Rob Andrews: “Madam Speaker, I stand in strong opposition of H.R. 660. We are hearing all the time about do no harm, and I think…”

“Madam Speaker, I stand in strong opposition of H.R. 660. We are hearing all the time about do no harm, and I think Members need to remember, why do 48 States have good basic health care insurance? It is mainly because our advocates, breast cancer or diabetes, all of the diseases that we are trying to prevent, have made the States realize that the monies that we spend to make sure that people stay healthy certainly is cheaper in the long run. That is 48 States including New York, and what we are doing here, we are wiping that out. We are wiping that out. As patients and advocates across this Nation quickly discovered that their basic health care needs were not being served by their insurance companies, that is why the States have forced the insurance companies to make sure that the treatments that we are asking for, like a mammogram, and how many lives have we saved over the years because we have made the insurance companies make sure they have it in their policies. The States made them do that. What we are doing here is taking that away. They demanded that their States step in and protect them. Madam Speaker, as I said in 48 States, we have our attorneys general, we have our governors, Republicans and Democrats. What we are doing here is harm.”