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for us to disagree about the content of a health care bill
it's another thing
to disparage people's motives
now there are a lot of motives to be disparaged on both sides of the aisle
but I will say every single member of this committee who has worked on this bill
from Chairman Waxman
to the ranking member
to everybody else has worked *** this bill
now Mr. Gingrey and his colleagues may not like the bill that this committee passed
but they cannot deny that we spent hours of hearings in this committee and we spent hours
of mark-ups considering amendments from both sides
and if you don't like the bill
that's just fine
that's not a partisan problem that's a problem of not liking the bill I understand that
but I would ask that Mr. Gingrey
and everybody else
just quit painting everybody with the same broad brush
because if we ever hope
to restore a spirit of comity
to this committee and this congress
attacks like that should not be countenanced
on either side of the aisle
I want to say one more thing
there really is a problem here that we're trying to deal with
and I don't think anybody in this room would disagree with that
as the chairman's said
there are proposed rate increases by anthem blue cross in California
in Michigan
in Connecticut
in Maine
in Oregom in Rhode island
and twenty percent in my home state of Colorado
now today on the floor
they're going to have a bill
of repealing the antitrust exemptions of the McCarran-Ferguson act
only two industries currently enjoy those exemptions
and that is the health care industry
and Major League Baseball I guess we can talk about Major League Baseball later this year
but if we want more competition it would seem to me
that this would be a good start and I would hope that my friends
on both sides of the aisle would vote for this bill
in the meantime though
to deny that there's a problem to say well you know
the insurance companies
because medical costs are going up
have to increase their premiums like this is denying the fact that my constituents
and everybody in this room's constituents
cannot buy insurance policies on the individual market
because they cannot afford to pay these rate increases
and I have people come to me
every
day and talk to me about this
some of them are related to me
and I'm sure everybody in this room
has experienced those same issues
so you know my view and
I've worked with Mr. Gingrey
I've worked with everybody in this room they know that I'm not particularly a partisan
person that I try to work on these issues in a bipartisan way so I would say on both
sides of the aisle
lets cut it out
if we don't like each others bills
let's just debate against the bills let's stop disparaging their motives and I yield back