health care republican view

mr. blunt. mr. speaker, i thank the gentlemanfor yielding. the republican congresses did send importantparts of this plan, the house, to the other body. we sent lawsuitabuse reform seven times. we sent associated health plans at least a halfdozen times. they didn't get to the floor. we continue to send theelements of this plan that save every taxpayer money and also save everyinsured american money. this is the only plan that reduces the costof insurance for every group of insured americans.one of the goals that the president set for health care reform was toreduce the cost of premiums. this is the only

plan that does that. itdoes it for individuals. it does it for small businesses. it does itfor large groups. this is a plan where we could provide accessto coverage for everyone regardless of preexisting conditions. now,we don't spend $1.3 trillion to do that. we spend about $23 billion tomake the risk pools work better and ensure access for everybody. we'refor access for everybody to coverage; we're just not for spending $1trillion to create that access.this plan lowers premiums. it prohibits insurance companies fromcanceling policies. it prohibits insurance

companies from capping thelifetime expenditures that those policies might incur.one of the reasons that there were more people uninsured at the endof the 10 years under this plan is, when our friends on the other sideinsisted on the children's health insurance plan, they put everybodythat goes on that plan in the first 5 years back into no insurance inthe last 5 years. look at the numbers. that's where those numbers goup. you could pretend that our plan puts the numbers up. we're not theone that said we're going to insure all children for 5 years and in thesecond 5 years they're back to where they

are today. check the numbers.look at what this does for premiums. look at what this does forfamilies. look at what this does for individuals. this is a plan that truly does keep what worksand fixes what's broken. the president repeatedly has said,everyone, if you like what you have, you should be able to keep it. thisis the only plan that would allow that pledge to be made and bekept. mr. speaker, i encourage my colleagues tosupport this plan. let's take these first steps that work without bankruptingthe american people. i urge support of this plan.