State Health Care Premium Reduction Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. CRAIG. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I ask you: What good is a cure if you can't access it because you can't afford it?

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is immensely personal to me. See, I grew up for a portion of my childhood without health insurance. I also spent more than 20 years working in two healthcare manufacturing companies and was responsible for providing healthcare to 18,000 Americans at a U.S. company.

These experiences and the stories I have heard across my district are why I am here today working to reduce out-of-pocket costs and the price of prescription drugs.

Today, Les and his family, they farm in my district. They pay over $20,000 a year in premiums with a $12,000 deductible.

Another family farms by flashlight and works another job during the day, just for the family health insurance.

These examples show the heart of the problem: If healthcare isn't affordable, it is not accessible.

I am proud that the base of this bill is my bipartisan bill, H.R. 1425, the State Health Care Premium Reduction Act, the first healthcare legislation that I authored as a Member of Congress. This bill will allow States to lower the cost of premiums in the individual marketplace and to expand access to healthcare to more Americans. I am also pleased that this package includes the transformational drug price negotiation mechanism from the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, which finally takes on the high cost of prescription drugs.

For the 51 percent of nonelderly with preexisting conditions in my congressional district, the ACA was a lifeline. This is a moment that requires us to come together as Americans to strengthen the ACA and reduce the cost and increase the access to healthcare.

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