Date: 2011-01-19
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I yield myself 4 minutes. Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 2. the Republican Patients Rights Repeal Act. The question is just simply fundamental here. whether or not people will be able to have control over their health care needs and their health insurance needs. or whether or not we will go back to the chaos of the previous system that is dictated by the insurance companies where people are thrown off of policies willy nilly. where people are not reimbursed for costs willy nilly. given excuses. paperwork back and forth. where young people are thrown off their parents policy when they graduate from high school. and whether or not they will have insurance or not. or whether people will have the freedom to make the choices. to have insurance that will cover them. that will get rid of the preexisting conditions that eliminate their coverage. that will get rid of the lifetime caps so that those people who contract cancer or other chronic diseases find out they have run out of insurance at the exact moment they need it. No longer will that be the case under the current law. Now. the choice is to repeal that law and to make it more difficult for small businesses to provide insurance. Since the enactment of the tax credit under this law. we now see that hundreds of thousands of employees have been extended health insurance by small businesses employing 50 workers or less because of that tax credit. a tax credit that is scheduled to increase. So we already see the hundreds of thousands of employees that did not have access to insurance because they worked for small businesses today have insurance. Thats not the reporting of the government. Thats the reporting of the health insurance companies where people and businesses are making applications for insurance. So what we see now is young people are once again covered and can have the security that they will have health insurance while they go to school or while they start a new job that may not have health insurance with that coverage. We now see that people who may have had a bout of cancer early on know that that will not disqualify them from having insurance as they go out and continue to work to provide for their families. We now see that after 2014 when people change their jobs or they lose their jobs. they will have insurance so they will not have to go to the poor house because of the insurance costs that they will not be able to provide for because they are unemployed. They will not be locked into a job that they dont want. They will be able to be entrepreneurial and go out and seek a new job knowing that they will have health insurance. Thats the certainty of this legislation. We can now choose the chaos of the current insurance system. We can choose the chaos of people getting a letter saying you no longer have insurance. getting a letter saying your child is no longer covered. getting a letter saying your premium is up 59 percent. as they did last year in California. We have seen health insurance premiums jump dramatically over the cost of living over the last decade and over the last decade have seen more and more businesses shed coverage for their employees. The Republicans want to believe that there is certainty in that. The Republicans want to believe that thats a comfort to the American working family. The Republicans want to believe that thats a comfort to grandparents who see their grandchildren thrown off their parents policies. Thats not a comfort. What is a comfort is the freedom to know that never again will you have to contest the arbitrary rulings of an insurance company about your preexisting conditions. about the coverage of your childs health care. Never again will you have to contest whether or not you will get help paying for your pharmaceuticals if you are a senior. Never again will you have to pay for preventive medical checkups to try to keep you healthy if you are a senior. Thats the certainty that this legislation presents. Last night I had a telephone town hall meeting with over a thousand seniors in my district. and all of themalmost all of them. I would say there were three or four in the callalmost all of them wanted the certainty of knowing they were going to get help with their pharmaceutical payments. They struggle with the doughnut hole. They were appreciative of the $250 check they got last year. and they were appreciative of the help they were going to get paying for their pharmaceuticals this year. Thats the certainty that we ought to reject by rejecting repeal of the health care act.