[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 45 (Thursday, March 28, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H2971]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   URGING PASSAGE OF THE KAS- SEBAUM - KENNEDY - ROUKEMA HEALTH CARE 
                              REFORM BILL

  (Mr. OLVER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. OLVER. Mr. Speaker, American families are losing their health 
insurance every day because of corporate downsizing. The original 
Kennedy-Kassebaum health insurance bill was bipartisan common-sense 
reform that gave families a few simple protections. It cut down on 
denials due to preexisting conditions, it helped people get individual 
coverage when they lost group or COBRA coverage, it began chipping away 
at job lock, where fear of losing health insurance keeps people from 
changing jobs.

                              {time}  1030

  But the House Republican leadership is turning straightforward reform 
into a goodie bag for a privileged few. Medical savings accounts, a 
payoff to a fat cat contributor to the majority. Limits on malpractice 
awards to people whose lives and dreams have been ruined.
  The Republican leadership has demonstrated once again they just do 
not care about average working people. We should pass the Kennedy-
Kassebaum-Roukema bill and not a special interest spinoff. It is the 
very least we can do.

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