Affordable Care Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, as a Member of Congress, I have cast a number of important votes over the years, votes on whether to send our Nation's brave servicemembers to war or to impeach a President, but perhaps the most important vote I have ever cast was 11 years ago this week, in support of the Affordable Care Act.

Since the law's passage in 2010, the ACA has provided health insurance to more than 23 million Americans, including nearly 1 million Illinoisans. That is almost 1 out of every 20 people living in my home State. Thanks to the ACA, they are now covered. That measure was called the Affordable Care Act for a reason: It is estimated to have saved every family in America about $4,000 in health insurance premiums.

I don't think any of us could have predicted 11 years ago just how important the protections it guaranteed to Americans would become. Then came the coronavirus. In the year since the pandemic was declared, the virus has claimed more than half a million American lives. That is more than the number of American lives lost in World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam war combined.

We grieve with every family who has suffered a loss, and we know there are millions more Americans who have been affected by the virus. Thirty million of our family members, friends, colleagues, and neighbors have been diagnosed with COVID-19. That is 30 million Americans who are now living with a preexisting condition. We have heard stories about the so-called long-haulers, individuals who report they are still having health problems months after their original diagnosis. They are struggling with shortness of breath, trouble sleeping, severe fatigue, and other symptoms that NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins has deemed a ``significant public health concern.''

These Americans have enough to worry about as it is with their recovery; could you imagine if they also had to worry about being able qualify for health coverage? In a world without the ACA, they would have. Before the ACA was the law of the land, people could be denied health coverage or charged significantly higher premiums for having diabetes or asthma--even acne.

Could you imagine if this pandemic hit before we passed that law? The tens of millions of Americans who would have to wonder how they were going to pay for their care, their children's care, in the middle of a pandemic?

Thanks to the ACA, they are covered. It has been a lifeline for millions of Americans, like Michelle Crifasi, one of my neighbors in Springfield, IL. Recently, Michelle wrote to me about what the ACA has meant for her and her family. For much of her life, Michelle was burdened with an unknown illness, until she was finally diagnosed with common variable immune deficiency in her mid-thirties. It is a rare condition that limits the immune system's ability to fight infection. The diagnosis was bittersweet. While she could finally begin to understand and treat her condition, she later learned that she had passed it down to her daughter. Her husband also developed it after undergoing cancer treatment.

The good news is that Michelle and her family have health insurance through her employer, and because of the Affordable Care Act, this employer-based health plan can no longer deny Michelle health coverage or charge her higher premiums because she has a preexisting condition. Her insurer can no longer impose annual or lifetime caps on her care. It can't cut her off right when she needs healthcare the most. Michelle's daughter, Meredith, a junior at the University of Illinois- Springfield, is able to stay on her parents' plan until age 26. Because of the ACA, Michelle's health plan must cover her family's prescription drug costs.

Without insurance coverage, treating common variable immune deficiency can cost patients more than $100,000 a year. Put simply, these protections were not in place before the Affordable Care Act, and Michelle and her family are alive today because of these protections. This family's story is proof that the ACA is one of the greatest legislative accomplishments in modern American history, and it is also proof that there is a lot more we can do to protect people like her and her family.

While Michelle is grateful for the ACA, she recently told me that ``I feel there is more work to be done.'' And she is right, which is why we fought, as part of the American Rescue Plan, to expand health insurance subsidies and eligibility for plans covered under the ACA. These provisions will ensure that no enrollee spends more than 8.5 percent of their income on health insurance premiums. The typical 60-year-old couple in Illinois could see their premiums reduced by $1,300.

The ARP also increases eligibility for premium subsidies to working- class American families earning more than 400 percent of the Federal poverty level.

Outside of the ARP, the Biden-Harris administration has taken other steps to bolster the ACA, like creating a special open enrollment period and ensuring that the DOJ defends the law in the case before the Supreme Court. All of this is welcome news, and I look forward to working with the Biden-Harris administration to accomplish even more. That is why we not only celebrate the historic passage of the ACA but all of the lives it has saved as well.

After years of unrelenting, unjustified attacks on this critical piece of legislation, we are finally in a position to build on it. I am ready to work with the Biden-Harris administration to create a public option, lower prescription drug prices, and address racial and ethnic disparities in our healthcare system.

After 11 years since its passage, I am proud to declare: The ACA is here to stay.

And here in Congress, we will continue working to perfect it.

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