Healthcare

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. President, I would like to turn to healthcare. For me, healthcare has always been the most important issue. It goes back to my days when I was director of the Oregon Gray Panthers. I have always felt, as a general proposition, that it is extraordinarily important for us to pursue bipartisan approaches in this space. I have focused on that, and, frankly, I got a lot of welts on my back to show for it.

I was very proud last night to be able to work with Chairman Hatch, and we have, in effect, announced the beginning of an agreement to deal with the Children's Health Insurance Program, a bipartisan approach, and do it in a responsible way. Obviously, there are other steps to go, but I think it reflects, again, a big, important issue in polarized political times--the Finance Committee trying to find common ground.

The reality is, the principles around which healthcare reform has traditionally been based are still pretty valid. I believe, as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, that healthcare is a basic human right. I also believe our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have valid points as well about having a role for the private sector in the delivery of healthcare. So I have long used those kind of bedrock principles to guide me with respect to healthcare, and that is why I wanted to come to the floor today to talk about what was just announced by Republican Senators--Republican Senators only--to make one last attempt to roll back Americans' healthcare before they lose the opportunity to take advantage of the special rules that would allow partisan-only approaches, and they expire at the end of the month.

As I said, my focus--as was the case last night with Chairman Hatch, and we are far from done here--was to find common ground with respect to a critical program for children.

Earlier today, our colleagues, Senators Graham, Cassidy, and Heller, introduced a partisan bill that, in my view, might be the most harmful version of TrumpCare yet, so I wanted to take a few minutes this evening to explain why this type of legislation is still a bad deal for American families.

This legislation that has been authored by the three Republican Senators gives a super block grant--a blank check--to the States so that they can do whatever they want to Americans' healthcare. Based on everything else I have seen this year, that is going to mean an awful lot of pain for vulnerable people and an open door to the worst abuses of insurance companies, which had been relegated to the history books when the Affordable Care Act was passed. My view is that this is probably the largest healthcare devolution in history, which is pretty much sending it to the States and saying: Have at it.

First of all, the bill ends Medicaid as Americans know it today. This year's debate over healthcare made one matter clear--that Medicaid matters. It pays for the healthcare of America's most vulnerable and serves as a safety net for the people who might not think they will need it. It covers nursing home care for older Americans who spend down their hard-earned savings. It pays for addiction treatment services for those who are struggling with opioids, as millions of Americans are today. It helps Americans with disabilities live healthy, productive lives in their communities rather than in institutions. That is just the tip of the iceberg of the good work Medicaid does for those from Portland, OR, to Portland, ME. Under the legislation that I am discussing--Graham-Cassidy-Heller--that is gone.

The plan ends the expanded Medicaid coverage that 11 million Americans count on today. It puts a cap on Medicaid and offers hundreds of billions less in support from the Federal Government. It is essentially telling States ``good luck'' and is asking them to make all of the hard decisions about which Americans will get adequate healthcare and which people will go without. History tells us that the most vulnerable Americans who are without a voice or a powerful lobby are inevitably going to be the ones worse off.

There is one more step that this bill takes that is different from previous versions of TrumpCare and similar proposals. Rather than reducing the tax credits that help Americans get help, which is similar to earlier Republican approaches, this bill just gets rid of them. It gets rid of them completely. That means asking States to use their Federal health block grants to cover Medicaid, nursing home care, care for those with disabilities, addiction treatment, tax credits for healthcare, and more--and all from the same pot of money. To me, that is a recipe for a healthcare disaster.

This proposal also opens up loopholes for the big insurance companies to undermine key consumer protections--those that bar discrimination against those who have preexisting conditions and set essential benefits that all Americans are entitled to receive.

I thought we were done with those days--the days when, in effect, healthcare worked for the healthy and the wealthy and when we had discrimination against those with preexisting conditions. Basically, unless you were healthy and did not have a preexisting condition or unless you were wealthy and could pay for your healthcare costs, you were really in deep trouble. As far as I can tell, this new proposal undermines those key consumer protections that bar discrimination against those who have preexisting conditions, and it takes us back. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed for up to 10 more minutes.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. President and colleagues, thank you for your courtesy. During the TrumpCare debate, it was clear that unraveling the consumer protections that Americans count on today causes the whole system to come apart at the expense of those who need healthcare the most.

I have heard the authors of this bill argue that the States will be able to keep the Affordable Care Act or do it their own way, but this bill asks each State to do a whole lot more with a whole lot less. That does not sound like a prescription for State innovation; it sounds like more of the same failed, partisan approach that the public witnessed earlier this year.

I know a bit about State innovation and have enjoyed talking with the distinguished President of the Senate about it. I wrote the provision that is currently in law that says that States have a chance to do better, not worse. What the States have been most interested in up until now is something called reinsurance, and the States that have been making headway in terms of their getting the green light from the Federal Government have used the existing law that I wrote. Yet the idea of letting States do worse is a different story, and it sure looks to me as if we will be seeing benefits cut and insurance plans being worth little more than the paper on which they are written. On top of that, Americans in red States should not be subjected to worse healthcare than those in blue States simply on the basis of their ZIP Codes.

So I come back to the bottom line in terms of bipartisanship in healthcare. I think that the way one makes lasting change in the American healthcare system is to find common ground across the aisle. I talked about some of the key principles behind it. I mentioned the fact that Chairman Hatch and I came together last night on a general framework for the children's health insurance bill.

Now, I have been approached by colleagues about this legislation, so I can only assume that means it is going to be pushed forward through the deeply partisan process known as reconciliation. That did not end well previously, and I am sure going to fight with everything I have to block partisan reconciliation tactics in the days ahead.

I close by saying let's try to pick up on the kind of approach Chairman Hatch and I tried to pursue last night--with a bipartisan effort on CHIP. Let's try to find common ground. I think healthcare is a basic human right. I also think Republicans have valid points with respect to there being a significant role for the private sector. I am interested in approaches that give all Americans the ability to have affordable, good-quality healthcare, and I think that we get it best if we pursue bipartisan approaches. I believe many of my colleagues here in the Senate share these views, and I hope the Senate will not have yet another knockdown, drag-out battle over a partisan reconciliation bill that will harm the American people but will instead pick up on the kind of bipartisan principles I have discussed tonight.
I thank the Presiding Officer and Senator Hoeven for the courtesy of having the additional time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source