Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I will be speaking off of the time on the resolution for a moment and then deferring to Senator Mikulski in yielding time to her, as well as our great colleague from Minnesota, Senator Klobuchar, and others who wish to speak as we proceed with the debate on this resolution. Let me take a moment and say that today the House has passed their budget called the Ryan Republican budget, and it effectively rolls back health care for women in this country. Our budget does exactly the opposite. We protect and strengthen access to health care for women. Under health care reform, which we strengthen and support in our budget, health insurance plans, as we know, are required to cover women's preventive care, things such as annual wellness visits, domestic violence screenings, and contraception, without copays, coinsurance, or deductibles. The Republican budget that was passed today would take away those protections. Under the budget they passed today, 1.3 million women in Michigan alone could lose their health care. Insurance plans are now--under what we have passed--not allowed to discriminate against women. That is part of health reform. Being a woman is not a preexisting condition anymore. You cannot charge higher rates, you cannot discriminate in other ways against women in the marketplace when they are looking to buy insurance.…”