Pete Domenici: “Fellow Senators, we just passed a Kassebaum-Kennedy health reform bill. What did we say in it with reference to…”

“Fellow Senators, we just passed a Kassebaum-Kennedy health reform bill. What did we say in it with reference to preexisting conditions? We said insurance companies can no longer deny coverage because of preexisting conditions. We could have had a distinguished Senator like the Senator from Colorado--and he is distinguished--come to the floor and say, ``But we ought to have the consumers retain the right to choose.'' So we could offer an amendment here that would have said it. But we need to protect the consumers' choice. So we are saying you have to do this; you have to cover the preexisting conditions, but the consumer ought to have the choice, and he ought to be able to opt out. You see what that did. Nobody dared do it--not even my distinguished friend from Colorado--because that produced what we all call cherry picking. It permits people to offer coverage at the lowest possible rate denying coverage to many, many people and leaving those to somebody else.”