On the recordJune 15, 2010
This amendment, this motion is a guaranteed increase in middle class health insurance premiums for all Americans. If that's what you want, you should vote for it. But you know, when a person goes to the emergency room and is uninsured, doesn't have health insurance, they get health care. The question is who pays the bill. The provision that is before us from the minority party says that insured middle class Americans should pay the bill. The law the President signed in March says something very different. It says that everyone has the responsibility to earn and pay for, at a reasonable price, their own health insurance. The question is not whether uninsured people get care; the question is whether insured middle class people pay for it or not. The question is whether when someone has breast cancer or asthma and is turned away because of a preexisting condition that we will be able to insure that person at regular premiums. If you don't have nearly everyone insured, you can't do that. So if you think that middle class people paying other people's bills is the right way to go, this is your motion. If you think that we should no longer provide health insurance coverage for those with a preexisting condition, then 'yes' is your vote. Our opponents talk of freedom. I think it's time that middle class Americans were free from paying other people's bills and paying for the insurance company mandates.
