Barbara Kennelly: “the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill has a simple premise: If you leave or lose your job, you should not lose your health…”

“the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill has a simple premise: If you leave or lose your job, you should not lose your health insurance because of a preexisting health condition. As introduced in the House, the bill is only 65 pages long. Here is a copy of it. However, the bill that will come to the House floor tomorrow is more than 220 pages long. Here is a copy of it. The bill adds 10 separate provisions to the health insurance portion of the bill. Some of these additions are good ideas, but several are very controversial, such as tax breaks for medical savings accounts and exempting certain health plans from State insurance regulation. I am worried these additions could kill a bill that guarantees Americans the right to have portable health insurance. Madam Speaker, Republicans in the Senate say they want a clean bill. Democrats in the House say they want a clean bill. And the President says he wants a clean bill. I hope the majority in the House will now join us in an effort to pass a bill without any special interest addons. Let us not load on so much baggage that we bring the whole plane down.”