[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 29, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
       UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE COVERAGE NECESSARY FOR ALL AMERICANS

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, last week President Clinton reiterated his 
pledge to veto any health care legislation that does not include 
universal coverage. We need universal coverage, not simply to cover the 
40 million uninsured Americans who are without insurance today, but to 
cover the millions of insured Americans who could be without coverage 
tomorrow.
  Too many working Americans are one accident or one illness away from 
having their health benefits terminated. Too many working families are 
watching their insurance premiums go through the roof, and too many 
Americans are running into lifetime limits and preexisting conditions.
  Without comprehensive reform, more than 22 million working Americans 
will be denied health care coverage and more than 7 million American 
children will be left out in the cold. Without comprehensive reform, 
American businesses will continue to pay the hidden costs for the 
uninsured, and American workers will lose an estimated $46 billion in 
wages. Without comprehensive reform, even working Americans who have 
health coverage at work will pay an estimated $28 billion more for that 
same coverage.
  If we do not pass a plan that includes universal coverage, working 
Americans will continue to face these uncertainties. We owe it to them 
to pass comprehensive reform. We owe it to the 40 million Americans 
without health care today, and we owe it to the millions of working 
Americans who could lose their health care tomorrow.

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