Repeal of the Affordable Health Care Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Thank you, and I appreciate your hard work. Thank you for organizing this Special Order so we can discuss the problems with repealing health care.
You have gone all through the need for health care during your life and how the bill provides assistance for those with preexisting conditions. It limits insurance company abuses, like what's called a ``recision,'' when you have paid your premiums all these years and then finally get sick, and they want to cancel your policy right when you need it. There are lifetime and annual limits on benefits where they pay a certain amount, and once they get to that, you can be in the middle of a treatment, and they're not going to pay another dime for the rest of your life or at least for the rest of that year. There are many people with chronic diseases who hit up upon these limits very frequently.
You have talked about young people on their parents' policies, who are working, who finally get jobs. They don't cover benefits. Up to 26 years old, they can stay on their parents' policies.
We have talked about prevention, the importance of prevention. A lot of people, because of copayments and deductibles, can't afford their annual checkups. This bill provides for annual checkups without copayments and deductibles.
For those senior citizens in the doughnut hole, where they get no benefits, adding insult to injury, they have to continue paying their premiums, and get no benefit. We have assistance for them.
It is outrageous that they would elect to try to repeal this. No hearings. No nothing. Just put a label on it and call it ``ObamaCare'' and then expect people to go along with the repeal. You just can't label things
and expect people, by virtue of the label, to take action. They call it ``government-run health care.'' No. Government-run health care was the single-payer plan. That was defeated.
The option of a public option would have been nice. People talk about choice. Well, in the plan that's on the books today, they have the choice of all the plans of anybody who wants to sell insurance in their States. They have a choice of all of them. It would be nice to have an additional choice--a choice of a public option where you have the choice of a policy that is not run by a for-profit corporation with a financial interest in denying you coverage or canceling your policy. It would be nice to have that option. You don't have to pick it, but it's just nice to have that option.
One of the things that we want to make sure is that we have as many options as possible, including a public option if we can ever get there; but when we talk about repeal and replace, there is no replace tomorrow in the rule that they are suggesting. They just want it repealed. We want to know what they're going to replace it with and what they're going to leave out.
Are they going to leave out the part where people with preexisting conditions can get covered? Are they going to say, ``No, you can't get covered''? Does the insurance company get to decide who has the privilege? Are health insurance companies going to tell young people under 26 to get off their parents' policies? Are they going to tell those in the doughnut hole to get back in the doughnut hole where they belong? Are they going to talk about those who can't afford prevention to get prevention? Are they going to tell those who are going to run out of coverage because of the limits, ``No, that's enough. You've had enough, and you can't get any more coverage''?
What are they going to tell all of these people?
We need to make sure that we keep this policy, all of these provisions, intact. I have no idea what they want to replace it with, but I think, if they went step by step and if the people looked at the provisions of the bill, they would elect to keep everything that's in the bill today.
Now, there are some things that people don't like. When you have a good plan, you have to pay for it. Unfortunately, they're not paying for it. We were fiscally responsible. When we passed it, we were under PAYGO. They've repealed a lot of that so that they can go trillions of dollars in the ditch without paying for it. We paid for it. In fact, the CBO originally said that the first 10 years of the program would reduce the deficit by $140 billion. Now the estimate is $200-some billion in the next 10 years. So it is fiscally responsible.
There are things we can do better together than everybody out for their own. We need to oppose the repeal of this health care to make sure that people have the protections and the Patients' Bill of Rights that they have under this legislation.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Thank you very much. And I appreciate your hard work and leadership on this. You've talked about the problems in health care with government. It's just not a government problem. If you ask any human resources executive about the major problems they have and benefits package, it's the ability to afford health care. Health care costs are going out of control. If you have an employee with a preexisting condition and he's in the group, then they do the actuarial study, you start getting bills that you can't pay. You ask any human resources what's happened to their insurance costs over the years. It's just going through the sky. And if you look at the employee portion of health care, it goes from zero participation to a little bit more copays, more deductibles, more cost for the family, on and on and on. Everyone has a great deal of insecurity about their ability to do health care.
And then you look at the idea, what happens if you lose a job? If you have a preexisting condition, you will not be able to get health care until this bill passed.
With all this insecurity, your ability to get health care, your ability to be able to afford it in the future, all of these problems, all of these problems in the future, what is the response from the other side about what to do about that kind of insecurity?
They say, well, just be strong and go without insurance like me. Well, that is not a particularly attractive solution for those that don't have an alternative, don't have a spouse where you can just jump, you know, you can say I'm not going to take government policy, I'm going to use my spouse's policy; we have an alternative. Or if they're so wealthy, they don't need the insurance.
Most Americans aren't in that situation. They need health insurance. And this is what is provided. You have access to it, and it is affordable.
Everyone in America will be able to afford health insurance in 2014 because those that can't afford it will have subsidies to make sure that they can. So everybody will be able to get it.
If you make less than $88,000, you can get health care for less than 10 percent of your salary. That is not the case now. If you are in the $20,000, $40,000, $50,000 a year bracket, if you can get insurance, it's going to be a lot more than that.
So with this bill people have the security of health insurance that they don't have now. And the bizarre suggestion, just go without insurance, is not particularly nice when you have children that may have a little ear infection. Rather than have them lose their hearing, you can deal with it when it is a little infection, these problems don't grow out of control. We need that security. This bill provides it.
And in terms of seniors, seniors are particularly helped under this legislation. Those that can't afford the copays and deductibles can get their annual checkups without any copays and deductibles. We are helping fill in the doughnut hole. It will take a little time, but eventually there will be no doughnut hole where they fall in and have to pay all of the drug costs. We provide more community health centers so they will have better access. We are training more doctors and nurses so they will have more professionals. You have a chart that extends Medicare. Medicare is extended. We know that Medicare will go broke if we don't do anything. It extends the solvency of Medicare. It lowers prescription drug costs. All of these things that seniors have a particular interest in, all of that will be lost if this bill is repealed.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. You said that people were scared about what might happen. They also said things about small business, this would bankrupt small businesses.
First, small businesses are exempt from the requirements under the bill, so it can't possibly hurt them. But those small businesses that want to provide health care for their employees are given tax credits to help them do so. So it can't possibly be hurting small business. But for the senior citizens, they have all of the benefits that you have listed on the chart that will be lost if this bill is repealed.
Mr. GARAMENDI. You mentioned the doughnut hole, the prescription drug doughnut hole. Every senior that was in the prescription drug doughnut hole last year, 2010, received a $250 check to help them pay for their drugs. In going forward, the doughnut hole will be lessened and lessened, and eventually, 9 years from now, will disappear. There will be no doughnut hole.
You talked about the quality of care. Extremely important, quality of care. Thank you for bringing that up. More primary doctors, more geriatric care from nurses and doctors, an extraordinary important part of the legislation, not just only for seniors. You also mentioned the community-based and of course the preventative care. All of these things are there, and all of them will disappear if the Republicans are successful with their legislation next Wednesday that will be brought to this floor without one hearing to discuss any of these issues in a relevant policy committee.
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