Senate Proceeding on Nov 16th, 2009 :: 4:55:45 to 5:07:25
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4:55:45 to 5:07:25( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Sherrod Brown

4:55:46 to 4:56:06( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: quorum call: commercial. mr. brown: madam president? the presiding offir: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank y madam president. i ask unanimous consent the hous call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: and ask unanimous consent that -- to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. mr. brown: i come to the floor pretty oft

4:56:07 to 4:56:29( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: months as we continue the debate on health care to share letters with people from steubenville to waseon to ashtabula to ton, people who write mere that are concerned with the direction of our health care system. what's interesting, what i find in almost every one of these letters is -- that have come

4:56:30 to 4:56:50( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: from ohioans and people i mostly don't kw although i hear these stories in person -- last night i heard them in cleveland. a few days ago i heard it in columbus. i heard them all over the state. is that so many people, a year ago if you'd asked these same people who wrote the letters, are you happy with kwroeur health care plan, they'd say "yes."

4:56:51 to 4:57:11( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: but something happened in the last year. they maybe a preexisting condition and got their insurance got really sick and their insurance was canceled because it cost too much money, or they owned a small business with maybe 20 employees and one their employees got especially

4:57:12 to 4:57:32( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: sick and the spiked and they could no longer afford the insurance for any of their 20 employees. the other thing tt and over, madam president, is that a lot of people who have lost their insuranceho send me letters, they're my age or a little bit older. i turned 57 last week. these come from, let

4:57:33 to 4:57:54( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: people that are particularly in their early 60's. what they say is they just are so - to turn 65 so they'll have insurance. think of that, i can't wait until i'm a littleit oer so i can have my insurance and i then can have

4:57:55 to 4:58:18( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: peace of mind and put that anxiety behind me. we have a health care system now that people little older medicare and have the stability of the medicare system. something's wrong with that. those are the things i hear over and over. i need to be 65 to get medicare because i know it is and stable. or i used to be satisfied with my insurance and happened. let me share some letters.

4:58:19 to 4:58:39( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: karen from mahoney valley, the area around poland, that area. she said i'm a high sool art teacher. of my stu a health issue. i suggested she go but said she can't because her family doesn't have health insurance. i suggested she at least go see the school nurse, but i know she needs to have regular visits to

4:58:40 to 4:59:00( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: a physician. i'm appalled at the lack of concern shown by many members of congress and by the special interests trying to health reform pross. she writes, karen writes please make the changes for the people who elected you and reap the benefit of seeing positive change in our you know what might happen to this student?

4:59:01 to 4:59:21( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: of course i don't know the student. i don't know the student's health problem. what people would say about this is, well, if she gets sick, if her student gets sick, she can just go to the emergency room and get health care. first of all, that's not the best way to deliver health care. but forget deliver it, what hap student? this student maybe has asthma. maybe.

4:59:22 to 4:59:43( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: my wife almost died of asthma when she was a teenager but had really good health insurance because her dad carried a union card and worked for the local union company in maintenance and made sure was able to make sure she got the care she needed. this woman, say she had asthma, she would only get coverage in the emergency room if she had an asthma attack.

4:59:44 to 5:00:05( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: she wouldn't get help to manage her -. for her asthma and so many others who have insurance. so what we're doing is jeopardizing this girl's life and her health and we're also costing the system more money because instead of managing the asthma, she has to go where it's acute care.

5:00:06 to 5:00:27( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: the emergency room doesn't mean everybody has health care coverage in this country. it means they'll take care of you if y're really, really sick and have some acute attack of they won't take care -- kaish of you to manage your diabetes or asthma, the emergency room will take care of you if you have a heart what kind of health care is that.

5:00:28 to 5:00:48( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: it's not as humane as be and it jeopardizes peopl lives. margaret from chairmont -- claremont county by botavia, that part of ohio. my oral cancer was diagnosed in 2005, it came back in december of 2007, february 2009, we've

5:00:49 to 5:01:09( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: been lucky and found it early each time which allowed me to avoid radiation therapyo far. i worry all the time that eventually i won't be able to work and i lose my health insurance. my husband retires in 20011. i'm 61. i have to wait before i can enroll in medicare.

5:01:10 to 5:01:30( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: i don't understand how opponents of reform can be unsympathetic to citizens who have preexting conditions. we need medicare now. margaret says i'm away from medicare. my husband can retire and get medicare, i'm still four years away.

5:01:31 to 5:01:52( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: what's my snoption do we spend everything that we spend whatever their net worth is to qualify for medicaid, which is available to many income people, or do i just hope -- cancer doesn't act-up again before i turn 65. but, again, she needs preventive maintenance of care, maybe not

5:01:53 to 5:02:14( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: -- maybe her cancer, but some medication to help her to make this time. margaret could benefit -- as karen's family could benefit from a public option. in claremont county in have 85% of the insurance

5:02:15 to 5:02:36( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: business in that area, those -- those, i believe, four county -- four county, hamilton, claremont, butler -- and i -- hamilton, claremont, butler, and warren county. two comnies have 85% of the business. that means that quality of insurance is less and the cost of the insurance is more. that always happens when there's no real that's why it's so important

5:02:37 to 5:02:57( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: that they have the public option so that margaret can get insurance, she can choose the public option or aetna or wellpoint or any of the companies that she wants or the public the public option will keep the price down because more competition means better quality. more competion means keeping the price down. as the senator -- e presiding

5:02:58 to 5:03:19( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: officer, the senator of oregon said in a meeting i was just in, one of the things that the public option does is we tell -- tell people that you need to get insurance in this country. there's a number of people that i'm sureave come up to him in eugene or portland or places in oregon as they've

5:03:20 to 5:03:41( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: in mansfield, galon and crestfield. have said i don't want my money going to a private option i want it to go to a public option, a medicare-like plan, so i that cho insurance dollars to the place i want them to go. a third letter -- and i'll -- i'll share two more with my colleagues.

5:03:42 to 5:04:02( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: bill from cuyahoga cleveland area. he writes my spouse was considerationed -- diagnosed with breast cancer. she worked for a commercial airline for 36 years, but was asked to tak early retirement or face the possibility of reduced retirement benefits, she took the retirement and found a

5:04:03 to 5:04:23( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: part-time job with the local is benefits. we have been together for more than 10 years and during that time she didn't have so much as a cold. but, boom, the next thing you know she's sick with breast cancer that weaken her. she would go off to work after her treatment because she needed

5:04:24 to 5:04:44( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: to keep her health benefits, she quit her job, she's on c now, which we hopes will last until she turn 56 and is eligible for medicare. my for 36 years. when she was with the airlines. while she was healthy but now she's older and needs insurance, her benefits are cut or nonexistent.

5:04:45 to 5:05:06( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: bill's story is what we hear over and over. it's in the same letter. bill's story is my wife paid for insurance all of these years, we thought we had good insurance. we did have good insurance until we needed i sick, then the insurance wasn't so good and bil story with his wife, she looks

5:05:07 to 5:05:27( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: forward to bei 6 so that she has health care coverage. what kind of health care system does that? the insurance is need it, they cut you off if it's tooxpensive or if you have a preexisting condition or cut your son or daughter off because of a

5:05:28 to 5:05:48( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: who says, i can't wait until i'm 65 when i have ca have the government plan that means stability and predictability. mr. president, we c clearly need to help people get through this, the kind of anxiety that so many families have because they j don't get sick before they turn 65, or they hope they don't get

5:05:49 to 5:06:10( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: too expensively sick because they're going to lose their insurance because the insurance company will cut them off. we need the public option -- we need insurance reform. we need to outlaw no more preexisting conditions. no more on gender, disability or race or age, we've done that in the bill. no more disqualifications

5:06:11 to 5:06:31( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: because you -- the lifetimer or an annual cap because your health care costs you spent too many days in the spital, went to too many expensive doctors, had too much treatment. it's so expensive the insurance company will cancel your insurance. we'll say no more those kind of insurance companies gaming the business. we know whenhe senator from oregon was on the floor with me

5:06:32 to 5:06:53( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: a couple of weeks ago, talked about ts, insurance companies are making more and more profits, 400% increase from seven years ago, insurance companies, c.e.o. salaries, aetna's c.e.o. makes $24 million a year. the 10 top average $10 million in pay for the c.e.o. how are they doing that?

5:06:54 to 5:07:15( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: they're doing that by cutting off people like bill's wife. they're doing that by using preexisting condition and keeping people from getting insurance. that's why the public option for bill and his wife would mean they'd be in a situation where public option, the insurance reforms, the public option would keep -- would help to ensure -- enforce the insurance reforms so

5:07:16 to 5:07:26( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: that aetna wellpoint and these companies couldn't game the system they have, so they can pay the huge salaries and have the increasingly huge profits and the public option