Affordable Health Care For America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, 3 days ago I had the great honor of joining this august body, which for more than a century has debated health care.

Two hours ago a dear friend Chic Dambach and his adult son came to my office. At the age of 2, Kai's kidneys failed. Chic and his family had health insurance. Their insurance company refused to cover transplants. Chic and his wife, Kay, were faced with a choice: enormous personal debt or their son's life. They chose life.

A decade of battles with their insurance company together with crushing debt, Kai, when he becomes 23, will be uninsurable. He has a preexisting condition.

H.R. 3962 is America's opportunity to end this despicable situation. The bill has strong comprehensive insurance reform and creates the penultimate enforcement mechanism: the public option. Americans should not be at risk any longer. The bill deserves our support.

Mr. Speaker, three days ago I had the great honor of joining this august body that for 220 years has debated the momentous issues of the day, wars, industrial and labor policy, civil rights, environmental protection, and social security, and for more than a century--health care policy.

Today we are faced with a choice. Do we vote no health insurance reform and continue the current situation that has placed in jeopardy every person in America who is not yet 65 years of age? Or do we vote today to provide every American with a comprehensive, affordable, and available health care policy?

One example of why we must vote yes on H.R. 3962 and end the health care crisis that millions of Americans face each year is Chic Dambach and his son Kai.

Some of you may know Chic as the former President of the Returned Peace Corps Association. Chic and his family had a comprehensive family health insurance policy. At the age of two, Kai's kidneys failed.

Their insurance company refused coverage for kidney transplants. Chic and his wife Kay were faced with a choice, more than a hundred thousand dollars of personal debt or their son's life. They chose life.

Today, Kai is a freshman at the University of Maryland. More than a decade of battles with their insurance company has ensued together with a crushing burden of debt. When Kai becomes 23 he will be uninsurable. Like millions of other American's he has a preexisting condition.

H.R. 3962 is America's opportunity to end this despicable situation. The bill has strong comprehensive insurance reform and creates the penultimate enforcement mechanism--The public option--that in its fullness would allow all of us to walk away from the clutches of the profit before people private insurance companies whose first operating commandment is ``Pay as little as late as possible.''

This must end. Americans should not be at risk any longer. H.R. 3962 is the solution. It deserves our support.

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