Providing Adequate Health Care

PROVIDING ADEQUATE HEALTH CARE -- (House of Representatives - July 28, 2009)

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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about one of the most important reasons to pass Obama's health care plan, and that is the current discrimination that Americans with preexisting conditions face.

Through no fault of their own, perhaps because of a genetic disability passed through by their parents or a childhood disease or a disease later in life, many Americans are uninsurable or only insurable at a very high rate.

That is fundamentally unfair. America is a fair country. We should only have to be responsible for actions that we undertake. Most Americans who suffer from preexisting conditions suffer those because of no fault of their own. It is not fair to make them or their employers pay more simply because of a preexisting condition. This could be you. This could be your son or daughter. This could be any of us who suffer from preexisting conditions.

What the Obama health care reform plan does is it pools the risk together and prevents discrimination against those who, through no fault of their own, have a preexisting health care condition and ensures that they, too, have access to adequate health care.

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