Senate Proposed Healthcare System Is Insane

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, Albert Einstein is reported to have once said: The definition of insanity is trying to do the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Using that definition, the men in the white coats with large butterfly nets have plenty of wacky patients to catch in the Senate, where this week--tomorrow, in fact--the Republican leadership is once again, for over the 60th time, trying to jam through a so-called healthcare bill which will repeal the Affordable Care Act without a coherent replacement.

Once again, the Republican leadership will force a vote without analysis by the Congressional Budget Office of the Cassidy-Graham bill, no hearings at the healthcare committee; and in the face of a tidal wave of opposition from the healthcare world, patient groups, healthcare givers, and even Republican Governors have had one message over the last week, which is to vote ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, just to give you a small sample of some of the patient groups that have spoken out over the last week in opposition to this measure, they include the ALS Association, the American Cancer Society, The American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the Arthritis Foundation, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the National Kidney Foundation, the Down Syndrome Caucus, the American Foundation for the Blind, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Amputee Coalition of America, the Autism Speaks group, the Coalition to Stop Opioid Overdose, and AARP.

These are mainstream, trusted organizations, which all of us have donated to, done walkathons, done everything we can to help their missions, which is to help America's patients. They are unanimous that the Senate should reject this measure and that we should move on to a new approach--following Mr. Einstein's advice--to try and fix the American healthcare system.

Incredibly, American provider groups, who at many times are at each other's throats in terms of different healthcare legislation, have also taken the same position: the American Medical Association; the American Nurses Association; the Association of American Medical Colleges; the American Hospital Association; the Catholic Health Association of the United States; and the American Health Care Association, which represents thousands of nursing homes like the one that just cared for that gentleman that we heard such kind words about a moment ago from Louisiana.

Again, incredibly, the National Association of Medicaid Directors from all 50 States--Republican States and Democratic States--issued an extraordinary letter last week. Again, these are folks who run the system. They are actually on the ground. They are in the real world, not in the political bubble of Washington, and they have unanimously begged the Senate to vote ``no,'' and to stop this rush to undermining and creating a catastrophic damage to America's healthcare system.

The RAND Corporation issued a report just a couple of days ago that talked about the impact of this measure on America's veterans. 1.75 million American veterans use the Medicaid program; many in nursing homes, maybe like Mr. Hunter, who we just heard about. The RAND Corporation has told us that passing this measure will undermine our promise to America's veterans, the people who wore the uniform of this country, that they would have access to coverage through the Medicaid program. That is what this bill does.

Mr. Speaker, in the real world, at the end of this week, the Children's Health Insurance Program, a bipartisan measure that passed a couple of decades ago, expires its authorization. The law that provides authorization for America's community health centers, that expires at the end of this week. The National Health Service Corps, which allows young Americans to get the opportunity for affordable medical education, that expires at the end of this week.

That is what we should be focused on; not another mindless rushed judgment to satisfy a political promise that the American people don't want and we know, from all the folks who are out there in the real world of America's healthcare system, won't work. Vote ``no.''

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