On the recordJanuary 19, 2011
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Listening to this debate, I can understand why Americans might be confused about the direction of health care in this Nation. But let me thank my Republican colleagues for producing at least one important result by debating this misguided Republican plan to repeal patients' health care rights. Millions of Americans are now beginning to understand the valuable rights and freedoms they secured when the Affordable Health Care Act became law last year. Last year, when Eric, a self-employed architect in my district, wrote to me that he and his wife were in a terrible bind, he explained something. They had insurance, but they could only secure the most costly of insurance with the highest deductibles. But the real bind wasn't that. The real bind was that their insurance company refused to include, within their health insurance policy, their 8-year-old son because their 8-year-old son had suffered from a stroke. Now, for Eric and his wife and his son, health care reform was real. Today, Eric and his family can get insurance for their son because today Eric and his wife have a right to be insured and to have their son insured because no insurance company today can discriminate against any child for a preexisting condition. That's what health care reform was all about.
