Kathy Castor: “Woman, my amendment is an important one for American families who are grappling with healthcare costs. My amendment is…”

“Woman, my amendment is an important one for American families who are grappling with healthcare costs. My amendment is an important one for the over 130 million Americans who have a preexisting health condition like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, or Alzheimer's. My amendment takes aim at a proposed rule by the Trump administration that encourages insurance companies to issue junk insurance plans. Everyone calls them junk insurance plans because they often don't cover vital health services. They may not cover a trip to the hospital or the emergency room. They may not cover prescription drugs. They may not cover mental health services that you need. They are often marketed as a good deal, but they don't show a person the fine print that they may cap benefits. What they do is they allow discrimination against our neighbors who have a preexisting health condition. This is not in question because in committee, I asked the HHS Secretary Azar point blank, I said: ``These short-term, limited- duration plans known as junk plans, they allow insurance companies to discriminate against you if you have a preexisting health condition; right, Mr. Secretary?'' He said: ``Yes.'' The law of the land after we passed the Affordable Care Act says that no longer are we going to allow insurance companies to discriminate against our neighbors who have preexisting health conditions. So how can the Trump administration be moving forward?…”