Women And Health Care

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, our long-overdue health insurance reforms will put women's health on an equal footing at long last. It will transform the lives of American women of all ages for the better.

Younger women will be able to remain on their parents' policy as dependents until they reach 26 years of age. That means affordable care for everything from regular checkups to unexpected illness or injury. It means if they decide to become pregnant, finally there will be coverage for maternity and well-child care.

Working women shopping for their family's coverage will be glad to know that the reforms will require insurance companies to have unprecedented transparency about what really is and is not covered. The reforms will cap out-of-pocket expenses and give Americans sliding-scale affordability credits to help them buy coverage.

Older women on Medicare will benefit from closing the doughnut hole and ensuring important preventive services like mammograms and cancer screenings are free of charge.

And finally, all women will benefit from an end to the discriminatory practices of gender rating and from making prevention and wellness a critical part of health care at last. For themselves, their spouses, their friends, daughters, and mothers, I urge my colleagues to pass this legislation.

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