Affordable Health Care For America Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. Speaker, as a practicing physician, I know that this bill has tremendous consequences for patients and for the economy. It is estimated that the $730 billion in new taxes in this bill will kill 5.5 million jobs. The CBO estimates that this will have an annual inflation rate of 8 percent, an annual inflation rate that more than doubles costs in 10 years.
The Republican bill expands access by lowering premiums 10 percent. This bill expands access by forcing businesses and individuals to purchase, and if they do not, the long arm of the State reaches out and grabs them and shakes out fees and penalties.
Now, it was said this morning by a Democratic colleague that we need to redefine freedom. We are going to need all kinds of new definitions. We are going to redefine freedom as the ability to do what the government tells you to do. We are going to redefine helping the economy as higher taxes and destroying jobs. We are going to redefine bending the cost curve as more than doubling costs in 10 years.
Consider not the rhetoric, but the facts. Please reject this bill.
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Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. Speaker, I have spent 20 years caring for the uninsured in Louisiana's public hospital system.
Skyrocketing costs put quality care out of reach for too many Americans, and I appreciate that everyone agrees the status quo is unacceptable.
All agree on the goals of reform: lower costs and expand access to quality care.
Unfortunately, this bill does not achieve our goals.
The Congressional Budget Office says it raises costs.
Without lowering costs, access or quality will suffer.
Its effects will be radical, but this is not a radical bill.
It turns insurance bureaucrats into federal bureaucrats.
There's no innovation, just nationalization.
Real reform would revolutionize health care.
Real reform would give patients, not bureaucrats, the power.
Unless patients are empowered with control over health care dollars and decisions, costs will not be lowered and access will not be expanded without sacrificing quality.
The road to real health reform begins with stopping this bill today.
I urge my colleagues to join me in this effort.
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