Press Releases

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) made the following statement after the House voted to repeal the new health insurance reform law that will help more than 30 million Americans afford health insurance, give small businesses tax credits to help insure their employees and implement necessary consumer protections:

“Republicans have the chance to walk the walk, but they are walking away from it.  All throughout the debate on health insurance reform, Republicans said they supported consumer protections like the ban on pre-existing condition denials or charging women more than men for the same coverage.  Where’d the support go over the past year?

“As chair of the Democratic Women’s Working Group, I led 45 of my colleagues in outlining to Speaker Boehner what’s at risk for women if this new law is repealed.  Women were among those who gained the most, and now they’re among those with the most to lose.  If this law is repealed, once again, a woman could be denied insurance because she’s been the victim of domestic violence.  If this law is repealed, once again, a woman could be denied insurance because she’d been pregnant.  If this law is repealed, once again, women could be charged more money for the same coverage as men.

“Just today, I met with a father who told me the story of his 25 year-old daughter who is going to school.  She needed emergency gall bladder surgery.  Without reform, they would have had to pay out of pocket.  Repeal has real consequences.
 
“When Congress passed health insurance reform, I said that it wasn’t perfect, and that we’ll have to work to make it better.  Recent polling shows that only 18 percent of Americans want the law completely repealed.  Can we make this law even better?  Yes.  But should we take away the new protections?  Should we repeal the security families now have -- knowing that they aren’t one diagnosis away from bankruptcy?  No way!”