Congressional Record—House H11572
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H11572 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE October 21, 2009 It’s really talk about $120 million in enough to qualify for Medicaid, which covered exclude, rescind, or purge anyone whose deceptive ads to fight health care. the surgery retroactively. health care costs they might actually have to They are spending over $1 million a day These stories are not unique. In 2007, there cover. on ads to defeat H.R. 3200. were 25 million underinsured Americans, up Well, that’s not how health care works. I hope that the Members of the House 60% from 2003. Underinsurance often causes The House reform bill, H.R. 3200, would re- of Representatives will remember peo- debilitating medical debts, and a recent study store the proper balance to the health care ple like Thomas here or like Tatum or found that 62% of all personal bankruptcies system. It would end rescission, preexisting these families who play by the rules, are medically related. condition exclusions, and lifetime caps. It work hard, pay their premiums, and, In recent years, insurance companies have would place limits on out-of-pocket costs and when they get sick, are abandoned by been asking Americans to pay more, but are create a required basic set of benefits so that the health insurance industry. That’s providing them with less. In the last decade, people know what they are signing up for, and why we need health insurance reform the average cost of a family’s premium has so that they will get what they need. And it in this country. That’s just one of the risen 131%, but average wages have risen would prohibit the problems small businesses many reasons. less than a third of that. At the same time, in- face in terms of discrimination based on gen- It’s one of the reasons why we hope surance companies are imposing more limits der and group size, and in terms of lack of to have a bill on the floor later this on what their policies will provide. Some poli- choice. month or early in November so we can cies, like the Nulls’ or the Wilkes’, have caps At Thursday’s hearing on underinsurance, vote on this. that limit the amount the insurer will pay in a Mr. Null told the committee that to him, the We have to bring back some sanity to lifetime, or a year. Other policies have expen- biggest tragedy that came out of his daughter this health insurance industry. We sive co-insurance provisions, like Ms. How- Tatum’s liver failure was not his family’s result- have got to end their abusive practices, ard’s, that overwhelm the policyholder. ing financial hardship. It was that, under the and we must make sure that all Ameri- And caps and coinsurance are just some of current system, Tatum’s preexisting condition cans and their businesses are secure, the problems people face in the private insur- limits her future. He said, ‘‘When she asks me not only in their health security but ance market. what she should be when she grows up, I also financially secure as they try to This past summer, our committee held a can’t tell her the same thing that you probably do the right thing, play by the rules, hearing on the health insurance companies’ tell your kids. I can’t tell her she can be any- work hard, pay their insurance. Let’s practice of rescission. This is when insurance thing she wants, and you guys need to fix that make sure there is coverage for them companies attempt to cut costs by cancelling for me.’’ when they get sick. policies after people get sick and make claims. On Thursday, I looked at Tatum and told Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, the premise of The companies go back through their policy- her that if we enact health care reform legisla- health insurance is that if you buy a policy, holders’ application forms, looking for any tiny tion, neither her future, nor anyone else’s in and then get sick, your insurance company mistake or omission for an excuse to cancel America, will be hindered by an inability to get will protect you. the policy and deny coverage. health insurance. Please join me in that prom- But what we heard at the committee’s hear- Rescission is unconscionable because it ise. ing last week on underinsurance—and what cuts policyholders loose when they need cov- f we have been hearing throughout our inves- erage the most. But even worse, when we had tigations of the private insurance industry—is insurance company executives sworn in be- GENERAL LEAVE that that is not how the system works. In re- fore our committee, we asked them if they Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, I ask ality, we have learned, private health insur- would commit to ending the practice of rescis- unanimous consent that all Members ance companies have become expert at col- sion except in cases where the policyholder have 5 legislative days in which to re- lecting premiums and then, denying claims. had intentionally hidden a health condition. vise and extend their remarks and in- Our witnesses on Thursday were normal The executives refused to make that promise. clude extraneous material on my spe- people who had done the right thing and had I think that speaks to the insurance compa- cial order. bought health insurance. But each of them nies’ motivations. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there found that, when they needed coverage the Just yesterday, we held a hearing on the objection to the request of the gen- most, their policies came up short. small group insurance market. We found that tleman from Michigan. We heard from Nathan Wilkes, who had an insurance companies sometimes raise small There was no objection. insurance plan through his employer. Then, businesses’ premiums an astronomical f his son, Thomas, was born with hemophilia, amount—up to 250% in a year—based on fac- REPUBLICAN ALTERNATIVES TO an expensive and life-long blood-clotting dis- tors like the ages and genders of employees, OBAMACARE order. Thomas is six years old now, and if a single employee had made a large claim thankfully, his condition is well-managed. But, the previous year, or if the business had too The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under he has already exceeded the million-dollar life- few employees. the Speaker’s announced policy of Jan- time caps of two separate insurance plans, What is so disappointing in our examination uary 6, 2009, the gentleman from Geor- and the Wilkes’ current plan has a $6 million of these issues is that, even where small busi- gia (Mr. BROUN) is recognized for 60 cap that Thomas is sure to meet soon. As Mr. ness owners want to do the right thing for their minutes. Wilkes put it, the insurance companies have employees, and provide them with access to Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, turned the hourglass over on Thomas again— quality health care via insurance, industry it is a pleasure to come and talk about this time with just a little more sand. practices and policies today punish their de- health care tonight. I expect other phy- Catherine Howard testified about how, as a sire to provide proper benefits for their em- sicians to come and discuss this ex- healthy 29-year-old, she bought a basic policy ployees and their families. This is wrong, and tremely important issue to the Amer- that she thought would protect her if she fell this is why we need health insurance reform in ican people. while snowboarding. When it was discovered America. We keep hearing over and over again that she had breast cancer, Ms. Howard found Indeed, what all of this shows is that the pri- from our Democratic colleagues that out that her plan asked her to pay 30% of the vate insurance system is broken. The way in- Republicans have no alternatives. Well, cost of treatments, like radiation, that she surance is supposed to work is for the insur- we have got a bunch of binders here. needed to survive. Though she feels lucky to ance companies to spread risk among their Each one of those contains a Repub- be alive, Ms. Howard’s coinsurance payments policyholders so that, while most people will lican alternative to ObamaCare that put her into deep debt that she continues to remain healthy and cost little, the company the Democrats are proposing. pay off to this day. can pay when other policyholders get sick. As the staff brings these forward, David Null bought what he thought was a But schemes like rescission, preexisting every single folder is a Republican catastrophic coverage plan. But when catas- condition exclusions, lifetime caps, and the plan. Every single folder is a different trophe struck—and his daughter, Tatum, need- way companies are gaming the small group Republican plan. Every single folder of- ed a liver transplant—he found out that the market show that private insurers are not in- fers suggestions and solutions to the plan had a lifetime cap of $25,000. The Nulls terested in spreading their risk. Rather, they cost of health care for all Americans. were saved from crushing medical bills only want no risk at all. The companies are happy Almost every one of those folders, if after Mr. Null’s small company turned away to insure healthy people who will pay pre- not every one of them, we could get bi- business so that the family’s income was low miums and make few claims, but they want to partisan agreement on, if any of these VerDate Nov 24 2008 01:30 Oct 22, 2009 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00054 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\K21OC7.096 H21OCPT1 smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HOUSE October 21, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H11573 bills would ever see the light of the has not paid for the first aspirin to care for me.