Medical Bills Are Too High

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative McClellan for running point on this Special Order hour for the CBC. She is a legislative champion both in the State house and in the Federal House. It is good to be with her tonight, and I thank her for recognizing me.

I also give a shout-out to our beloved leader of the CBC, Representative Yvette Clarke, who is doing a fine job leading us through these difficult times.

These are difficult times for us. We here in Congress are having a difficult time. You see it. But the difficulties we face are nothing to what you face out there. You are the ones who are struggling to put food on the table. You are the ones who are struggling to keep a roof over your head as the head of your family. You are the ones struggling to work 8 hours a day for an honest day's wage only to come up short and having to work second and third jobs in order to make ends meet while you see others living lavishly surrounded by gold ornaments on everything that they can touch, building ballrooms for the rich and wealthy after knocking down the historic east wing of the White House, and doing it without anybody's consent, just waking up and deciding I am going to do this.

We live in a democracy, not someplace where a king is in charge, and that king is playing politics with the people.

The other day, he floated the idea that he wanted to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, or ObamaCare tax credits. He floated that idea but got some pushback from a few Representatives on the Republican side of the aisle, and so he snatched it back.

He doesn't realize that real people are depending on those tax credits in order to make insurance affordable for them. People like Vivian in my district, who I had a phone conversation with recently about the rising cost of her healthcare premiums due to the Republicans' cruel refusal to extend ObamaCare tax subsidies, are depending on those tax credits.

She told me: That is just an amount I simply cannot afford.

Mr. Speaker, her premiums are going from $50 a month all the way up to $1,260 a month. From $50 a month to $1,260 a month. There is no way that she can afford that.

Vivian has suffered from psoriatic arthritis since she was 27, and she now has vision problems in one eye. She relies on specialty medications to deal with her conditions.

While Vivian faces skyrocketing healthcare costs, her husband is dealing with cancer. Luckily, he is on Medicare and is receiving the care that he needs, but if Vivian is cut off from her access to care, there is no way that she can keep going and take care of him at the same time.

She said: Without the ObamaCare subsidies, my quality of life will be nonexistent.

Vivian told me that without healthcare and access to her medications, she would lose vision in one eye, and because the medications help keep her arthritis at bay, it allows her to do seemingly simple things, such as to tie her shoes or walk without pain.

She said: ObamaCare subsidies have saved my life. I don't know what I will do without it. People are people. Access to quality, affordable care shouldn't be a partisan issue.

I agree. Americans like Vivian who are out there, those are the people who Democrats are fighting for.

In the wealthiest country in the world, no one should have to worry about affording medical care. That is why I will work with anybody in Congress, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, who believes that access to quality healthcare is a human right and not a privilege reserved only for those who can afford it.

Mr. Speaker, I have a number of other testimonials from people in my district, the Fourth District of Georgia, who have written and emailed what their situations are all about. They are many, and they are excruciatingly painful to listen to.

Over 1.5 million Georgians are in the health exchange, in the marketplace, and 340,000 of those, or about one-quarter will lose their coverage if we don't do something about these expiring tax credits.

A family of four earning $82,000 a year will see their annual premiums double to around $7,000 per year. It is just unsustainable for people to have to go through this month after month, and so we need to do something.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate our caucus for hosting this Special Order hour.

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