OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013

Floor Speech

Date: Nov. 15, 2013
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Health Insurance

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, since this Republican majority took office, we have taken vote after vote after vote intended to disrupt, delay, defund, or outright repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Last month, this House majority shut down the Federal Government. They threatened a catastrophic debt default in order to gut this law.

Now, when the Affordable Care Act is going into effect, are we supposed to believe that this Republican majority is putting forth a good-faith effort to improve the bill? It doesn't wash, and it defies imagination.

This bill is designed to weaken the health care law to roll back the clock on the reforms we worked so hard to pass. It takes us back to the unacceptable state of our health care system before we passed the Affordable Care Act.

Remember, the health care system was failing people. Every year health care costs skyrocketed, small businesses priced out of the market, employers asking for higher contributions in co-pays and dropping coverage, people with preexisting conditions being socked or left on their own. Every year more people had no insurance whatsoever.

This bill allows insurers to continue to provide substandard health insurance plans to families, even to new customers. Americans on these plans will be denied access to preventive services with no out-of-pocket costs. It takes us back to a time when people were not guaranteed coverage for maternity, pediatric care, hospitalizations, where families faced annual caps, lifetime caps. It takes us back to a health insurance market that rejects people with preexisting conditions.

Once again, this Republican majority is trying to put insurers back in the driver's seat, let them control the health of American families. This majority was never interested in reforming our broken health care system. They have never been interested in the Affordable Care Act, and now they are not interested as well. This is a cynical, transparently political bill. Oppose it.

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