Political Quotes

“Our colleague, Marcy Kaptur, reminded me of a personal story, personal things. My sister-in-law was a juvenile diabetic, and I think of what would her circumstances be if she had had this law when she was alive. The last 20 years of her life were a struggle. The company she worked for folded, and her health insurance was lost. And she spent the last 20 years of her life struggling financially, medically, and really unable to get the kind of continuity of care necessary. She got a lot of help from her family; but even so, it was a struggle. Under the law today, she would have been able to get insurance. And in 2014, in California, or actually next year in California, there will be an exchange. So even though she spent those last 20 years as an independent contractor, selling various things over those years, she could enter into a large pool, that is the exchange, where she would have the same opportunity to buy a low-cost policy as though she were in Ford Motor Company with hundreds of thousands of employees. Our Republican colleagues would abolish the exchanges. And I just think about what could have been. There was no exchange, and she wasn't able to get that insurance; but had she lived, and had other men and women with diabetes or serious heart issues or other kinds of problems, medical problems, they could get insurance in the exchange and be part of a large pool. Simultaneously, if they didn't have the income, they would be able to get a subsidy.…”