[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 104 (Tuesday, August 2, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    DIABETES AND HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. BILBRAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, we are addressing health care. It is coming 
up in the next few weeks. I would like to talk about those 7 million 
people with diabetes around this country and another 6 million people 
that have diabetes that do not even know about it. It is critical that 
health care reform pass because most of them cannot get health 
insurance unless they belong to a large plan that has negotiated so 
that they cannot be excluded. Most of them do not have health care 
insurance and cannot get health care insurance. Over 160,000 people die 
each year as a result of diabetes.
  I can tell my colleagues it hit my family personally because my own 
son died from diabetes, so I can say we need health care reform, Mr. 
Speaker, now. We need universal coverage. We need it so no preexisting 
conditions can be excluded because Americans deserve that they could 
have assurance that they can have health care, they have insurance for 
it, and, if we do not allow this for our people, then it is a crying 
shame, something that we will be ashamed of for generations to come.

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