[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25443]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM

  (Mr. SCOTT of Virginia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, responsible health insurance 
reform requires a comprehensive approach. For example, health insurance 
companies often deny coverage if you have a preexisting condition. But 
if we require insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions, all 
Americans must be required to carry health insurance; otherwise, people 
will just wait until they get sick before they buy insurance. And if 
all Americans are going to be covered, we must have mandates and taxes 
to subsidize those who can't afford it.
  Furthermore, in most States, there's only one company with an 
overwhelming market share, and so, without a public option, people in 
many States would be mandated to buy insurance from a sole-source, for-
profit corporation without any limit on what it can charge. You know 
that's not fair.
  So even though there is a consensus that people with preexisting 
conditions should be able to buy insurance at a reasonable cost, we 
cannot achieve that goal without mandates, subsidies, and a public 
option to provide competition. That's why we need comprehensive health 
insurance reform with a public option.

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