[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 45 (Thursday, March 28, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H2968]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                END HEALTH CARE INSURANCE DISCRIMINATION

  (Mr. BENTSEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BENTSEN. Mr. Speaker, the House later today can do something that 
has really been quite rare in this Congress. We can pass legislation 
which will actually help average Americans, and I would say to the 
gentleman from Arizona, we can pass legislation that 191 Members of 
this House on both sides of the aisle support, that was introduced by a 
Member of the gentleman's side of the aisle, the 55 Members of the 
other body, a majority of the other body, support, that every group, 
from the American Medical Association and the American Hospital 
Association to the independent insurance agents and the National 
Association of Manufacturers support.
  We can pass legislation that does away with insurance discrimination 
for preexisting conditions, that says, If someone loses their job, or 
they get sick, they can stll retain their right to buy insurance that 
has common sense market reform, that everyone should agree with, and 
not load it up with special interests' gobbledygook which will kill 
this bill forever.
  This Congres has accomplished virtually nothing, but today we have an 
opportunity to get something passed that the other body will pass in 
April, that the President will sign, and do right by the American 
people.
  So the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Hayworth] is way off base with 
what he is saying. Let us do right by the American people and pass a 
democratic substitute of health care reform.

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