On the recordMarch 19, 2010
If the gentleman will yield, I know the person you are talking about. Shortly before the holidays this year, on a very snowy Saturday, my wife and I went to a large department store to pick up some last-minute items. A lady in Audubon, New Jersey, was working at the store and talked about what a long day for her it was. She was in the eighth or ninth hour of her shift. And she had no health insurance because she conveniently fit underneath the full-time worker category, working for a huge corporation. She was not yet 65, so she didn't have Medicare. And she was really worried that she was going to get sick, because if she got sick she also had a preexisting condition which would make it all the worse. Couldn't buy insurance. Here is what this bill says, as the gentleman knows, to that lady. First of all, because she works for a large firm, her employer is going to have to either insure her or contribute toward the cost of insuring her. And she is going to be able to get insured for 3 or 4 percent of her income, maybe $15 or $20 a week, which is affordable for her. A lot of people say, well, this is an unfair mandate on business. They don't understand. When a huge corporation like that one doesn't pay its fair share, the rest of us all do. She will get insurance, it will be paid for fairly, and I think she is the lady the gentleman is talking about.
