Jackie Speier: “Again, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution recognizing Women's History Month. Let me also…”

“Again, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution recognizing Women's History Month. Let me also suggest that we are all going to go down in history this weekend for the kinds of votes we take. If there ever was an issue on health care that must be addressed and is addressed in this bill, it is gender discrimination. And the dirty little secret in health care is that women have been discriminated against for decades in health insurance. In fact, a 22-year-old woman, a healthy 22-year-old woman is going to pay 150 percent more for her health insurance than a 22-year-old healthy man. A 40-year-old nonsmoking woman is going to pay more for her health insurance than a 40-year-old male smoker. Those are the kinds of discrimination that continue to exist in health care today that will not exist once we have health care reform. One in five women over 50 is not getting mammograms today. That will not be the case anymore because every woman in America will have access to those kinds of screenings.”