Fighting Insurance Companies to Help Premature Babies

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGARVEY. Mr. Speaker, in 2011, our twins, Clara and Wilson, were born 14 weeks premature. They weighed a pound and a half and a pound and fifteen ounces. We spent 99 days in the NICU before coming home.

No journey through the NICU is easy. The fear, the ups and downs, and the helplessness that comes with having your babies in someone else's hands, that is only made worse when you have to fight the insurance companies--like my wife, Chris, and I did--to get your preemies the nutritional support they need to grow out of the NICU.

We were lucky. We won our fight with the insurance company, and we made a promise that if we could, we would do everything we could to help other families, as well. That journey took us to the Kentucky State Senate where I passed the first insurance mandate in over two decades.

Now it is time to go national. That is why I have introduced the Supporting Premature Infant Nutrition Act, so every family and every preemie is given the best chance to thrive.

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