Joe Morelle: “I thank my colleague and friend from California. You know you understand how it is for many of us who are blessed to…”

“I thank my colleague and friend from California. You know you understand how it is for many of us who are blessed to have either employer-offered health insurance or are in a situation where you don't think as much about the costs or the issues that involve health insurance. But what you find from talking to people, as many people are not as privileged as I might be, and really faced critical decisions about whether they could have medicine to treat chronic illnesses or had to make the decision between that and rent. Or for people who had--as I have said on this floor before, I, unfortunately, lost my daughter to cancer, breast cancer, about a year and-a-half ago. Lauren had good health insurance, but during her illness, I often thought about men and women in her circumstance, what challenges they would face, even if they are able to defeat the illness, whether or not those preexisting conditions would cause their insurance premiums to be so high and so unattainable that the idea of having quality, affordable healthcare would simply not be within their reach. {time} 1730 This affects millions of Americans. Whether it is women who plan on beginning a family, starting a family; whether it is the elderly who have chronic conditions--you mentioned hypertension; or whether you have diabetes, there are a whole host of conditions. Most Americans have some form of preexisting condition.…”