Political Quotes

“I want to start with where this idea I believe originated. There are women today that are in the private work force. They have a choice of one policy. Their employer says, you can have this policy; you have to contribute the monthly payment towards it, and some of those policies, in fact, pay for prescriptions, but do not pay for oral contraceptives. We need to address that issue. I hope that the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) will bring it to us. I asked a long time ago why we did not ask for a GAO study that would study both the private and the public workplace to see what sorts of discriminations exist for women in terms of access to health insurance policies that give them what they need. Before we start fumbling around with the best choice that exists in the United States of America, and that is for Federal employees, before we start driving the price up, what we ought to do is be deliberative and see, first of all, do we have a problem? Do we have a problem in the public workplace; do we have a problem in the private workplace? But because this came so quick and unstudied, I did ask OMB a second question besides asking for a chart, and that was, is there any Federal employee anywhere in the United States that does not have access to policies that cover oral contraceptives; and the answer is, no, there is not one.”