Senate Amendments To H.R. 3590, Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act Of 2009, And H.R. 4872, Health Care And Education Reconciliation Act Of 2010

Floor Speech

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Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, the whole Nation desperately needs health care reform, but no group of Americans needs it more than women who face discrimination and insult at the hand of the broken status quo every single day. We all know that the current system allows insurance companies to deny coverage based on preexisting conditions.

But I wonder how many of my colleagues realize that essentially being a woman is a preexisting condition. Pregnancy, for example, or C-sections, can be deemed preexisting conditions. Most unbelievable of all, insurance companies can legally turn their backs on women who suffered injuries due to domestic violence because that, too, can be defined as a preexisting condition. We should all be ashamed of a system that puts healthy insurance company profits ahead of healthy American women.

This weekend, today, tonight, we will make history by passing a health care bill that will correct these injustices, and no longer will female be considered a preexisting condition.

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