Providing For Consideration Of Senate Amendments To H.R. 4872, Health Care And Education Reconciliation Act Of 2010

Floor Speech

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Madam Speaker, the time is now. On the issue of health insurance reform, just about everything has been said and just about everyone has said it.

On Sunday, this House passed the most meaningful health care bill in over 40 years. We voted to end the most abusive practices of the insurance companies, to provide coverage to millions of hardworking families, to bring down the costs of health care for families and small businesses, and to pass the biggest deficit reduction package in 25 years. That reform is now the law of the land.

Already, we hear from our friends on the other side of the aisle saying that they want to repeal that law. They want to allow insurance companies to once again discriminate against people because of preexisting conditions. They want to take away help for small businesses to purchase insurance for their workers. They want to continue to let families go bankrupt because of their medical bills. That doesn't make much sense to me, Madam Speaker.

The bill before us today provides important improvements to the law by improving affordability for working families. It strengthens provisions to attack waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid. It strengthens consumer protections, including prohibiting lifetime limits and the practice of dropping people when they get sick. It closes the doughnut hole in Medicare and extends the solvency of that vital program, and it removes the special fixes for Nebraska and Florida.

This has been a contentious debate, and we have spent a lot of time arguing about things that don't matter a whole lot to people in their everyday lives; things like reconciliation and filibuster and CBO and parliamentarians. So I'd like to close by focusing this debate back where it belongs, on the American people.

Last week, a letter to the editor appeared in the Orlando Sentinel, and I'd like to read it. And I quote:

``Three months ago, my wife became pregnant. Two months ago, she miscarried. Today, the insurance company refuses to insure her for at least 5 years because the company classifies a miscarriage as a preexisting condition. This is the only reason insurance is being denied.

``If life is to be truly valued in America, then we must all pull together to make health care available for all our citizens. This is the greatest moral issue facing our Nation today.''

Signed, Blake Harrington, Orlando.

Well, Mr. Harrington, your voice has been heard, and because of this Congress and this President, no family will have to go through what you did.

The time is now, and I urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying bill.

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