Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, even though insurance companies make money not providing health care, the so-called reform bill gives so much power and money to the insurance companies that we are giving far too much for the few benefits which the bill may confer.
The insurance companies get at least another 26 million new customers. They will receive at least another $50 billion in new revenue. They will be able to raise premiums 25 percent even though in each of the last four consecutive years the industry raised premiums by double digits.
As long as there are for-profit insurance companies, there will be no effective way to protect consumers against ever-escalating premiums, copays, and deductibles unless the insurance companies know that people at the State level will always have a choice to reject the insurance companies and establish a single payer, not-for-profit system.
That is why the Kucinich amendment should be put back in the health bill, not just to protect the rights of States to pursue single payer, but to protect the rights of consumers to be free of the economic death grip of the insurance companies. END
