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[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 6, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S83]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KERRY:
  S. 79. A bill to amend the Social Security Act to establish a Federal 
Reinsurance Program for Catastrophic Health Care Costs; to the 
Committee on Finance.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, my home State of Massachusetts is setting 
an example for the rest of the country by taking bold steps to provide 
quality health coverage for everyone. Now it is time for Washington to 
do the same by bringing meaningful, affordable healthcare to the 
uninsured, in Massachusetts and across America.
  In Massachusetts the cost of health care is a major obstacle to the 
overall goal of universal coverage. The problem of the uninsured can't 
be solved unless the issue of skyrocketing health costs to families and 
businesses is also tackled. And fully reforming the healthcare system 
requires that the Federal Government begin shouldering some of the 
burden to help alleviate costs.
  Healthcare costs are highly concentrated in this country. The very 
few who suffer from catastrophic illness or injury drive costs up for 
everyone. One percent of patients account for 25 percent of healthcare 
costs, and 20 percent of patients account for 80 percent of costs. To 
make healthcare more affordable, we must find a better way to share the 
immense burden of insuring the chronically ill and seriously injured.
  Part of the reason that businesses and health plans today fail to 
cover their workers is an aversion to risk. Patients who are 
catastrophically ill or injured often face the tragic combination of 
failing health and financial peril. But there's a way to combat these 
costs.
  Congress should make employers and healthcare plans an offer they 
can't refuse. It's called ``reinsurance.'' Reinsurance provides a 
backstop for the high costs of healthcare. The Federal Government will 
reimburse a percentage of the highest cost cases if employers agree to 
offer comprehensive health insurance benefits to all full time 
employees, including preventative care and health promotion benefits 
that are proven to make care affordable. This will result in lower 
costs and lower premiums for both employers and employees. If the 
Federal Government can help small and large businesses bear the burden 
of cost in the most expensive cases, we'll dramatically improve the 
access to health care for everyone.
  That is why I am introducing the Healthy Businesses, Healthy Workers 
Reinsurance Act, to make the federal government a partner in helping 
businesses with the heavy financial burden of those catastrophic cases. 
Specifically, this legislation is designed to assist those catastrophic 
cases that cost more than $50,000 in a single year. Healthy Businesses, 
Healthy Workers will protect business owners from skyrocketing 
premiums, and provide more working families affordable, quality 
healthcare. With reinsurance, health insurance premiums for all of us 
will go down, by up to approximately 10 percent under this plan. This 
plan does have a cost associated with it, but the benefits will 
outweigh the costs. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year 
on inefficient and wasteful health expenditures. We need to make sure 
that these funds are being spent wisely to ensure that we can lower 
health care costs and improve coverage.
  I believe that we must act now to address the health care crisis in 
America, taking steps that create real change and address both access 
to care and the cost of care. There is a growing bipartisan consensus 
that the Federal Government has a responsibility to help the 
catastrophically ill. As we take the next steps toward alleviating our 
nation's health care crisis, a commonsense partnership between 
employers, families, and the government to share the costs of the 
sickest among us will lay the groundwork for achieving our ultimate 
goal: meaningful health care coverage for every single American. I ask 
all my colleagues to support this legislation.
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