Affordable Health Care For America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYBURN. I thank Chairman Waxman for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, today I'm thinking about a woman from South Carolina. A few months ago during the August break, I participated in a talk radio program on health reform, and a gentleman called in to tell me that his health care was great, and he didn't want me or the government to mess with it.

I explained to him that our plan was about choice, bringing down costs, and providing quality care.

But the next caller got right to the heart of the matter. She said, Of course he likes his health insurance; it is probably because he has never tried to use it. She explained that she had recently been diagnosed with cancer and thought she liked her coverage until she tried to use it. She said that when she began to get treatment she was dropped from her insurance coverage.

Mr. Speaker, that is why we are here today, to respond to that caller and others who have asked, What's in this plan for me?

When this bill is signed into law, 15 reforms will immediately occur. Among them are: beginning to close the doughnut hole by increasing Medicare part D coverage by $500; increased funding for community health centers, doubling the number of patients seen over 5 years; extending coverage for young people to stay on their parents' insurance plans up to their 27th birthday; access for the uninsured with preexisting conditions to a temporary insurance plan that we are calling a high-risk pool; from the date of enactment, and until the exchange is available, insurers will be prohibited from dropping your coverage if you get sick; from the date of enactment, COBRA health insurance coverage will be extended until the exchange is available and displaced workers can have affordable coverage; and from the date of enactment, we will hinder price-gouging with sunshine requirements on insurance companies to disclose insurance rate increases.

Now, after 2013, when the mandate for coverage and exchange are in place, you will see three additional protections: no more copays for routine checkups and preventive care; no lifetime or yearly caps on what insurance companies will cover; there will be yearly caps on your out-of-pocket expenses; and, as has been said so often, there will be an end to discrimination because of preexisting conditions like diabetes, heart disease or cancer.

Mr. Speaker, these are just 11 reasons to support this bill. My colleagues will share with you many others.

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