October 06, 2005
New Report Gives Americans Facts About Health Care System
Seeks Every Citizen's Input To Create "Roadmap To Reform" For Congress Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) spoke today at the unveiling of "The Health Report to the American People," a new publication designed to give the American people basic facts about our country's health care system and kickstart a national health reform effort. Wyden, along with U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) wrote the 2003 "Health Care That Works for All Americans" law that requires publication of the report, a period of unprecedented public input on how the health care system should be changed, and guarantees Congressional hearings on the people's recommendations as compiled by a Citizens' Health Care Working Group. For more information on the report, upcoming town hall meetings and opportunities for online citizen response today, please visit www.citizenshealthcare.gov. Senator Wyden's remarks as prepared for the Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building are as follows:*************************************************************U.S. Senator Ron WydenOctober 6, 2005The room we're standing in right now has been the scene of some of the most famous Senate hearings ever.It's not well known that the hearings into the sinking of the Titanic were held in this room in 1912, but it would be wise to remember that today.Let me put it bluntly: Congress could well be back in this room holding hearings on how America's health care system sank right out from under the typical American family if something dramatic isn't done to save them.This country needs to figure out, how can it be that with so many wonderful doctors, hospitals, nurses and other providers, America ranks 29th in terms of years of life with good health?This country needs to figure out, how can it be that the United States of America has an infant mortality rate that ties us with Malaysia and in some demographics puts us behind states in India?This country needs to figure out, how can it be that the richest country on earth spent $1.8 trillion last year on health care - more than $6,000 for every man, woman and child in America - and we still didn't have everyone under the tent for decent quality affordable health care?Because I don't want to sit in this room in a few years to consider the titanic failure of health care for the vast majority of Americans, I am standing with this Working Group today.The Citizens' Health Care Working Group already has brought some "firsts" to the task of rescuing American health care.For example, while our country has been debating health care reform since the days of Harry Truman, no one has ever begun by telling people what the Health Report to the American People tells them.The report being unveiled today is the first-ever effort to give the American people the facts about the health care system they deal with every day. It's the first time anyone's laid out in plain English, for wide release, where America's health dollars are going and what those dollars really do and don't buy in terms of coverage and effective health care.Americans are primed for this information. The recent hurricanes demonstrate the urgency of today's effort. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, folks saw a lot of systems that didn't work. They understood how heavy the burden of health care is not only on individual families, but on states that were already scrimping and scraping to provide Medicaid before Katrina victims came onto the rolls.Individuals, communities and businesses are already being forced to make tough choices within America's broken system. Now they have a chance to make those tough choices together and create a system that works for all. This unprecedented report starts by arming the public with the facts, and then we're all going to walk through the choices together and, with cooperation, get something done. The law I wrote with Senator Hatch didn't design another talkfest where folks yak in circles and nothing gets done. If it was, I wouldn't be here today. I'm not interested in more yammer and empty rhetoric about health, and neither are the American people.The town hall meetings and online input that will take place in the next few months will be the American people's first chance to really bring their own priorities and their own prescription for improving health to the government's attention, instead of the other way around.I decided with Senator Hatch that the citizens are closer to the health care system than the lobbyists in Washington, DC. We believe if we truly want health care that works for all Americans, we need all of America to participate - not just Washington insiders, the very people who have blocked health reform for six decades. Then, by design, Congress will owe the people some answers.The law that Senator Hatch and I wrote requires, for the first time, political accountability to the Americans who participate. Never before has Congress been required to listen to the American people after they've weighed in on their preferences on health care. Top down has been the status quo around here. Now, once the people have taken this unprecedented opportunity to be heard, our law requires all the committees in Congress that have authority over health care to hold hearings on what the citizens have decided. I believe that this can lead to a citizens' roadmap for Congressional legislation that has enough grassroots support to overcome the special interest feeding frenzy and make it to the President's desk - and that will be a first as well.What's different about this effort in addition to the report is that the Working Group is seeking to break new ground. This is the first time health reform will address the system as a whole instead of piecemeal. What Senator Hatch and I said from the beginning, and what the Working Group has really taken to heart, is that everything has to be on the table. This can't be just about the uninsured. It can't be just about catastrophic care. It can't be just about Medicare or Medicaid. Health care is like an ecosystem - pollution in one corner affects the rest. So from drive-through maternity care to preventive care to end-of-life care, it's all up for discussion. That's why the Report is so important. People need to be prepared to answer some tough questions, and they need the facts under their belt to do it.As they'll make clear to you today, the Working Group will be asking everybody. That's a first too - this is the first time we've had the opportunity for such widespread participation, thanks to the Internet. This is no phone survey where you get a call during dinner with a bunch of pre-ordered questions designed to get predetermined answers. At their home or workplace, 163 million Americans have access to the report and an opportunity to offer their opinions night or day, through the website. Those who don't can call and offer their opinions over the phone, which makes this process accessible to even more folks. The key is participation, and the Internet affords us the ability to get that participation as never before.Twenty years ago this might have been done in drafty halls across the country - and we are going to have town hall meetings, but they are one component of a much more far-reaching plan. Today, on the sixth of October, 163 million Americans can sit at their own homes or their desks and participate.In closing: here's an opportunity to produce real results - real grassroots support for legislation, real political accountability to act on the people's wishes, and real reform in our health care system. The more people who hear about this, the more people that get on board, the better the final result will be. Today this Working Group is throwing open the doors of health care to the American people - inviting them in to fix the system. It's time to create health care that works for all Americans - and today's the day it truly begins.
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