McCaskill: Missourians are fed up with Republican efforts to sabotage protection for pre-existing conditions

(From Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-MO)

A while ago, at one of my town halls, I asked everyone in the room who knew someone with a preexisting condition to raise their hand.

The number of hands that went up was stunning.

So I started asking that same question at lots of events -- and that first town hall was not a fluke. Almost every family in Missouri includes someone with a preexisting condition, from diabetes to heart disease to cancer.

And all those people? They're getting left out in the cold.

The Administration recently expanded short term "junk" insurance plans that can exclude preexisting conditions or raise premiums for folks with a preexisting condition.

These bare-bones plans are cheap, but they often exclude basic health benefits like hospitalization, substance abuse treatment, maternity care, and even prescription drugs. They also allow insurance companies to skirt the requirement that they cover people with preexisting conditions, and that threatens access to healthcare for all those Missourians who've had the nerve to have gotten sick before.

I'm fighting back because I know that these ‘junk' plans are just that... junk.

I'm fighting to make sure Missourians have access to affordable, quality healthcare - so I introduced a measure to repeal this new rule.

Missourians have been perfectly clear: they're fed up with Republican efforts to sabotage and take away their healthcare -- or jack up costs -- just because they have diabetes or high blood pressure.

I've fought to defend preexisting condition protections, and I'm not stopping now. I promise I'll never stop fighting to keep those protections in place.