[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 45 (Thursday, March 28, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H2972]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PREEMPTION OF STATE PROTECTIONS IS A BAD IDEA

  (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today the House Republicans 
will pass up a golden opportunity to advance realistic bipartisan 
health care reform when it considers H.R. 3103, instead of sponsoring 
and passing the Roukema-Kassebaum-Kennedy health reform bill that I 
cosponsored.
  The bill which the House considers today will have disastrous 
consequences for consumers. Carefully crafted State insurance laws will 
be replaced by a uniform standard developed and implemented by the 
Department of Labor here in Washington. That is right. We are taking 
away States' ability to regulate and move it here to Washington. They 
want to move it to an agency that one of my Republican colleagues said 
was led by what he thought was a Communist.
  What does this mean to the average American family? State statutes 
and rules requiring certain benefits be covered by health insurance 
policies may no longer apply. For instance, many States like Texas, 
where I am from, have statutes requiring the inclusion of newborn 
infant coverage in their State law. That will be wiped out if this bill 
passes today.
  Under the Republican health plan, this may no longer apply. This is 
moving from State control to Washington control. That must have been in 
the fine print of the Contract With America.

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