[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 163 (Wednesday, November 4, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H12338]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Madam Speaker, I am compelled to address this body 
tonight after having listened to my colleagues over the last few days 
fabricate falsely about the Affordable Health Care for America Act.
  Every 12 minutes, an American dies in the greatest country on Earth 
simply because he cannot afford to live. Americans lie right now, as I 
speak, in their homes while in pain, suffering because they cannot 
afford the care that would bring them relief.
  I meet people in my district who choose between medication and food, 
parents who go without medical treatment to pay for heat and clothing 
for their children, and family members who believe with all their 
hearts that loved ones have died because they lacked adequate health 
care.
  Like the misrepresentations about this bill, these injustices must 
stop. The time to act is now. In the words of President Obama, we must 
have the urgency of now.
  H.R. 3962 helps uninsured Americans immediately. It immediately 
creates an insurance program with financial assistance for those who 
are uninsured or for those who have been denied policies because of 
preexisting conditions. It also allows those who are unemployed to keep 
their COBRA coverage until the exchange is operational.
  Health insurance reform will mean greater stability and lower costs 
for all Americans. That means affordability for the middle class, 
security for our seniors, and responsibility to our children. It also 
will mean coverage for 96 percent of Americans. According to the CBO, 
the bill reduces the deficit by $30 billion over the first 10 years.
  In their speeches, Republicans have described this bill as the 
Speaker's bill. They call it the ``Pelosi bill.'' This bill does not 
belong to the Speaker, although she has done a phenomenal job in 
helping us to craft it.
  This bill belongs to the hardworking Americans who have insurance but 
who want a more transparent and stable health care marketplace that 
focuses on quality, affordable choices for all Americans, and that 
keeps insurers honest.
  It belongs to 47 million Americans who are suffering and who have no 
help on the horizon.
  This bill belongs to the seniors living in rural areas all over our 
country who will receive better Medicare coverage because of this bill.
  It belongs to the children throughout our Nation who are so poor that 
their parents cannot even afford checkups. These are the children whose 
lives will be crippled by diabetes simply because doctors have not 
diagnosed them as being at risk.
  Our children are our living messages we send to a future we will 
never see. The question is: What type of message are we sending? They 
will suffer simply because they do not know how to reverse the symptoms 
leading them down a troubled road.
  This bill belongs to 44,000 Americans who die every year because they 
lack insurance. They have been guaranteed life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness by founding documents to which my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle constantly refer. Americans are denied 
those things by the thousands. They cannot afford care and so they die.
  That's right, Madam Speaker. For every page that Republicans have 
printed out and have used as props, for every page, 22 Americans will 
die this year because they cannot pay for the care that will save their 
lives.
  It is telling that, using valuable tax dollars, they printed those 
pages to make copies of a bill that is available, searchable, and 
downloadable online. It is a perfect metaphor for the millions of 
dollars this bill will save Americans.
  Our health care system will save more than $150 billion every year, a 
call that President Obama made in the beginning of his campaign. The 
bill moves America to a health care system with an electronic 
recordkeeping system, cutting fraud, excessive administrative costs and 
medical mistakes.
  Republicans do not care about those savings or about that progress. 
Like the pages of the taxpayer-provided paper used here today on this 
floor, they are props--only interested in being weights to drag down, 
to slow down, and to eventually stop true health care reform.
  It pains me to say these words, but this is how I feel.

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