EXCERPT:
BROOKS: “That’s not my understanding of the way the bill has been reframed. My understanding is that it will allow insurance companies to require people who have higher health care costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives, they are healthy, you know, they have done the things to keep their bodies healthy. And right now, those are the people who have done things the right way that are seeing their costs skyrocketing. Now, in fairness, a lot of these people with pre-existing conditions, they have those conditions through no fault of their own, and I think our society under those circumstances needs to help. The challenge though is that it’s a tough balancing act between the higher cost of these mandates which denies people coverage because they can’t afford the health insurance policies anymore on the one hand and having enough coverage to help those people who are truly in need."