NEWS RELEASE

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) today (Tuesday, Nov. 3) delivered his second speech on the Senate floor. The topic was the urgent need for comprehensive health care reform.

As the Senate prepares to bring a health care reform bill to the floor, Sen. Franken delivered his first speech on the issue to define his priorities as he participates in this debate.

Sen. Franken invoked Minnesota’s leadership on this issue, citing programs at Duluth St. Mary’s Hospital and the City of New Ulm as examples of putting patients ahead of profits. He also shared the stories he’s heard from Minnesotans struggling with the cost  and availability of health insurance.

“When I travel through Minnesota,” said Sen. Franken. “There is no issue I hear more about than health care. Minnesotans stop me everywhere I go to tell me their stories. I felt it was important to bring their words and their concerns to the floor of the Senate.”

Excerpts from Sen. Franken’s floor speech are below. A full transcript as prepared for delivery is attached.



From Sen. Franken’s speech:

Right now, if you’ve been sick, insurance companies can refuse to cover you or charge you exorbitant premiums.  As an older woman told me at the State Fair this summer, “At my age, everything is pre-existing.”

Well, under our health reform bill, we will stop insurance companies from denying you coverage or charging you more because of pre-existing conditions.  That’s a really important, really good thing.  

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Right now, if you’re a woman who has had a C-section, or you’ve been a survivor of domestic violence, health insurance companies can deny you coverage.  Because having had a C-section or being the survivor of domestic violence is considered by some insurance companies to be a pre-existing condition.  Isn’t that amazing!? Is this the kind of country we want to be?  The answer depends on what we do right here, right now.

Under our health reform bill, we will end discrimination against survivors of domestic violence and stop insurance companies from charging women more for their health coverage – just because they happen to be women.  Which health insurance companies are allowed to do now.  

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That’s also what so much of the debate surrounding a public health insurance option is about.  A public option creates more choice for consumers, and more competition in the marketplace.  People who are happy with their current plan wouldn’t need to change  it.  But millions of people who didn’t have health care options before would finally have an affordable choice.   This is what the overwhelming majority of Americans want.  It’s the right thing to do.  And I would say to anyone who’s against a public option  – don’t choose it for yourself, but don’t deny other Americans that choice.

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Consider an innovative program I’ve seen in my home state: the Cardiac Care Program at Duluth St Mary’s Hospital.  They aggressively manage patients with heart disease by helping people make lifestyle changes and making sure people get the follow-up attention they need.

As a result, they reduced hospitalizations by 80 percent and saved $1 million in one year.  
But because the current system doesn’t incentivize value, Duluth St. Mary’s received no reward for these cost-savings.  In fact, a hospital that lets its cardiac care patients go unchecked until they need another procedure gets paid a lot for performing that procedure, even though their patients are less healthy.    

Under the current Medicare reimbursement system, the good care gets punished, and the less effective, more expensive care gets rewarded.  We’re not providing health care in this country; we’re providing sick care.

***
Today, Minnesota spends $1.7 billion per year on hospital costs for heart disease.  But the residents of New Ulm, Minnesota have decided that they’re not going to contribute to those statistics any more.  New Ulm is a beautiful town in the heart of the Minnesota River Valley, about 90 miles southwest of the Twin Cities.  

The town is partnering with Allina Hospitals and Clinics and has made a commitment to reduce heart attacks by 25 percent over the next ten years.  To do this, the residents of New Ulm are working to bring down their high blood pressure and cholesterol, manage their diabetes, stop smoking and start exercising.  

They’ve got community cooking classes, workplace wellness initiatives and free health screenings.  I visited New Ulm during the August break to see what these folks are doing, how determined they are to make changes in their lifestyles.  

This dedication to prevention and wellness will keep individuals in New Ulm living longer, healthier lives.  It will also save the health care system about $10 million over the next ten years.  When it comes to wellness, self-interest and the national interest are aligned.

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I’m proud of what we’re doing in Minnesota – with institutions that are delivering care efficiently and effectively.  But I recognize the truth of something one health economist said to me at a health care roundtable I held in Minneapolis. He said, “Minnesota gets an “A”…. but only because we’re grading on a curve.”  There is huge room for improvement all across America.

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This is our moment of opportunity to meet this great moral and economic challenge.  

So let us finish our work and overcome whatever legislative challenges remain.  

We want to look back on this day…  from an America in which everyone has stable, secure, affordable health care… and say: it wasn’t the easiest thing… but it was the right thing.  And together, we were able to get it done.