure that health reform is bipartisan. i would also note that senator baucus a e finance committee on which i serve are just putting in killer hours now in an effort to come up with a bipartisan approach in the health care area.

1:21:37 to 1:21:59( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: and i wanted to take just a few minutes and talk about a particularly important the health care debate, and that is what the middle class is looking for in terms of health reform. i think when you talk about middle-class folks, most of whom

1:22:00 to 1:22:25( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: have coverage coverage -- they are looking for a way to be wealthier. they are looking for a way to be healthier. they want they leave their health care coverage or their coverage leaves them, portable coverage. and perhaps as much as anything,

1:22:26 to 1:22:48( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: mr. president middle they understand -- and this is a matter that i have talked about often -- that if you're going to come up with a health care reform effort that's going to save money, create incentives for people to

1:22:49 to 1:23:10( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: stay healthy and services to offer that's portable, you've got to give everybody the chance to choose those kinds of health care plans and those services. now, the president, to his credit, has made the matter of

1:23:11 to 1:23:34( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: guaranteeing choice. president, president obama has said is one of his bedrock principles for health reform. the president has said every american must have the freedom to choose their plan doctor and he clearly is on

1:23:35 to 1:23:57( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: target when choice being one of the best ways to down, reward people for staying healthy, and getting coverage that's portable. for congress has the capacity to

1:23:58 to 1:24:18( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: choose a plan that's more affordable for them. when the signup the beginning of each year, you get a menu of various health services. you want to choose the one that is the most economical for you, the one that rewards you for staying healthy, all members of

1:24:19 to 1:24:41( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: congress have the opportunity to do it. so the president is absolutely right in saying that choice ought to be a bedrockrinciple of health reform. and, clearly, that's what middle-class folks in colorado and utah and oregon are looking for. they want to make sure they have choices and, frankly, they'd

1:24:42 to 1:25:04( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: like to have as many choices as we have here in the united states congress. so ame choices, but for too many of citizens under the health reform bills that are now being considered here in the congress, lots of people won't have the

1:25:26 to 1:25:48( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: exchanges where people could get these kinds of choices and these exchanges are to be the reform legislation. now as congress is going to these insurance exchanges designed to help people shop around for theirnsurance, but

1:25:49 to 1:26:11( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: then limit who can shop at these exchanges. if you have coverage, for example, that somebody in the government says you ought to consider affordable, you ought to like it, you aren't going to be able to go to this farmers market, this exchange, and shop for a plan that's better for you and your family.

1:26:12 to 1:26:33( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: you aren't going to be able to enjoy more choices. you aren't going to be in a position to get more for your health care you aren't going to be able to get a portable package because only some people will be allowed at these exchanges. now, mr. president and clear, i think everybody -- and

1:26:34 to 1:26:55( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: colleagues, i think everybody ought to be able to shop for eir health insurance like members of congress do today and like our esteemed colleague, senator kennedy, called for in a very fine essay just last week. and i've been able, working with colleagues, to come up with a way to do that. and iall it the free choice

1:26:56 to 1:27:17( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: prop our free choice workers who like what they have keep it. but it also let's workers who don't like what choose other plans. now, half of those fortunate enough to have employer-sponsored insurance today don't have any choice of

1:27:18 to 1:27:38( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: health plans at all. just think about that. most of americans don't have capacity to choose like we can here in the unitedtates congress. and, unfortunately, under the health reform plans that are being considered in the

1:27:39 to 1:28:01( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: congress, we're still going to leave millions and millions of americans without a health services and health plans. now, under our proposal, our free-choice proposal, everybody who has employer coverage is going to have choices.

1:28:02 to 1:28:22( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: they can certainly keep what they have, but if they choose to, they can take what their employer now paysor their insurance, go to the farmers market and buy a plan that's a better fit their family. it also gives employers more

1:28:23 to 1:28:43( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: options if the going to sell them an plan, the employe could then take the whole group to the exchange and get a discount. and so what i and the distinguished senator from utah have been talking about lo these many months is something that

1:28:44 to 1:29:05( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: would give more clout to workers an would give more clout to employers on day one. would give employers and workers the get-go. largely through concept, just about as american as we have, which is choice and

1:29:28 to 1:29:48( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: discount is one that in my view is going to give employers bargaining pow insurers that they don't have today. mr. president, this is a proposal that we can do without making any adjustments to the tax code. a independent analysis that

1:29:49 to 1:30:09( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: senato days ago indicates that we could save consumers $360 billion over the next decade. those are sav those are care system. and it's an approach that is

1:30:10 to 1:30:31( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: very much in line with what the president has identified as a bedrock principle for health reform. i've talked about the value of choice and particularly august in colorado and north dakota and around the country being able to tell all middle-class people that they're going to have more choices.

1:30:32 to 1:30:57( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: but what i think is particularly useful about this free choice proposal, it is one of the pathways to getting more affordable coverage. because once you have these choices, just like members of congress, if at the beginning of the year the senator from colorado doesn't like one particular plan, he can go to

1:31:01 to 1:31:21( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: one of the other plans that is better fit for him and his family. we're talking about using the same principles that have worked for members of congress for many years. i believe folks, as they try to sort through this debate, are going to be looking a

1:31:22 to 1:31:42( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: fairly straightforward principles. they're going to want to be wealthier, they're going to want to be healthier, they're going to want coverage that they can take with them from job to mr. president, we've had 7 million people laid off since this recession. 3 million of them don't have health care. what happens to them is they go into a program called cobra.

1:31:43 to 1:32:03( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: cobra is the only federal progra snake. and i think given how hard it is for people to afford that, you know, coverage and all the bureaucracy for employees and employers, we can do better by both workers and employers. let's make coverage seamlessly portable.

1:32:04 to 1:32:25( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: an includ that in our free choice proposal. day one, more choices for the middle class. on day one, the opportunity to save money. if you don't like the first plan, choose one of the other plans. on day one, coverage that's portable.

1:32:48 to 1:33:09( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: three it actually bends the cost curve downward without exploding the debt and the deficit. i hop my colleagues on the finance committee and here in the senate and on the committee -- i had a very constructive conversation about the fair choice proposal with chairman dodd recently. i hope colleagues will see that

1:33:10 to 1:33:30( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: this is an approach that can win bipartisan support. rom principle in -- a bedrock principle in president obama's agenda. and for the middle class that is asking now how this is going to work, this is a path that's going to let middle-class people be wealthier, healthier,

1:33:31 to 1:33:52( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: protecd when they lose their job or if they want to get another opportunity, and i'm very hopeful that this bedrock principle of president obama's agenda for fixing heal can win colleagues on both sides of the aisle because i think tt is the pathway to responding to the

1:33:53 to 1:34:11( Edit History Discussion )

Ron Wyden: question asking all over this country today: how we're going to make this work for them. and i hope that colleagues who have additional questions about it