Paul Coverdell: “let me just say that, again, I want to close by talking about the fact that this Congress, the 104th, the Senate and…”

“let me just say that, again, I want to close by talking about the fact that this Congress, the 104th, the Senate and House, has done remarkable work in bringing to the country some relief in the insurance marketplace for health insurance. We heard, in the last Congress, about the large number of people who are disadvantaged in the insurance marketplace and that they lose their insurance if they change jobs. The costs are too high. A lot of young people do not have insurance, or somebody who has had a medical problem has difficulty getting insurance. We oppose vehemently the idea of a new massive Government takeover to run every aspect of everybody's decisions --families and persons. Well, the principal advocates for a Government takeover of health care are now telling us that it is simply unacceptable that they are going to use medical savings accounts, which is a new opportunity in the marketplace. The President and the Senator from Massachusetts have keyed in on that and said, no, that cannot be in the marketplace. They are so opposed to this concept that they are going to block everything, leave the uninsured uninsured, leave the person who cannot move from one job to another unable to do that, let the person sitting out here --I met one of them just last week--who cannot get insurance because of a preexisting condition. Too bad.…”