[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 7, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H3451-H3452]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PROTECTING AMERICANS WITH PREEXISTING CONDITIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise this afternoon to spotlight that, a 
couple days from now, the House of Representatives will be voting on 
H.R. 986, which is an act protecting Americans with preexisting 
conditions.
  Again, this is a measure to reverse a decision that was made last 
October by the Trump administration. It was an administrative guidance 
in the Department of Health and Human Services which basically opened 
the doors for States to submit waivers from the Affordable Care Act's 
protections for patients, which, almost universally, are supported by 
the American people.
  For example, in the law, it banned the use of preexisting condition 
exclusions by insurance companies both for individuals applying for 
insurance and for those who actually got insurance but then had their 
bills denied because of preexisting conditions.
  With the stroke of a pen, in March 2010, the Affordable Care Act 
abolished that practice by insurance companies, which basically was a 
discriminatory practice for people, again, who, through no fault of 
their own, had medical conditions which they could not control.
  It also eliminated lifetime limits. In other words, insurance 
companies capped the amount of medical bills that they would pay, so 
somebody with a cancer or a serious chronic condition would run into 
those caps and basically be in bankruptcy land.
  And lastly, it established essential health benefits, which were 
defined by the Institute of Medicine, not a political organization, 
based on what, in fact, health insurance should cover, for example, 
behavioral health, maternal and child benefits, et cetera.
  This decision by the Trump administration last October basically 
knocked out the guardrails in the ACA waiver process, which, again, 
every observer and commentator said would open the door again to 
insurance companies using the practice of preexisting condition 
exclusions.
  For those who maybe have forgotten what that looked like, I have 
beside me here a chart which includes a brochure, which Humana 
insurance was using back in 2009 when it was selling health insurance. 
Again, it is touting great news for people who buy their own health 
insurance, new, flexible health coverage.
  However, if you read the fine print, it went on to say that there is 
important information about preexisting conditions for these conditions 
which would

[[Page H3452]]

not be covered: AIDS/HIV, alcohol or drug dependence, cancer, COPD, 
connective tissue disorder, Crohn's disease, diabetes, emphysema, heart 
attack or stroke, hepatitis, inpatient emotional or mental illness, 
organ or tissue transplant, or ulcerative colitis. Just in case maybe 
you survived that litmus test, it does go on to say: ``This list is not 
all inclusive; other conditions may apply.''
  That is what health insurance looked like before 2010: People who, in 
good faith, were paying premium dollars for coverage, whether they were 
individuals, small businesses, or large employers, suddenly found, with 
the fine print back in those days, medical underwriting was excluding 
people from getting the coverage for the health insurance they thought 
they were buying.
  Also, the rude awakening of people who had insurance suddenly having 
their bills reversed--again, in good faith, depending on insurance 
companies--to pay for an operation or for a hospitalization or a 
doctor's visit.
  This country turned the page in 2010. It is time to, once and for 
all, say that those practices are a thing of the past.
  Our bill this week, H.R. 986, will restore those patient protections 
which the Trump administration's executive order, last October, 
reversed. Hopefully, the people in this Chamber will listen to the 
universal support for these patient protections all across the country, 
Republicans and Democrats--the polling shows it is off the charts--and 
support this bill and block this executive order which would turn the 
clock back for American patients and America's healthcare system.

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