Rob Andrews: “So, Mr. Speaker, you're 6 months away from your 58th birthday, and the place where you have worked for 25 years closes…”

“So, Mr. Speaker, you're 6 months away from your 58th birthday, and the place where you have worked for 25 years closes and you have no health insurance. So you dip into your savings and you figure out a way to keep yourself in the plan that you were in by paying for it largely with your own money. Under present law, when you hit your 59th birthday, if you don't have another job with health insurance, you're out, and you have got 6 years to go until you qualify for Medicare. We are changing that in this bill. Here's what this bill says. That person I just described, if they can figure out a way to stretch their savings and stretch their dollars until they're 65 years old, can enroll in Medicare and never have a gap where their family is left unprotected, with their own money by and large. Now, the credits that are generously extended here, we wish we could do more, but this is a program that makes common sense for the person who is too young to retire and too old to start all over again. It's the person who's working with a good job and health care and good benefits, who's now working part-time at a retail store because that's the best he or she can do. What is wrong with that? This is an opportunity for the Members of this Congress to stand up for forgotten Americans who built this country, raised their families and paid their taxes. This should not be a Republican and Democratic issue.”