American Health Care Act of 2017
Floor Speech
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Mr. Speaker, about 7 years ago, I was on the floor talking on the Affordable Care Act. And I remember talking about, I had just left the State Senate, and bringing up that my colleagues are in Frankfort and they are doing work on the budget; and, in the future, it is going to make it more difficult for them to pass budgets because of the expansion in Medicaid, and that is coming to pass. It will be in the next budget session they have to deal with moving forward, if we don't address this situation.
So people keep talking about a rush process. Over a year ago, we put together a Medicaid task force, met with groups of people, met with Governors, we took a lot of information, and put together a plan that addresses the needs of Medicaid. Medicaid is growing. It will be over a $1 trillion program within 10 years if we don't deal with it.
It is going to implode. So we actually worked to put it on a sustainable budget. It is growing. People talk about cuts to Medicaid. Only in Washington, D.C., is slowing the growth of a program looked at as a cut. So we have worked hard to move that forward.
The other thing I want to talk about is, last year, small businesses were going to be hit by the minimum essential benefits. Small businesses were saying: We like our plans, and we want to keep it. We are going to have our prices go up, and we are not going to be able to afford to provide coverage.
So we all came together, bipartisan, to address that to exempt the small-business plans for those programs. It passed by voice vote in the House, unanimous consent in the Senate, and signed by then-President Obama.
So the question is, if small businesses can design and keep their own plans, I think individuals can, too.
I agree with my friend from California that the American people are smart. I disagree with my other colleague who says: They will buy things, and they won't even know what is in it.
They are smart, and I urge support for this bill.
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