State Health Care Premium Reduction Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, today, we vote on this bill that improves the Affordable Care Act by cutting the cost of healthcare for families at an unprecedented, anxious time in American life.

More than 2.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19. In the insurance world, that means millions more with a preexisting condition.

Astonishingly, in the midst of this healthcare emergency, when we should be protecting coverage, the Trump administration, last week, asked the Supreme Court to strike down the entire ACA.

If Mr. Trump has his wish, those 2.5 million Americans, along with 130 million others with preexisting conditions, will lose the landmark pro-patient protection that has been on the books for the past 10 years, namely, the right to health coverage even if you have been sick before and the confidence and serenity to know that you won't be charged more because of an illness in your past.

It is right there on the first page of the ACA, section 2704: ``Prohibition of preexisting condition exclusions or other discrimination based on health status.''

Yet, the administration in its brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court a few days ago says: ``The entire ACA must fall.'' That is a verbatim quote.

Well, Madam Speaker, if the ACA falls, preexisting condition protections fall with it, along with age-26 coverage for dependent children and the elimination of lifetime limits on health coverage, which will devastate patients with chronic illness.

Last night, The Wall Street Journal reported that the President once again admitted that neither he nor his Senate majority have the slightest clue what their plan is if their wrecking ball of the ACA succeeds.

Madam Speaker, during the last 4 months' avalanche of layoffs, millions of Americans have desperately reached out to their State's ACA exchanges in search of health coverage after losing job-based insurance, 54,000 just in Connecticut alone.

At this time of severe economic uncertainty when a deadly virus is ravaging communities both rural and urban, we must do everything in our power to strengthen health insurance and make it more affordable, which this bill does. To shrink from this challenge and roll back the clock on 10 years of progress would be a complete dereliction of duty.

Vote ``yes'' on this bill.

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