Newt Gingrich: “I just wanted to report to my colleagues that we have a real opportunity in the next day or so to reach an agreement…”

“I just wanted to report to my colleagues that we have a real opportunity in the next day or so to reach an agreement with the Clinton administration on guaranteed portability of health care, of health insurance with no preconditions. We are working very diligently in exactly the way we believe the House wants us to, to make sure that every working American who is in the insurance system will have a guarantee that if they change jobs, they can automatically get insurance without any preconditions for the rest of their life, so it will eliminate the major concern of working Americans. In addition, Mr. Speaker, we have a program which will extend a lower cost health care option, health insurance option, to the self-employed and small businesses. Most of the people who do not have health insurance, who are working, are either self-employed or work in small businesses. So if we can find a solution to a lower cost health insurance option, we give more Americans the ability to buy health insurance at lower cost. So we have both greater access and greater affordability. We give greater affordability through medical savings accounts, which lower the after-tax cost of buying insurance, and we get greater access by providing portability without any preconditions. I hope we are on the verge of a real breakthrough to get this agreed to.”