Nancy L. Johnson: “I firmly believe that this Congress has the ability and the will to put on the President's desk a bill that will…”

“I firmly believe that this Congress has the ability and the will to put on the President's desk a bill that will prohibit insurers from excluding people for preexisting conditions. That is a proposal that I introduced in 1991. My Democrat colleague then in the Senate, now Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary Bentsen, introduced it in the Senate a couple of months later. It has broad bipartisan support. We could have done it in 1991. We could have done it in 1992. I certainly hope that we will at least in 1994 prohibit insurers from excluding anyone with preexisting conditions, that we will guarantee to everyone in America that, if they pay their premiums, they can have--they can be assured that they can renew their insurance for modest changes in premiums. We can return predictability, fairness, to the insurance market, and with it give all those who have insurance now the confidence that it will be there when they need it and that it will be affordable.”