Frank Pallone: “it is a testimony to President Clinton and to the Democrats in Congress that the Kennedy health insurance reform bill…”

“it is a testimony to President Clinton and to the Democrats in Congress that the Kennedy health insurance reform bill will finally be brought to the floor in the House of Representatives today. It was not until President Clinton this year, in his State of the Union address, said that he wanted to see health care reform and that people could take their health insurance with them when they changed jobs or lost jobs, or that they would not be barred from health insurance because of preexisting medical conditions, it was not until the President came forward and said he wanted that bill, a clean bill passed, that finally we were able to, grudgingly, get the Republican leadership to move this health insurance reform bill. Even so, the Republican leadership constantly tried to kill and destroy the bill by throwing in the poison pill of medical savings accounts. Finally, the bill that comes to the floor today is essentially a clean bill.”