Victor Fazio: “when President Clinton stood here a few months ago and announced his support for a bill that had been authored by…”

“when President Clinton stood here a few months ago and announced his support for a bill that had been authored by Senator Kassebaum and the gentlewoman from New Jersey, Mrs. Roukema, to be joined by the gentlemen from Massachusetts, Senator Ted Kennedy, and Joseph Kennedy, the country was ecstatic. They were convinced for the first time we would actually do something about the need to make health insurance portable and to prevent prior conditions from making insurance either unavailable or unaffordable to many people. Tragically, we are here tonight debating a bill that goes far beyond that consensus, that moves us into conflict on issues like MSAs, that are a pure giveaway to a gentleman from Indiana named Mr. Rooney, who legitimate insurance salesmen in my district claim they would never sell policies for. We have watered down portability, we have limited the ability to prevent prior conditions from being remedied in this legislation, because we have taken an approach that does not really give people what they have been told they will get. They will pay more if there are fortunate enough at all to be able to continue to have health coverage. They are not going to be able to keep the kind of plan they have had. This proposal ensures they will pay more.”