Senate Proceeding on Jun 18th, 2009 :: 1:01:50 to 1:09:20
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1:01:47 to 1:02:07( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: to go ahead and get mrs. mrs. tennenbaum confirmed as quickly as possible. madam president, i yield the floor. a the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. remains on our side in morning business? the presiding officer: 18 and

1:01:50 to 1:09:20( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Johnny Isakson

1:02:08 to 1:02:29( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: a half mr. isakson: i'd ask that that time be divided between myself and senator mccain. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. isakson: thank you, madam president. to the senator from florida who left quickly -- and i'm sorry he left -- i want to associate myself with the first part of his remarks with regard to the tourism bill. he is a floridian. florid and it is the number-one business in florida, but you got

1:02:30 to 1:02:51( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: to go through georgia to get there. so i have to chime in and say that he is exactly right. given the economic conditions our country is experiencing right now, tourism is one business that we can be a catalyst for that will pay back both in terms of revenues and tax dollars, but more importantly, in so i just want to associate

1:02:52 to 1:03:12( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: myself with his support of the tourism bill and that portion of his speech. m, for just a minute, i want to talk about the opening statements on health care. it is pervasive in its coverage and the country as to the future of health care in america.

1:03:13 to 1:03:37( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: i rise as one, not to be a critic, but to lay out the challenge that this legislation portends for all of us. and maybe to raise some points that thoughtfully considered before we make a serious mistake on the dpundzing side, the expense side, and -- on the funding side, the expense side, and the borrowing side a

1:03:39 to 1:04:00( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: few weeks og at a speech, a said, i only got a high school education. can you explain to me what trillion is? if you had to do it right now, could you explain what it is? i couldn't. i decided to go home and figure out some easy way to demonstrate how much $1 trillion s i said, well, maybe it would be good to determine how many seconds it

1:04:01 to 1:04:24( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: takes for a trillion second to go bivment i did the math on the calculator, thought i made a mistake and did it again. had it checked. madam president 317,097,11 months, and 2 days for a trillion seconds to go by. that's almost incomprehensible but does give you some idea of

1:04:25 to 1:04:46( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: th issues we have to consideconsiderate about. the c.b.o. has scored the parts of the health bill that have actually been drafted, which is about two-thirds of it. at a potential cost of $1 trillion over ten years. obviously we're going to have to pay for that. there have been some discussions in the last few days of suggested pay-fors.

1:04:47 to 1:05:11( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: i want to suggest that we have to be very careful not to-to-use words as pay-fors that only move money around. president obama said to the medical association on monday that one of the pay-fors by having public coverage for everybody would be there would be no indigent patients, therefore everybody would be getting paid for their services and that would save us $11

1:05:12 to 1:05:33( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: billion a year in di treatment payments gotten through medicaid bec take a disproportionate shaver indigent pat there's only one flaw. yes, we might not appropriate $11 million. t we're not doing it becse

1:05:34 to 1:05:54( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: we're raising micaid coverage to 150% of poverty. so the cost remains the same. it just moves from a cost to pay charity hospitals for disproportionate share to a cost of providing the coverage through medicaid or through the private plan. and the unintended consequence of removing disproportionate

1:05:55 to 1:06:15( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: share would be taking the economic model through which charity hospitals are financed and turning it upside down. because in my city of atlanta, where grade did i hospital exists -- and grade did i has gone through a reformation. we've created a foundation and done everything we can to save the hospital. bu

1:06:16 to 1:06:39( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: the payment for disproportionate share because it takes a disproportionate number of indigent patients. but if for-profit hospitals have indigent patients that now have coverage and they're closer than grade did i is the patient will go to the private hospital.

1:06:40 to 1:07:00( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: so the "dish" payment goes down and so we have to be careful about the unintended consequences. secondly, on medicaid, you know, i am a product of the georgia state legislature and i know the distinguished preside senate said, presiding officer, is a product of the new york assembly. and we all dealt with medicaid. medicaid is a program where the

1:07:01 to 1:07:22( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: federal government pays about two-thirds of the states pay about a third of it and the states run it. well, when we got into this business of expanding medicaid under this legislation to 150% of poverty, which is thought back to my days in the legislature about how much money that really was that my state then was going to have to come

1:07:23 to 1:07:43( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: up with under the one-third match. madam president, in georgia in 1968, the first year that we had medicaid, the state's share of medicaid for the year was $7.791 million. in 2008, the state's share was

1:07:44 to 1:08:04( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: $2.468 billion. which would go up by peds 1 billion if we raise the -- which would go up raise the eligibility by 50%. that's only putting off the inevitable for the states which

1:08:05 to 1:08:26( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: will be a percent of their budget they cannot afford. medicaid in georgia in 40 years has gone from 1% of our budget to 12% of our budget, with this proposal it would go to 18%. and we must rember the economic stimulus bill, a significant amount of that money was medicaid money to go to the states to fund what is already an existing shortfall.

1:08:27 to 1:08:47( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: so i come to the floor say this: i am for every goal of the preamble of the health care bill that's been introduced in "help." i want to make policies more affordable, coverage more pervasive, aess easier, and i want to lower cost. but as the chairman dodd said yesterday in the committee, history won't look favorably on you if you don't do something because it i

1:08:48 to 1:09:08( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: he's right. but neither will history look favorably phon you if you do something ease -- favorably upon you if you do something easy. this is hard work and we can't take the easy way out to pile debt on the people of the united states america. hopefully we'll consider these ramifications discussed and others and move forward with a health proposal

1:09:09 to 1:09:21( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: that we can pay for and accomplishes its goals, whether an easy answer that puts news a desperate situation as a country and ultimately takes us to an economic demise in this country. so, madam president, i appreciate the time and i yield