Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Madam Chair, I rise in support of this amendment. Association health plans have a long, well-documented history of cutting costs for themselves by cherry-picking the cheapest people to cover and leaving the more expensive behind. This raises costs for everybody else and causes premiums to go up in the rest of the market. Republicans have been pushing this idea for decades, and experts have consistently found it to be harmful. The Affordable Care Act made a number of reforms to commercial insurance markets, including a requirement that plans in the individual and small group markets cover essential health benefits such as maternity care and prescription drugs. The ACA also prevented these plans from charging higher rates based on health status and limited the premium amount that older people could be charged compared to younger people. This was a vital protection that ensured that an age tax would not make coverage unaffordable for older individuals. {time} 1645 This legislation has no protection without this amendment. The bill is entirely silent on discriminatory pricing against older people. In fact, by explicitly allowing associations to base premiums on risk factors of each employer within the group, it actually invites them to charge older Americans much more.…”