Dan Benishek

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the important health care issues surrounding the National Cancer Prevention Day.

This day is an opportunity for health care providers, policymakers, and other community leaders to educate people on the healthy activities and behaviors that can prevent this disease. While we learn more and more every year about how to best treat cancer, more must be done to focus on preventing cases from ever occurring. Today is a reminder to patients to make it their business to learn of activities and behaviors to decrease the incidence of this disease.

As a doctor who treated patients in northern Michigan for over 30 years, I am far too familiar with the devastating impact that cancer has on countless lives every day. I hope that all of my colleagues in the House and the Senate will join me in the 114th Congress to remember the victims of cancer, to honor its survivors, and to do everything in our power to prevent future cases of this disease.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the rule and the underlying bill.

I have been a doctor in northern Michigan for 30 years, and I have always put the needs of my patients first. I believe it is time for Congress to do the same thing today.

We need to get to work on finding bipartisan and commonsense solutions that will put the patient and their doctor back in control of health care decisions and help lower the cost of health care while maintaining the quality.

We need to focus on things like allowing people to purchase health insurance across State lines, just like we can already do with car insurance, making health insurance portable so you can take it with you from job to job, another simple change that would improve access to health care. A few of these simple changes would dramatically improve the quality of care available while lowering the overall cost.

Many of the patients that I have been talking to tell me their health insurance has gone up, their deductible has gone up. This is not bringing more health care to the American people. This is bringing less health care to the American people. They have less access to care now than they have had in the past.

I hope all my colleagues today will join me in voting ``yes'' on H.R. 596 so that we can finally pass patient-centered improvements to our Nation's health care system.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mrs. Angela Danison, a third grade teacher at Chassell Elementary School, as the Michigan Teacher of the Year. On behalf of all residents of northern Michigan, I wish to congratulate Mrs. Danison on earning this honorable distinction.

Loved by her students, fellow teachers, and school administrators, Mrs. Danison's dedication to teaching children is a credit to her hard work and attention to her students. Mrs. Danison decided that she wanted to help the next generation while she was still a high school student herself. She turned this dream into a successful, lifelong teaching career.

On receiving the award, Mrs. Danison modestly stated the following:

Educators work so hard, and there is a lot of time where

you just don't feel worthy because there are a lot of other

dedicated people working around you.

Mr. Speaker, I submit to you that Mrs. Danison is certainly a worthy recipient, and I applaud her hard work and dedication.