David Axelrod Quotes

I know how critical it is to make sure that people with pre-existing conditions have affordable insurance, and states are able to do that.

Insurance companies can no longer refuse to cover Americans with pre-existing conditions.

I have people coming to me every day, coming to my office, with life-threatening diseases - life-threatening diseases - and they were dropped from their health care because of the Affordable Care Act.

Congressional Republicans themselves have vehemently defended the idea that preexisting conditions should not be used to deny people insurance.

Insurance companies can no longer refuse to cover Americans with pre-existing conditions. That's what change looks like.

No one wants to go back to the time when insurance companies decided who would get health care.

We think healthcare costs should be going down, not up. We think people should be able to keep insurance that they had.

Pre-existing conditions for those previously insured must not lead to someone being unable to get insurance.

As Speaker, I passed protections for Mainers with pre-existing conditions to prevent insurance companies from denying them coverage - that's the kind of leadership we need in Washington.

High-quality health care is not available to millions of Americans who don't have health insurance, or whose substandard plans provide minimum coverage. That's why the Affordable Care Act is so important. It provides quality health insurance to both the uninsured and underinsured.

In the field of health care, we are giving people access to insurance who have not had it before.

And under Obamacare, insurance companies can no longer discriminate against women. Before, some wouldn't cover women's most basic needs, like contraception and maternity care, but would still charge us up to 50 percent more than men - for a worse plan.

I worked with President Obama on the Affordable Care Act and getting health coverage to all Americans. It was my legislation that said insurance companies can no longer deny coverage for kids with preexisting conditions.

Only if everyone buys insurance can insurers afford to cover people with preexisting conditions or pay the costs of catastrophic diseases.

And I have to say, what motivates me every day and I know my Democratic colleagues is to remember that every day 14,000 people get up in the morning with insurance that go to bed at night without it and most of them because they lost their job.

I want to level the playing field for people who want to purchase health insurance as individuals, and that means eliminating the exemption for employer-sponsored health care.

We need to make sure pre-existing conditions are taken care of, but propping up Obamacare, a failing system, is not the way to do it.

One of the challenges in the Affordable Care Act was that it prejudiced the Medicaid system very much in favor of able-bodied adults, away from the more traditional Medicaid populations of the aged, the disabled, pregnant women, and children.

When Obamacare was introduced, Republicans and Democrats knew the status quo wasn't working. But Republicans rejected the notion that to help 2 million people with preexisting conditions get access to care, we needed a 2,000-page bill that transformed one-sixth of the economy.

Before Obamacare, only 12% of individual insurance plans covered maternity plans. Even without that important benefit, women were charged up to 48% more than men for the same benefit package.

Under Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson, more people will have coverage, and we protect those with pre-existing conditions.

We can create more affordable coverage options for all Americans and help patients with pre-existing conditions - without forcing any satisfied Americans to lose coverage they like - through high-risk pools and reinsurance options.

I support the Affordable Care Act and believe we should take steps to further expand coverage and reduce costs.

It sickens me to hear of people being unable to get coverage if they have a pre-existing condition, or of seniors that are struggling to afford prescriptions.

We need to work together to strengthen protections for pre-existing conditions and improve upon the gains made under the ACA, not tear it down.