It Is Time To Vote "Yes'' On Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

Ms. SCHWARTZ. Mr. Speaker, today we will act on a uniquely American solution to health care reform. Our action will bring down health care costs for middle-income families, will help small businesses afford coverage for their employees, will improve coverage for our seniors, will rein in wasteful spending, and will provide access to 32 million uninsured Americans.

For those with insurance, starting right away, insurance companies will be prohibited from discriminating based on preexisting conditions, from placing annual or lifetime caps on coverage, and from dropping people for coverage when they get sick.

It is time to put American families back in control of their health care. It's time to hold insurance companies accountable to keep premiums down and to stop their denial of care and coverage. And it is time to ensure that 95 percent of Americans have access to affordable, meaningful health care choices.

It's time to finally fix the Medicare prescription drug gap, known as the doughnut hole, and to provide seniors with preventative and primary care. And it is time to rein in the Federal deficit by reducing it by $1.2 trillion.

It's time to vote ``yes'' on health care reform.

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