Anna Eshoo: “today I introduced a bill in the House of Representatives, H.R. 3030, and it is entitled the Christopher Reeve Health…”

“today I introduced a bill in the House of Representatives, H.R. 3030, and it is entitled the Christopher Reeve Health Insurance Reform Act. I think that that name, rather than the number 3030, is a name that Americans know and respect. Christopher Reeve is an accomplished actor, someone that has appeared both on stage and screen in our Nation and, I believe, now is playing one of the great roles of his life as he advocates for the reforms that are necessary to our health system. And so I am very pleased that he would lend his name to this piece of legislation that seeks to reform a very, very important part of our health insurance system in our country. What this bill would do would be to lift the lifetime cap limit that exists in health insurance policies today. People that own life insurance policies may not be, and most are not, aware of the fine print that exists within that policy. Back in the 1970's, a $1 million cap was placed on the usage or the ceiling for health insurance policies. One million dollars in 1970 was a lot of money. Today $1 million, when a catastrophic incident happens in an individual's life, as it did and came into Christopher Reeves' life, $1 million will be used up very, very quickly. So I think it is important that that standard lifetime cap on individual health insurance policies be raised. That is what this bill accomplishes.”