January 6, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E23 

Nation’s families and businesses alike. Since 

1999, family premiums for employer-sponsored insurance have increased 119 percent, 

nearly 4 times the increase in wages (34 percent) and inflation (29 percent) during that 

same time. About one in three Americans reported a serious problem ‘‘paying for health 

care and health insurance’’ in October 2008. 

Half of all bankruptcies can be traced to medical bills. 49 percent of people in foreclosure 

named medical problems as a cause of their 

financial difficulties. 

According to the New America Foundation, 

our economy lost as much as $207 billion last 

year because of the poor health and shorter 

lifespans of those without health insurance. 

General Motors spends more on health care 

than on steel. While I’m not suggesting we import the Canadian health system, it is worth 

highlighting that if we paid the same amount 

for health care as Canada, G.M. would have 

accumulated an additional $22 billion in profits 

over the last decade. Inadequate health coverage is crippling our economy. 

The President-elect declared that health 

care reform should happen ‘‘this year’’. Chairman RANGEL and I are ready to work with him, 

Chairmen WAXMAN and MILLER, our leadership 

and the Senate to achieve this goal. 

AmeriCare is a template of a way that we 

can achieve universal health care. AmeriCare 

is built on a framework that is consistent with 

many of the principles that President-elect 

Obama identified during the campaign. 

Like President-elect Obama’s plan, it includes a public plan option. It uses Medicare’s 

existing administrative infrastructure, but improves upon Medicare’s benefits to address 

some of the current gaps in coverage. A public plan option is the only way to ensure that 

beneficiaries have access to an option that 

promotes people over profit. As Medicare itself 

includes both public and private plan options, 

one could make the case that AmeriCare has 

an exchange, like Obama’s plan as well. 

Like President-elect Obama’s plan, it maintains employer sponsored coverage. People 

can keep the coverage they have if they like 

it. We need to build on what works, not create 

an entirely new system. 

Like President-elect Obama’s plan, it includes a pay-or-play component to ensure that 

the private sector continues to play a role in 

providing health care. 

AmeriCare meets the Health Care for America Now! reform principles. It was endorsed 

last year by the coalition, as well as provider 

groups, beneficiary advocates, and unions including: American Academy of Pediatrics, 

American Nurses Association, Center for 

Medicare Advocacy, Consumers Union, Families USA, National Association of Community 

Health Centers, National Association of Public 

Hospitals, SEIU, Universal Health Care Action 

Network. 

AmeriCare is a practical proposal to ensure 

that everyone has affordable health coverage 

in our country. It builds on what works in today’s health care system to provide simple, affordable, reliable health insurance. I look forward to working with President-elect Obama 

as he assumes the office of the President to 

achieve a universal health care program that 

meets the principles that he will outline to 

Congress. 

I will submit for the RECORD a short summary of AmeriCare. More can be found on my 

website at http://www.house.gov/stark. 

AMERICARE HEALTH CARE ACT OF 2009 

Overview: The AmeriCare Health Care Act 

(‘‘AmeriCare’’) is a practical proposal to ensure that everyone has health coverage in 

our country. It builds on what works in today’s health care system to provide simple, 

affordable, reliable health insurance. People 

would be covered under the new AmeriCare 

system, modeled on Medicare, or they would 

continue to obtain health coverage through 

their employer. 

Using the administrative efficiencies within Medicare and building on the existing coverage people receive through their jobs 

today, we can create an affordable, efficient, 

and stable universal health care system in 

America—and guarantee access to medical 

innovation and the world’s most advanced 

providers and facilities. 

Structure and Administration: Creates a 

new title in the Social Security Act, 

‘‘AmeriCare.’’ Provides universal health care 

for all U.S. residents, with additional coverage for children (under 24), pregnant 

women, and individuals with limited incomes (< 300 percent FPL). Sets out standards for supplemental plans with a focus on 

consumer protection. Requires the Secretary 

to negotiate discounts for prescription drugs. 

Benefits: Adults receive Medicare Part A 

and B benefits; preventive services, substance abuse treatment, mental health parity; and prescription drug coverage equivalent to the BC/BS Standard Option in 2008. 

Children receive comprehensive benefits and 

Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, 

and Treatment (EPSDT) coverage with no 

cost-sharing. 

Cost Sharing: There is a $350 deductible for 

individuals/ $500 for families (indexed over 

time), and 20 percent coinsurance. Total 

spending (premiums, deductibles, and co-insurance) is capped at out-of-pocket maximum of $2,500 individual/$4,000 family (indexed over time), or 5 percent of income for 

beneficiaries with income between 200 percent–300 percent FPL and 7.5 percent of income for beneficiaries with income between 

300 percent–500 percent FPL. There is no cost 

sharing for children, pregnant women and 

low-income individuals (below 200 percent 

FPL). Sliding scale subsidies are in place for 

cost-sharing for individuals between 200 percent and 300 percent FPL. 

Financing: At April 15 tax filing each year, 

individuals either demonstrate equivalent 

coverage through their employer or pay the 

AmeriCare premium based on cost of coverage and class of enrollment (individual, 

couple, unmarried individual with children, 

or married couple with children). Employers 

may either pay 80 percent of the AmeriCare 

premium or provide equivalent benefits 

through a group health plan (the contribution for part-time workers is pro-rated). 

AmeriCare does not affect contracts or collective bargaining agreements in effect as of 

the date of enactment, and employers may 

choose to provide additional benefits. Employers with fewer than 100 employees have 

until January 1, 2014 to comply (employees 

of small businesses would still only pay 20 

percent of the premium). 

TRIBUTE TO TERRY TOEDTEMEIER 

HON. DAVID WU 

OF OREGON

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 

Mr. WU. Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember a man who dedicated his life to the 

art of photography and the history of Oregon, 

Terry Toedtemeier. We sadly lost Terry on December 10, 2008. Terry served as the curator 

of the Portland Art Museum’s photography collection and was widely known as one of the 

Pacific Northwest’s finest landscape photographers. Terry and a colleague had recently 

published a book, Wild Beauty: Photographs 

of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867–1957, and 

Terry had finished curating a show of the 

same name at the Portland Art Museum. 

Terry Toedtemeier was a passionate explorer of the Gorge and one of its greatest interpreters. He was a trained geologist, photographer, photo historian, curator, and educator, 

who realized this stretch of the Columbia River 

is one of the natural wonders of America. 

Terry studied geology at Oregon State University. He had a strong desire to understand the 

forces of the earth that created the world 

around us, and it was being outdoors and experiencing Oregon’s geological features that 

inspired him. As a student, one day Terry 

spied through fog-obscured sunlight a freshly 

plowed field and in the middle, growing serenely, a tree that he could only describe later 

as ‘‘scrubby’’ and ‘‘a wreck.’’ Terry took a 

photo and when he printed the image he said 

that he understood ‘‘this creative possibility 

with the camera.’’ 

A colleague of his noted that Terry had immersed himself in the photographic history of 

the Northwest over the course of his career. 

Terry’s curated show at the Portland Art Museum, Wild Beauty, revealed his technical expertise in describing geologic and geographic 

changes, as well as a photographic history of 

the Gorge over 90 years, ending in 1957 when 

the construction of The Dalles Dam submerged one of the last great Native American 

fishing grounds at Celilo Falls. 

From the images taken by Carleton Watkins 

in 1867 when Americans were first establishing industry in the West, to those by Al 

Monner as the federal government was constructing hydroelectric dams throughout the 

area, the Columbia River Gorge has served as 

a place of meditation, wonder, and discovery 

for artists. It has been Terry’s astute effort that 

has brought these artists’ visions together to 

teach us about the vastness, power, and 

beauty of the Columbia River Gorge. 

Madam Speaker, I commemorate the life of 

Terry Toedtemeier and share with you his 

commitment to the preservation of our knowledge and history in the Pacific Northwest and 

the Columbia River Gorge. I believe in his 

work reflects why we must act to protect and 

preserve the crown jewel of Oregon’s natural 

heritage. 


rfrederick on PROD1PC67 with REMARKS