Protecting Access to Healthcare Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise today in opposition to this legislation. Whether or not you're a fan of the IPAB, I strongly urge you to oppose the bill. This bill is not about IPAB.

This bill is nothing more than a political maneuver to attack the Affordable Care Act on the 2-year anniversary of its enactment.

I challenge anyone to talk to one of the over 7,000 young adults in my district who now have health care insurance coverage and ask them if the Affordable Care Act should be repealed. Or maybe the 6,000 seniors in my district who have saved over $3 million on the cost of prescription drugs. Or the 30,000 children and 120,000 adults who now have health care insurance that actually covers preventive services without burdensome copayments. Or the thousands of children with preexisting health conditions who will no longer be denied coverage by health insurers or told they've hit their lifetime cap for services because of a disease with which they were born. Ask them if they'd like to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act.

No one has ever suggested that this bill was the perfect solution to health care, but we should be working together to fix it, not trying to repeal it for cheap political points. And to add the medical malpractice provision that they added in this bill, that is so wrong-headed that the doctors in California have come out in opposition to this bill. Any doctor will tell you there's work that needs to be done in regard to medical malpractice, but the way this was done has even brought the doctors to the table in opposition.

So, on behalf of the millions of Americans who are already benefiting from the Affordable Care Act, I ask you to join with me and with the California doctors in opposition to this legislation that does no one any good at all.

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