Pass Comprehensive Health Insurance Reform

Floor Speech

Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, this past Sunday, America's Health Insurance Plans, the trade group representing the largest health insurance companies in this country, released a report. The insurance companies contend that health insurance reform will raise premiums on families by as much as $4,000 in the next 10 years.

I am here to tell you this morning, Mr. Speaker, that this is simply not true. Just last week, the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group, released a report that said middle-class American families will see a savings of about $1,900 from the House's health reform bill.

Insurance companies are worried that health insurance reform is going to cut into their profits. This report is a last-ditch effort to stop this Congress from providing real relief to the millions of Americans who already are struggling with the high cost of health insurance.

Even the company hired to produce the report has issued a statement saying that they produced a skewed report that analyzes only part of the bill because that is what the insurance industry paid them to do. That company has since distanced itself from this report.

This report completely ignores critical policies that hold down the cost of health insurance, such as the grandfather policy that allows you to keep the plan you have, affordability credits, and the health insurance exchange.

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