Affordable Care Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. TAKANO. I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding time.

I rise today to stage an intervention, an intervention for Speaker Boehner and the House Republicans. Now, this intervention is not because they are wearing goofy hats or are spray tanning too much. This intervention is over their obsession with repealing or delaying the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare.

Now, just this week, the open enrollment period ended, and it is estimated that more than 7 million Americans signed up for private health coverage through healthcare.gov or their State exchanges. That number does not include the millions of young adults who are staying on their parents' plans or those getting coverage through Medicaid for the first time. The open enrollment period was one of the final pieces of ObamaCare.

Now, millions of Americans finally have access to affordable coverage that can't be taken away just because they get sick. Despite that, Speaker Boehner and the House Republicans are committed to fighting a battle that they have lost and have scheduled the 52nd vote to repeal or delay ObamaCare.

The Affordable Care Act passed the House. It passed the Senate and was signed by the President and has been upheld by the Supreme Court. Despite millions of dollars being funneled into misleading ads that discouraged people from getting covered, this is a law that millions of Americans have embraced and have benefited from. We saw an incredible surge in the final days of open enrollment, with consumers reportedly lining up around the block at some sign-up centers.

But if you talk to Republicans, it is clear they are still in the first stage of denial, denial of the facts, denial of the benefits, denial that our health care system is finally doing what it is supposed to do for the first time in a long time. My Republican colleagues must stop making excuses and blaming others. They have put themselves in this position.

Even in the first few days of the rollout, when the system was admittedly struggling, Republicans were predicting ObamaCare's complete and total failure. John Boehner called the initial numbers ``a symbol of the failure of the President's health care law.'' My colleague from California, Congressman Darrell Issa, said, ``It is time for the President to finally acknowledge ObamaCare isn't working and to delay the law.''

Funny how they believed the numbers then, because they seemingly have doubts about what is being reported now. According to Senator John Barrasso, the administration was ``cooking the books.''

To my Republican friends, I want to say: this is a safe place. We are here to help. Your addiction to repealing ObamaCare and peddling conspiracy theories about the law are not doing any good for yourselves or for the American people.

Stop standing on the wrong side of history. Let's move on. Let's accept that ObamaCare is the law of the land. Let's get back to being productive as a legislative body.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Thank you, Congressman. Thank you for your comments, and also thank you for all of you in California who have been one of the States that has shown the Nation what is possible in helping to offer insurance to the hardworking men and women of your State.

We, as Americans, we appreciate that.

Mr. TAKANO. Well, it is a point of pride that even in my area of California, the Inland Empire, my county has met, has exceeded its enrollment goals under Covered California, and just a few days ago we had reached a million in California alone. It is because we have a State legislature and a Governor who cooperated from the beginning. I don't understand any Governor or any State legislature that would intentionally try to keep low-income people from getting coverage.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. You make a wonderful point. California and several other States have had the benefit of a State legislature and a Governor who have been helpful in making sure that the Affordable Care Act, health care coverage, is available to their residents.

In places like the State where I live, in Texas, you have a Governor, State legislators, both Senators who are actively working and campaigning against the Affordable Care Act. So, many of us, not just elected officials but others who are trying to make sure that people have health care coverage, have faced a very strong headwind when trying to get the word out about the Affordable Care Act.

I told a story earlier about a woman who showed up at an enrollment fair in San Antonio and she ended up being able to provide insurance for herself and her family, but she went there and she was skeptical at first. Well, part of the reason she was skeptical is because there has been so much misinformation about this law and so much demonization about the law that I am not surprised that a lot of Americans would say, hey, you know, that thing doesn't sound like a good thing. It sounds like a bad thing.

Mr. TAKANO. There has been so much distortion. And to my way of thinking, it is diabolical to spend money on distorting ads to confuse people intentionally, to get young people to not sign up for the law, to undermine the law in that way

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. That is right. You bring up a good point.

There was a group that was specifically set up to go on to college campuses, funneled millions of dollars to go on to college campuses to convince college students not to enroll in the Affordable Care Act. That is just amazing to me.

Mr. TAKANO. Fortunately, I can tell you stories of someone who is under 30, one of those young invincibles, but who was wise enough to know that it made sense for a young person to sign up because it was so very affordable, and he convinced his employer that she needed to take a look at what the exchange had to offer.

As it turned out, he discovered he had a very serious condition, and he was one of those young people who discovered that they did need health insurance and that he was facing far larger bills than if he didn't have any coverage at all.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. California also, I believe, expanded Medicaid, and that is something that Texas didn't do. In fact, I remember several months back, when the State legislative session in Texas was still going on, and usually it goes to about the end of May or early June. We went down there and we were doing a press conference, and at the same time, the Governor and the Senators, Lieutenant Governor, all Republicans were doing their press conference.

Our junior Senator, Senator Cruz, compared folks who need Medicaid and accept Medicaid to drug addicts, compared them to drug addicts. And the State's leadership implied that--not implied, said--allowing Medicaid to low-income Texans was like getting people hooked on sugar or drugs.

Mr. TAKANO. Forgive me. I may be speaking--I don't think what I am saying is an exaggeration, but I see that the denial of the expansion of Medicaid by some of these States is nothing less than a war on the poor. I don't know how else to say it.

Twenty-four percent of my congressional district were uninsured before the ACA. I have seen charts and maps of congressional districts color-coded, and I have seen many of those districts in Texas that are at the same level of uninsured as my congressional district.

In my congressional district, we benefit greatly from the expansion of our version of Medicaid, which is Medi-Cal. And the beauty is that the expiration is not to end it as of the 31st of March. People who qualify for Medi-Cal can continue to sign up for it year-round.

But to think that in Texas that it is not available to people who are low-income, to me, is unconscionable.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. I appreciate those words. Unfortunately, in Texas there are a lot of people suffering needlessly, hardworking people. These are not lazy people. These are people that are going to work day in and day out, but they are suffering because their State leadership--even though Texas was going to get up to $90 billion for Medicaid expansion. The Federal Government was providing the funds through 2017 and then providing 90 percent of the funds after that. Despite the fact that it made economic sense, still, the State's leadership refused to do it.

I think it is worth mentioning a few other things. A lot of us, we saw there were long lines on Monday, March 31 of people waiting to enroll in the Affordable Care Act. It is worth noting that anybody that started that process on March 31 but was not able to complete it has until April 15 to actually finish it off. So the 7.1 million number of the number of folks that have enrolled will very likely, I would think, go up by at least a few hundred thousand people.

Mr. TAKANO. At least the folks in Texas, who can sign up with the Federal exchange, can get insurance if they are online, but it is unfortunate that those low-income Texans have no place to go.

I will just say to the folks in California, those low-income people who can still qualify for Medi-Cal, that you can still sign up. There is not a deadline for you. You are presumed qualified if you meet a certain income test. So the effects of the Affordable Care Act are still going to continue in my State for those who need health care the most and those who have heretofore not had access to medical care.

It has been a pleasure sharing this time with you on the floor, Representative Castro.

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