Senate Proceeding on Nov 5th, 2009 :: 10:15:15 to 10:26:10
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10:15:07 to 10:15:27( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: quorum call: mr. brown: mr. president? the presiding officer: the mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: not

10:15:15 to 10:26:10( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Sherrod Brown

10:15:28 to 10:15:49( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: mr. president? i ask unanimous consent to withdraw that request. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: mr. president, with respect to move to reconsider and table the vote on adoption of the amendment. the presidin objection. mr. brown: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: thank you, mr. president. i rise again this evening as i

10:15:50 to 10:16:10( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: have many days in the last couple of months to share with you letters -- share with my colleagues letters from people in ohio, from lima and springfield and people who are sharing their story with us, and i think that as i h

10:16:11 to 10:16:31( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: for three years, it occurs perhaps more often than not that we -- you know, we talk about policy up here, but we just simply don't pay enough attention to individual problems and individual people, and that's why a lot of people think that their elected officials are out of touch with them, and these letters really do share with us sort of where we are and

10:16:32 to 10:16:54( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: what we ought to do and how we should respond as we move forward on the health iss. now, this letter comes from ann from montgomery county. she writes -- premiums have nearly tripled in the last six years, going from from $500 per month to $1,500 per month. at the same time, none of our benefits have increased.

10:16:55 to 10:17:15( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: since we bought our policy, we paid the insurance company company $68,000 for the insurance. anthem's total spending for my family's claims since we bought the insurance, $4,064.24. and then she writes -- "anthem's profit from my family, $64,000.

10:17:16 to 10:17:37( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: anthem's c.e.o.'s total compensation last year alone alone, $10 million." ann from montgomery county, dayton, huber heights, centreville, oakwood, that area of my state, southwest ohio. obviously, ann is angry and frustrated with what she has seen. she is paying so much for

10:17:38 to 10:17:59( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: insurance, she has got so little benefits, and she sees anthem's c.e.o. taking down $10 million a year. mr. president, what we see here repeatedly is the insurance industry, the average c.e.o.'s salary insurance companies, health insurance companies, the average c.e.o.'s salary is $11 million a year.

10:18:00 to 10:18:20( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: insurance company profits have gone up more than 400% in the last several years, and the way they make this money is this kind of business model where they hire a huge beaucracy, a bunch of bureaucrats to keep people from buying insurance if they're sick. they discriminate based on gender, they discriminate based on

10:18:21 to 10:18:41( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: on disability. in some cases, they use the excuse of pre-existing condition to keep people from buying policies, including, believe it or not, women who have been victims of domestic violence. some insurance companies consider that a preexisting condition f. their husband hit

10:18:42 to 10:19:02( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: them once, they might him them again and that would be a cost to the insurance companies. they can't get insurance. sometimes a woman who's had a c-section is a preexisting condition, can't get insurance because if a woman had a c-section, she might get pregnant again and need another one. that's too expensive. they don't give her insurance.

10:19:03 to 10:19:23( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: that's how anthem and these other profits. on the o more bureaucrats to - your claims when you -- when you file for claims when you've been sick. and these claims oftentimes, the insurance company records see that about 30% of all claims are

10:19:24 to 10:19:47( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: rejected sometimes they're appealed and they then pay thee claims, but then you -- as the patient or you as the family of the sick husband, wife, child, whatever, have to spend your time on the phone fighting with the insurance company while at the same time you're tryin husband or your wife or your child or your mother. and what kind mr. president? we allow these insurance

10:19:48 to 10:20:08( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: companies to do that. mr. president, what i've found in these letters in the last three months that i've been doing this on the senate floor are a couple of things. one is that were pretty happy with their insurance if you'd asked them a year or two earlier but then they got sick and they found out their insurance wasn't what they thought it was.

10:20:09 to 10:20:29( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: that build. and the other thing i've found, a lot of people in their late 50's, early 60's have -- have lost their insurance, they've lost has been canceled at their employers, their employer's not been able to afford it, it's been a small business, whatever, they don't have insurance and they're 58 years old or 62 years old and they just hope they can

10:20:30 to 10:20:50( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: hang on until they're medicare eligible, until they can get a stable public plan, like the public option, a stable, plan like medicare. let me just share two more letters, mr. president john from richland county, that's my home county, i grew up in mansfield, city shelby, lexington, butler, that area north central ohio.

10:20:51 to 10:21:11( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: "health care reform will not be achieved unless a public option is in place to compete with private carriers. i retired after 45 years recently as a family physician. if government-run medicine is so bad, why should insurance companies object to the competition? costs and treatment are already controlled by the insurance providers whose only motive is profit allowing the insurance industry

10:21:12 to 10:21:32( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: to dictate terms of cost and treatment is simply not -- simply not worked and won't work. please fight for a position. " john, a physician of 45 years, he says something interesting, because, you know, i hear opponents to the public optn, a lot of conservatives say, you know, government c anything messes everything up. and then they say that but then,

10:21:33 to 10:21:53( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: mr. president, they say if we have a public option, they'll be so efficient, they'll run private insurance out of business. so which is it? is the public -- the government can't do anything right or the government's so efficient it's going to run private insurance out of business? the point is, insurance executives -- average c.e.o. salary $11 million -- insurance

10:21:54 to 10:22:14( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: company profits up 400% in the last seven or eight years, insurance companies don't want the public option because do you know what will happen? their profits won't be quite as high, they won't go up 400%, their salaries won't be as high because they've got competion from the public option, and they know that they're in a th -- that life's not going to be quite as good for i

10:22:15 to 10:22:36( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: companies and insurance executives. that's why, mr. president, that -- that's why they don't like the public option. that's why they fight the public option. and public option will work. it will mean more choice for consumers. southwest ohio, 85 -- two companies have 85% of the insurance policies in southwest ohio. public option will provide

10:22:37 to 10:22:57( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: competition, will stabilize prices, will mean prices will come down, will mean quality will be better. because if you have two companies controlling 85% of the batavia or lebanon or hamilton or littleton or fairfield or any of those counties, you have two companies controlling 85% of the business, you know, mr. president, the quality's lower and the prices are too high.

10:22:58 to 10:23:18( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: let me conclude and then senator casey's here, whoas more than any single senator, has spoken out strongly and fought for successful to make sure that this health care bill w our nation's from when weassed the bill, s-chip, back months and months ago, to the health care bill now that my colleague from

10:23:19 to 10:23:39( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: pennsylvania has -- has done remarkable work on that. but let me read one more letter and then turn to him. cheryl from can cayoga county in northern ohio writes, "my daughter's paying costly health care out of her own pocket to treat depression. despite getting a new job, she was told her condition is preexisting and wouldn't be covered. after struggling for a year to

10:23:40 to 10:24:00( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: find a good job, she doesn't need this preexisting condition to shadow i, too, have a preexisting condition of breast can please stop insurance companies from denying insurance due to preexisting conditions." mr. president, this -- this letter, again, shows that this insurance bill, this insurance reform, our health care bill makes so much sense.

10:24:01 to 10:24:22( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: too many americans, i'm hearing from hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them from gallipolis and polmoroy and in van wert and troy and prevo county and all over that too many people are denied coverage

10:24:23 to 10:24:44( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: because of a preexisting condition. what -- why does it make sentence that people who are sick or maybe are gng to get sick, why they can't get insurance? why does they would have to pay so much, they simply can't qualify or they literally can't get it no matter how much they pay so, mr. predent, i -- one of the -- one of the important things about our bill is that --

10:24:45 to 10:25:06( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: that it will spout line -- it will outlaw, there will be no more exclusions for preexisting condition. nobody will lose -- nobody will keep be -- nobody will be prohibited from getting insurance because of a preexisting condition, including women who have been victims of domestic violence,omen who have had c-sections, men who have had number o number two, nobody will be

10:25:07 to 10:25:27( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: denied care because of discrimination, because of their disability, because of their age or their gender or their geography number three, nobody will have their insurance policy rescinded -- that's what the insurance companies say when they take away your insurance -- nobody will be denied care -- will be -- will have their policy rescinded because they got sick and it was a really

10:25:28 to 10:25:48( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: expensive illness they and the insurance companies want to cut them off. and in addition to these changes in the law we are going to do with insurance reform, the public option will make sure that these rules are enforced, that people simply can't game the system. the insurance companies won't be able to game the system the they mr. president, it makes so much

10:25:49 to 10:26:11( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: sense to pass this bill. it's going to mean people who have insurance and are happy with it are still going to get these -- keep these insurance and have these consumer protections. it means small business will get help with other things to -- to ensure their employees -- to insure their employees and it will mean that those without insurance can get insurance and have the option of going to medical mutual or cigna or bl cross or