Keith Ellison

Mr. ELLISON

Mr. ELLISON. Madam Speaker, I come here to read a statement that was recently issued by an organization here in our own Congress, our own body, known as the Tri-Caucus. The Tri-Caucus includes members of the Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus and the Asian Caucus, and is made up of about 87 Members of this body. The statement says as follows: ``Four of our colleagues, Representatives John Shadegg of Arizona, Paul Broun of Georgia, Trent Franks of Arizona and Sue Myrick of North Carolina recently requested the House Sergeant at Arms to launch an investigation of the civil rights group CAIR, or Council on American- Islamic Relations, to determine whether it was placing staff and interns in key congressional offices who they fear are acting as `spies.' ``This proposed investigation coincides with the launch of a book by Dave Gaubatz, an anti-Islamic activist and author of the book `Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America.' It features an introduction by Representative Myrick and was written after Gaubatz posed as an intern at CAIR in an effort to `infiltrate' the group. ``These charges smack of an America 60 years ago where lists of `un- American' agitators were identified. We should be affirming the importance of diversity and tolerance for all interns and staff who serve in Congress without suspicion of being identified as `spies.' ``The idea that we should investigate Muslim interns as spies is a blow to the very principle of religious freedom that our Founding Fathers cherished so dearly. If anything, we should be encouraging all Americans to engage in the U.S. political process, to take part in, and to contribute to, the great democratic experiment that is America. ``We all have experienced the sting of discrimination and we know that there will be challenges ahead. But our message should be firm that the America we believe in welcomes people of all backgrounds to the U.S. Congress. ``We ask these charges be disavowed and we issue a hearty welcome to interns and staff of all creeds, color, ethnicities and sexual orientation.'' I read this statement and will submit it for the Record and again thank the leadership of the Tri-Caucus, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and Congressman Mike Honda. I thank all of them.

Mr. ELLISON

Mr. ELLISON. Let me thank the gentleman again. The points are powerful. As you mentioned, the robust public option, I have to mention that the question emerges, Who wants a public option? Who wants it? Doctors want it. About 63 percent of all doctors say that they want a health care reform plan that includes both a public and private option. There's another 10 percent of doctors who say they want a public option only. They just want a single-payer like I want. And so that is a full two-thirds. So doctors want it; two-thirds of doctors want it. Nurses want it. They're on record. Nurses want a public option health care reform. Congress wants it. Congress wants it, and we're going to show that and not too long from now. Faith communities have come forward and said, We want a public option. The President has publicly stated he prefers a public option. He's made this very clear. He's on record. Go out and Google it. And the American people want it, too. The most recent poll showed 57 percent of Americans want a public option. It has been up there in the 60s, in the high 50s. We want a public option. We have to fight hard to get it. It won't be easy, but we're going to do it. Let me just say this: a young man tells me he wants to know measures to encourage more medical students to enter primary care, what can we do about that and health care reform; and he also had some views that he wanted to express about tort reform. But can I just ask you guys, either one of you would be interested in taking on this one. What about encouraging medical students to do primary care? Is that an important part of health care reform in your view?

Mr. ELLISON. Let me offer a few other thoughts, that is, as we are embarking on this effort, we're on the House floor tonight--Progressive Caucus comes week after week. We've been talking about health care since summertime. We're going to have to get another topic but not until we get health care reform. But I just want to take a moment to say this is an opportunity to talk about what real people are going through. I want to tell folks about Courtney. She's 31 and a mother of a toddler. In college, she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a debilitating and chronic digestive illness, serious illness. If you have any experience with Crohn's disease, you know it's tough. To control her disease, Courtney needed expensive medication, about $1,500 worth of shots four times a month. After first approving the treatment, her health care provider, United Health Care, denied Courtney coverage of the medication 12 months later saying that the shots were no longer medically necessary. Courtney and her doctor fought the insurer; and by January of 2009, the company reinstated coverage of the medication, but it was too late. Courtney's condition had already deteriorated, and she was in chronic pain with decreasing energy and quality of life. In May, she underwent major surgery, spending a week in the hospital and missing almost 2 months of work. I yield to the gentleman from Colorado.

Mr. ELLISON. Before I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois, I've got a story here. A 50-year-old woman with Morton's neuroma. Surgery was scheduled, but she was laid off and lost her insurance. Now she can barely walk, and she can't get to surgery. So I yield to the gentlelady again.

Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentlelady for yielding. I just want to point out this. Because you know, let's just face it, we all want bipartisanship. I want it. My dad's a Republican, and I love my dad, and my brother is, too, and I love him; and we debate, you know, tax policy and all of this kind of stuff. And we have a good time over dinner time whenever I can be in Detroit. But the point is when it comes down to the basic necessities of life like health care, why can't we all come together on this thing? Why can't we say that, you know what, in the richest country not only in the world but in the history of the world, that 49 million people shouldn't be left in the cold and we shouldn't have people who have employer-based health care facing doubling of premiums every 10 years. We shouldn't have people being dropped and rescinding everything else for preexisting conditions. Let us have our values and form our behavior. We have a historic opportunity right here in front of us. Because we are running out of time--the gentlelady from Texas has just joined us--we're going to give her an opportunity to share her experience on this tremendous fight that we're in right now. I yield to the gentlelady from Texas, Ms. Sheila Jackson-Lee.

Mr. ELLISON. Let me thank the gentlewoman from Texas. It was great to get her in at the end of this Progressive hour. I just want to say that I just got a message which says, I'm a health care worker who continues to see people come into the hospital who are sicker than they should be due to no insurance.

Mr. ELLISON. With that, I think the gentleman from Colorado is probably going to have the last word, but I just want to say this has been the Progressive hour. We come here week after week to talk about progressive values that make America better and stronger, and we're going to continue to do that. So I yield to the gentleman, and I think you'll probably take us out.

Mr. ELLISON. Let me thank the gentleman for yielding. And I will be yielding back to the gentleman in a moment. It's so important that we keep this conversation real, real people going through real things. I want to thank you for bringing the story of that family to the floor of the House today. They deserve to be heard. This is the progressive message, the Progressive Caucus Special Order hour, and I just want to share a few things. As the gentleman from Colorado talks about real stories, let me talk about things a little more globally. Let me say that there are highlights that you need to know about regarding whether the American people want health care or not. The majority has now backed two key and controversial provisions, both the so-called ``public option'' and the new mandate requiring all Americans to carry health insurance. Polling has demonstrated that the American people support both. Independents and senior citizens, two groups crucial to the debate, have warmed to the idea of the public insurance option. Fifty-seven percent of all Americans now favor a public insurance option. The fact is, 56 percent of all Americans favor a provision mandating that all Americans buy insurance because Americans know that if you decide to not get insurance and all the rest of us do, when you get sick, we are surely going to take care of you. So everybody has to help out and do what's right as part of this. The number rises to 71 percent, should the government provide subsidies for many low-income Americans to help them purchase insurance; 71 percent of Americans say that we should do that. I want to yield back to the gentleman. Maybe if you have some more stories, you can share them; otherwise, I can keep running down how things are going more globally. I also want to share some stories tonight, but if you've got a few ready to roll, let me hand it back to the gentleman from Colorado.

Mr. ELLISON. Let me thank the Speaker for recognizing us today. And let me also thank Mr. Jared Polis, who will be joining me today for the Progressive Caucus hour. We come together every week to talk about a progressive vision for America, a progressive vision, one that says, look, we all count, we all matter, we all need health care, we all need clean air, clean water, food free of pesticides, and now we all need health care. We need health care that works for everybody. We need to cover the uninsured. We need to stop the escalating costs for those of us who may have health care but see our premiums rise and rise and rise, doubled over the last 10 years, doubling over the next 10. So tonight, Mr. Speaker, we come together to talk about health care, to talk about the fact that we are within grasp of major health care reform. The American people not only want it, they demand it, and they demonstrated their interests in the last election, which not only landed Barack Obama in the White House, but landed us in firm majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. So let me invite you and yield to Mr. Polis of the great State of Colorado, who will share a few remarks as we jump into this subject of health care.

Mr. ELLISON. Let me thank the gentleman for yielding. The gentleman is doing a great job highlighting what Americans are going through. Americans of all descriptions--Americans in the suburbs, Americans in the city, Americans in the rural areas, Americans in the East, the West, the Midwest, the South, all over America people need health care reform. They need it if they have health care through their job; they need it if they don't have it at all. We need health care reform and we need it now. The American people have sent a resounding message, and it's up to the American Congress to act now and not play politics. Because, as the gentleman pointed out, even if you are a registered Republican, or a registered Democrat, no matter what you are registered for, the fact is that when you have an injury or an illness in your family and you have to consider what to do, given the costs that you will face or all the other implications, you don't really think about politics, you think about getting some care that you can afford. So the Congress has to be responsible and do the right thing. Let me just say this, just a few stats. These are stats I am talking about. The gentleman from Colorado has been talking about real-life stories. Let me paint a more global picture for a moment, and I will yield back. Forty-two percent of Americans have changed their health care coverage in the last 5 years. Thirty-eight percent of Americans worry they will lose their health care coverage in the next 5 years. That is a lot of people. Almost 40 percent are worried they will lose their health care coverage. That is a big deal. The fact is that from 2003 to 2007, about 36 percent of Americans either experienced gaps in their insurance or relied on government insurance for all or part of their coverage. That is a lot of people, fully a third. Fully a third of Americans in that 4-year period had gaps in their insurance or had to rely on government to keep things afloat for their family. This is a big deal. A few more stats I would like to share before I yield back to the gentleman from Colorado. According to The Urban Institute, as many as one in five uninsured Americans is uninsured because of a change in or loss of job. When you lose your job, you lose your health care insurance, unless you can keep up with COBRA. But then, of course, that is on you to pay for, and if you don't have a job, you might not be able to cover that COBRA. The fact is that people are suffering in individual homes, in apartments, on farms that they live on across America, and they are struggling in large numbers when we aggregate them and look at them statistically. They are dealing with a lot of tough things out there, and it is time for Congress to act. Let me say in 2008, the average cost of an individual plan was about $4,704. That is 2008. A family plan was $12,608. $12,000. That is an enormous amount of money in the course of a year. These numbers will double in the next 10 years, eating up a greater percentage of the family budget, chewing into expenditures that the family has to make for vital things just to be able to make it and just to be able to do well. The reality is the time for change is now. No more delay, no more scare tactics, no more stories about community schools, about sex clinics; no more stories about death panels or stories about it is only covering the uninsured because everybody else has insurance. No, we need real reform for everybody. North, west, east, south, we need it now. I yield back to the gentleman for another one of those great stories he has been sharing with us.

Mr. ELLISON. Well, let me share a quick story, and this one I don't have written down, but it actually happened to me when I had a town hall forum in my district in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and we had a packed-out room. And I had this friend who was actually helping me get boards that I was using for a presentation, and she's just a wonderful person and I've known her for many years. And she was running around getting boards, getting coffee, helping people out, just sort of getting people signed in who showed up. That's the kind of person that she is. She's just good people. Anyway, she--after it was all over, it was pretty emotional. It wasn't bad, but it was a strong and powerful time. She said--she gave me one of those looks, Mr. Speaker, where it's like she said to me, I've got to talk to you. And I said, Okay, because I could have said, you know, Don't you see all these people? I'm busy. I'll get with you. I'll call you. But the way she looked at me, I said, Okay. So I said, You guys hang on. So we went over to sort of like the corner of the room as people were filing out and she looked at me with eyes full of water. She looked like she could cry at that moment, and she said, you know, I just need to tell you this. I'm 39 years old. I have two teenage sons. My mother and my mother's sister, my aunt, both had breast cancer, and we lost my aunt last year. My sister has had a positive diagnosis, a mammogram. She's being treated now. I don't know what to do because I know that I need to go get the exam, but I also know that if I get it, they're probably going to say I have a preexisting condition. I could be dropped. This young woman, full of life, full of care and concern about everyone else, said to me, I'm too young to die. I've got teenagers. That's who she's worried about. She said, If I go get the test, they could drop me for having a preexisting condition. If don't get the test, I don't know what illness is growing within me, and I don't know what to do. I said, You know what? I'll make a personal pledge to do everything I can do to make sure that there's answers for you and your family, and that's my promise to you. And I shook hands with her that moment, and I'm down here on this floor today telling her story. And I yield to the gentlelady from Illinois.

Mr. ELLISON. How would you like to have a car like that? I yield back.

Mr. ELLISON. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. ELLISON. Let me join the gentleman from Colorado, Congressman Polis, who is doing such a great job, in offering a few stories that people are dealing with out here today. We also want to just thank the gentlelady from the great State of Illinois. Jan Schakowsky is here joining us right now, and as she gets her bags straight and everything, I am going to just share one story from a family that is really, really working and pulling for real health care reform. Let me say I will just leave the last names out just to protect folks. Kelly is 50 years old and her husband is 55. They are both retired employees. They are retired from an American company. After a 2004 horseback riding accident, Kelly was in a coma for 3 weeks. Her insurer, United Health Care, refused to cover her emergency surgery. To this day, Kelly has no memory of the incident. David called UHC from the hospital in the waiting room to report the incident, but the company denied coverage, saying David hadn't reported the incident. On top of that, the company told David the hospital was out of network. The company, the health insurance company, eventually paid about half of Kelly's medical costs, which left the family with about $200,000 in bills. $200,000 is a lot of money even if you already have a lot of money. But that is how much they had in bills. They were able to hold on to their house, but only by selling almost everything else they owned and declaring bankruptcy. Yes, bankruptcy. Kelly tried to go back to her job in the computerized drafting field, but the brain damage was too severe and she just couldn't do the work anymore. David, also retired after 20 years as a communications technician, he suffered an on-the-job injury to his spine. To this day they pay about $1,645 a month, which is a lot of money, to the bankruptcy court, and hope to be out of debt one day. So that is just one story. But their story could be dramatized by the number of people who file for bankruptcy because of medical debt. More than half of the bankruptcy filings are due to medical debt that is just crippling families. Health care reform will bring that nightmare to an end, so we look eagerly towards it. I think the gentlewoman from Illinois is ready to hand it to the folks, so let me yield to the gentlelady and thank her for coming, Jan Schakowsky. I yield to the gentlelady from Illinois.

Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentlelady for yielding. I'll next yield to the gentleman, Congressman Polis.

Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentleman for yielding. You know, Congressman Polis, you're hitting the square tonight, as is our colleague from Illinois, Congresswoman Schakowsky. Let me just take a moment to talk about myths for a moment before I hand it back to the gentlelady from Illinois. The fact is that as we stand here on the House floor tonight talking about the urgency of health care reform now, we want to also convey the idea that this is something that every American can participate in and can get involved in and can call their Representatives to talk about the importance of reform. But let me just talk myths, as I said a moment ago. There's this idea out there that the public option is some government takeover or even a government-run program. It isn't true. The fact is the public option is a program where you'd have private doctors, where you would have the doctors of your choice that you could go to. It would be a low-cost alternative. And it certainly wouldn't be some kind of a takeover thing that they're talking about. The idea that mandated health care is a new tax is also false. We're paying already for people who aren't covered. If you show up at the emergency room, we're taking care of you, so we're already paying. It's not a new tax on anybody. There are other fallacies we'll talk about, and we'll talk about more as the hour wears on, but the fact of the matter is there are myths out there that must be debunked. And the American people are smart and they know very well what's right and what's good, and that's why a full majority continue to support the public option. Let me yield to the gentlelady from Illinois.

Mr. ELLISON. We might have about 10 more seconds, but I just want to say this has been the Progressive hour. I am so honored to appear with you great Members, with you great servants of the people. I believe we're going to get a public insurance health care option with major health care reform. The time is now. Let's not back down. We yield back.

Mr. ELLISON. The gentleman from Colorado.

Mr. ELLISON. Let's kick it to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis).

Mr. ELLISON

Mr. ELLISON. If the gentlelady will yield, I just want to say, as the gentlelady is offering her observations, it's reminding me that we are at a propitious moment in history. The fact is we are at a moment of history. We are hearing the call of history. I wonder if the Speaker knows--do you know that it was Roosevelt, President Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt who first said we need universal health care? It was Truman who repeated the call. It was Nixon, even, who talked about health care reform; although, he did some things to undermine it. And it was, again, President Clinton who really worked hard to try to get health care reform. This fight is decades in the making, and we are closer than we have ever been. We have reported out five bills in the Congress, so we're almost there. We're not far away. And so it's important that the American people hang in there, that they continue to be hopeful and expect success and that it's important to understand that success breeds success. And as we pass health care, we will be able to really implement more policies that help working Americans, help the working class, the middle class Americans, help the environment, help us be a Nation that is at peace with the rest of the world, help us promote civil rights for all Americans and to leave no one out, to exclude no one, to stop policies of fear, of demonization, of exclusion. And this is something that offers very, very great promise for our Nation. As I begin to wind down, I just want to make a few other observations that I think are very, very important, because I think it's so critical that we keep our focus on where it really should be. And I am one who, you know, believes that when a group of constituents vote a Member to this auspicious body, that that person has something to offer. But I also want to say that elections have consequences. When you cast a vote and you send one party or the other to represent you, you have the right to expect that that party is going to deliver. And the Democratic Party, led by progressives, is delivering at this time. I want to also say that new policies clearly underscore that the congressional party opposite is not in touch with the American people around health care reform. A new poll from Quinnipiac just released today further illustrates how Republican leaders of Congress are out of touch with the American people. Just this morning, a leader in the party opposite said the public option has been resoundingly rejected by the American people, but look at the numbers that are coming out regarding the public option. On the wrong side of history. I recommend the rank and file come join the Democrats in passing health care reform. But as this new poll and others in recent weeks have all shown, Americans support a public insurance option in health insurance and in reform legislation. This new Quinnipiac poll I mentioned said that 61 percent of Americans support a public option. The Wall Street Journal/NBC says 73 percent of the population supports a public option. The New York Times/ CBS says 65 percent of the American public supports a public option. The Kaiser Family Foundation says 58 percent of the American people support a public option. Other findings of the Quinnipiac poll say that Americans trust President Obama more than Congressional Republicans to handle health care reform, 47-31 percent; 64 percent of those surveyed disapproved of the way congressional Republicans are doing their job, including 42 percent of Republican voters. And it's important for Republican voters to know that they have a choice and that they should vote effectiveness: the people who are getting it done, not the people who had the White House and the House of Representatives and the Senate from the year 2000 to 2006 and didn't do anything other than veto the State Children's Health Insurance Program, that's what they did; but people who, within a few months, are already within the grasp of true health care reform. The fact is, Madam Speaker, that this moment in time is important. It is as important as any other piece of historic legislation that we have seen. It's clear that the health care industry is in the final throes, final throes, and it is demonstrating a level of desperation by issuing this industry report which clearly is fundamentally flawed and clearly shows that it's dishonest and deceptive. And even the drafters, PricewaterhouseCoopers, don't want to claim it. Experts say that it's wrong. So we've heard about the death panels. False. We've heard about the school sex clinics. False. We've heard about government-run health care and accusations of socialism. False again. We've heard about immigrants taking over health care. False. And now the truth is really, really standing clear. Truth crashed to the Earth will rise up. That is what has happened. It's important for Americans to take heart, to take hope, to help support the passage of true health care reform and to understand that if we can pass health care reform, if we can win this 60-plus-year-old battle to get health care reform, then there are other battles to be fought and other mountains to be climbed and greater things that this wonderful people can produce for the American people, that America can live out its progressive value system and can say that we are going to expand opportunity for more Americans. We're not going to demonize and vilify Americans who happen to be of a particular racial group or happen to be not born in the United States or we're not going to turn them into somehow ``the other,'' we're going to continue to embrace more people as this great country has done progressively over its history. We're going to say that we're going to live in harmony with creation and not just use it as just a fungible commodity to be burned and polluting the air and destroying the seas and acidifying the ocean. Big things await the American people, but it's important that we get over this last piece of true reform to get this momentum moving. Madam Speaker, I will yield back at this time and close out the progressive message. Thank you very much.

Mr. ELLISON. The red zone.

Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentlelady for yielding, but the gentlelady should know that when you're hot, we've got to give you the ball, and you were. So thank you. Just a few points. I would like to point out that people have contacted us in the Progressive Caucus and different Members individually and let their views be known about how people feel. And I just want to point out that historically--and I think that there was a perception that the Progressive Caucus may have stood up for good values, may have fought the good fight, may have talked about inclusion of everybody, a society based on generosity, the beloved community, middle class prosperity, all of the good things, but when it came down to really sticking to the guns and saying, You know what? We're going to stand up for what we believe in, there was some doubt that that was the case. And I just want to say that the Progressive Caucus has dug in for the American people. I am proud of what the Progressive Caucus has done. I am proud of the leadership that we've seen from the Progressive Chairs, Ms. Woolsey and Mr. Grijalva, because this perception that Progressives are going to cave has been dissipating because Progressives have been holding firm. This is the Progressive message. This is a Special Order of the Progressive hour. And I just want to say that the Progressive Caucus has made it clear, the leadership has made it clear to the White House, made it clear on all fronts, that if you want our votes, you're going to have to do what's right by the American people; and that is to include the public option which doctors want, which the public wants, which everyone wants. It was not simply a simple temper tantrum. It was not saying we want it because we want it. It was because the American people needed a public option. So the Progressive Caucus stuck to it and didn't back down. I think it's important to make this point. Because the Progressive Caucus really is a caucus that's unified not by culture, not by color, not by faith, not by gender, but by values. And these values are really being reflected in the advocacy around the public option, around true health care reform. I just want to make that point clear to the folks who are tuned in tonight, Madam Speaker, because I think that it's important that folks know that there are people in Congress that are fighting for them. This is not the time for cynicism. This is not the time to say, well, you know, the industry is going to get their way again. No, they're not, because there are people here in the Congress who are hearing the call of the public interest. I'll yield to the gentlelady on that note.

Mr. ELLISON. Well, the gentlelady is in rare form tonight. I really appreciate everything you laid out. Excellent. I just want to add to your observation about the AHIP report, which is an acronym for America's Health Insurance Plans. Here is what the people who really study the stuff had to say about this particular industry report. AARP had this to say: The report is ``fundamentally dishonest'' and ``not worth the paper it's written on.'' Those are the words of John Rother of AARP, executive vice president of policy and strategy. You mentioned PricewaterhouseCoopers, which participated in preparing the report. They're running from the report. They're like, Hey, we didn't know. I don't blame them, because it is deceptive. Also, PricewaterhouseCoopers said Monday, AHIP, the report that we've been referring to, that industry report, had instructed it to focus on only some features of the bill while not taking into account other major features, such as the effect of subsidies for those buying insurance. So they didn't even tell their preparer the right information to consider. Why would they not fully disclose and be transparent about that? The report threatened that if the bill became law it would result in an increase in premiums for an average family of four by about $4,000 a year. Now, this begs the question: Who would be increasing these premiums? The very people who issued the report saying the premiums are going up. Furthermore, the report says that the cost of private health insurance would rise by 111 percent over the next decade. Who would be increasing these premiums by 111 percent? The fact is the very people who are saying the prices will increase for buying health care insurance are the ones who are in charge and who are in control of raising these prices. Reid Cherlin, the White House spokesman, said ``this is a distorted and flawed report from the insurance industry and cannot be taken seriously. This so-called analysis appears on the eve of a vote that may eat into some of the insurance industry's profits. It conveniently ignores policies that will lower costs for those who have insurance, expand coverage and provide affordable insurance options to millions of Americans.'' I'm not done quite yet. Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of White House Health Reform, says that she was surprised by the report because she had just met Mrs. Ignatti, the one who has been doing a lot of the selling of this on TV, and she vowed to work together. So that may be regarded as somewhat misleading. It's important to remember that virtually every wild, erroneous claim made regarding health care reform has been debunked as false. Let's go on back to the summer. I ask the gentlelady to take a walk back to August. You'll recall, Madam Speaker, that we were talking about death panels. This was all the rage--death panels. We were talking ``death panels.'' Yet, when you look at the bill, it's simply Medicare saying we will compensate doctors to talk about end-of-life decisions, which is a good thing and a wise decision. It's about dignity. Everyone wants that for their loved ones when they're in their final days of their lives. Also, we then heard about illegals. It's going to be all about illegals. We debunked that myth. Then we heard about a government takeover until somebody said, Wait a minute. Doesn't government already administer Medicare? They're doing pretty good. Ninety-six percent of respondents say they like Medicare, so maybe government knows a little bit about administering health care. Doesn't government already play a significant--not just administering the VA, they actually hire the doctors and provide the care. That is truly a single-payer system. That's government-run health care if there ever was, and you'd better not try to take health care away from our veterans, because they won't tolerate that. So then they had to move away from that. Then we heard that it is only about the uninsured. Wait a minute. We find out premiums have been doubling over the last 10 years and are expected to double again. So now the insured, the people who have employer-based health care, say, wait a minute. We need reform, too. We have to have reform, and we cannot tolerate being rejected and excluded for preexisting conditions and tolerate discrimination, which will affect young women the most. So Americans have been peeling back the onion of falsehood time and time again. As the gentlelady from Maryland pointed out, the public option still is standing stronger than ever. It's almost as if, the more they attack it, the stronger it gets. I just wanted to point out: Who wants the public option? Well, doctors want a public option. Nurses want a public option. The majority of Congress wants a public option. Faith communities want a public option. President Obama prefers a public option, and the American people do. If you look at what doctors want, most doctors support the public option. Sixty-three percent of doctors say both the public and private options are what they would prefer. Sixty-three percent reported that they would like both public and private options. That's what the House bill is calling for. You have another 10 percent who said just a public option. That's all we want. So, if you add the 63 and the 10, you end up with a full three-quarters of doctors who say they would like the public option. So I guess my question to the gentlelady from Maryland is: Why does the public option keep coming up strong despite these relentless attacks--the $4 million this year and the $7 million last year? What explains this? I yield to the gentlelady from Maryland.

Mr. ELLISON. Nine.

Mr. ELLISON. Would the gentlelady yield? What was that number again?