Pete Stark: “Mr. Speaker, this bill is called the Health Coverage Availability and Affordability Act, but it ain't. Because of the…”

“Mr. Speaker, this bill is called the Health Coverage Availability and Affordability Act, but it ain't. Because of the medical savings accounts and other provisions in here, the Republicans have managed through some legislative legerdemain to turn a silk purse into a sow's ear. The Democratic substitute will, in fact, bring back the Roukema- Kassebaum-Kennedy bill with some technical corrections to make sure that it limits preexisting conditions, and would by far be a better bill, a truly bipartisan bill, one that will pass in the Senate and one that would in fact be signed by the President. Now, if the Republican intention is to fill up prime time with a bill that they know will pass, it is to me a very sick trick to play on the seniors. First of all, this bill purports to increase the deduction for self-employed, but really it only does it for 50 percent, and that is in 2003. The Democratic alternative does it at 8 percent, and it does it right up front and pays for it. It is not flimflamming the American public into thinking they are getting something that they are not. It is also a bad bill because the insurance reforms are weaker. It limits individuals to just one policy and guarantees issue only to small firms of less than 50 people. The rest are out on the street. It spends over $2.5 billion of Medicare money on MSA tax breaks. We should save easy anti-fraud money for Medicare trust fund relief.”