[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 6 (Tuesday, January 18, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H249-H252]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS AND THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs.
Christensen) is recognized for 30 minutes.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, it's an honor for me to join my
colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus for this half hour or so
to talk to the American people about the importance of the provisions
of the Affordable Care Act. For African Americans and other people of
color, as well as rural Americans, who make up more than half of the
uninsured, we cannot allow the law and the consumer protections to be
repealed. Not when we have just gotten one foot in the health care
door, some of us for the very first time.
For African Americans, who have higher death rates from all causes
than any other population group, the preventive services, the
strengthening of the public health force, the diversifying of an
expanded health workforce, the community health workers, the community
health centers, the Offices of Minority Health, those equity provisions
cannot be repealed. It's a matter of life and death for us.
I know that the Republicans and their leadership who are calling for
repeal won't ever say that they want to take away those benefits of the
law that make sure sick children can be ensured, that allow families to
keep their children who can't get jobs right away on their insurance
until they are 26, or make sure that your insurance will be there for
you when you need it most, when you get sick. They won't tell you that
they want to take those away, but that's exactly what would happen if
they are allowed to unravel this very carefully put together law.
Moreover, it should cause concern to every freedom-loving and
justice-seeking person in this country that two of the very first acts
of this 112th Congress have been to take away rights, privileges, or
benefits from United States citizens. They took away the vote in the
Committee of the Whole from Representatives elected and sent here by
over 5 million Americans.
And now the leadership is trying to take away services and benefits
that in effect would take away the right that everyone should have to
health care. Whatever the leadership tries to take away next, good
people must stand and speak and act to prevent them from doing so, as
we must not let them repeal the job-creating health care reform law
now.
{time} 2130
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who we remembered yesterday, spoke
about the appalling silence of good people.
So, my fellow Americans, what I am saying to you is we cannot be
silent. I know it must be difficult for you, our constituents, you, our
employers, to know what the Affordable Care Act does and what it
doesn't do, because there is so much distortion of the facts. So to
help explain what the bill, what the law does, and how devastating the
repeal would be, I want to now yield to my colleagues.
I will begin by yielding to the gentleman Georgia (Mr. Johnson).
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I thank my colleague for yielding to me.
I must admit that I feel somewhat, gosh, it seems like only yesterday
that the Republicans were accusing us of not taking care of what was
the business at hand, which was job creation and what they call
reckless spending. They accused us of wasting our time in the 111th
Congress where we should have been dealing with jobs and spending, and
they are doing the same thing.
They are wasting their time. The first month of the 112th Congress,
they are wasting their time trying to repeal health care for Americans,
the Affordable Care Act. It's mind-boggling to me that after the
Democrats' first month in office we dealt with the recovery package,
jobs, and thereafter we went through a long process of putting in place
a measure that will create 4 million new jobs in this economy that they
ran into the ground.
We pulled the car out of the ditch, got the car running, ready to
create 4 million new jobs, health care, 4 million new jobs to
accommodate the 32 million more Americans who would have access to the
health care system in this country as a result of our passage of that
act. And the Republicans, the first thing they do is want to kill a
job-creating act that will enable their constituents and mine to have
affordable health care.
It boggles the mind that we would want to turn the clock back, that
we would want to start walking in the opposite direction, taking away
benefits that have already gone into effect under the health care act
that we passed. They want to hurt small businesses which are able to
receive a 35 percent tax credit when they spend money insuring their
employees.
I saw a report earlier today indicating that hundreds of thousands of
new policies have been issued by insurance companies based on these
small businesses of less than 50 people that are choosing to offer
health care insurance to their employees. That is significant.
The health insurance industry is making a profit by offering fair
coverage to Americans. Preexisting conditions were something that young
people, children, were denied insurance for under the old regime of
insurance regulation. Under our act that the Democrats passed, no more
can you ban children from getting insurance based on preexisting
conditions, and that is something that's good.
My colleague from Iowa was just talking about a young child in his
district who would be denied coverage for a preexisting condition if
his parents had to go back into the market to purchase insurance due to
loss of a job or whatever, move, whatever the case might be. So this is
quite significant. We don't want to take that health care coverage away
from the children who have received it even though they have
preexisting conditions.
The $250 rebate for seniors who had reached the dreaded doughnut
hole, seniors got a $250 check in the mail in 2010 to help them with
that. In 2011, they will get a 50 percent discount on all brand name
and generic drugs, 50 percent. That is going to help so many Americans
with their drug bills. This is what they want to repeal. They want to
cost you, as a consumer, more money for prescription drugs.
And I am happy to stand on the side of those who say ``no'' to a
repeal of the health care legislation that we passed.
They want to be able to repeal provisions in the law that prevent and
prohibit insurance companies from canceling your insurance when you get
sick. That's a commonsense regulation to protect American consumers. My
friends on the other side of the aisle would, at the behest of those in
the insurance industry who spent about $100 million to defeat health
care legislation--and that was unsuccessful, so they went out and spent
hundreds of millions of dollars more to defeat the Democrats who voted
for it. And so now we are at the point where they want to reciprocate
to those who elected them at the expense of the very American people
who voted for them. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, Mr.
Speaker, it really does not.
Lifetime caps on coverage already in effect, they would repeal that.
They would allow the sale of insurance policies that would have a cap
on them, a lifetime cap. So you would pay ever-increasing premiums with
an ever-lessening amount of lifetime insurance coverage.
Well, we have taken that cap off. We have taken the unfairness out of
that equation by mandating that those clauses in insurance contracts
are void and unenforceable. So no more lifetime caps on insurance.
These are some of the things that enabled the insurance companies and
their corporate bosses, offices, shareholders and the like to obtain
millions and millions and billions and billions of dollars of profits
every year, going up every year.
Your premiums going up also, just reckless; no regulatory impact, no
care about what that's doing to America.
[[Page H250]]
It's actually costing the taxpayers a lot of money, Mr. Speaker,
because if people don't have insurance, that does not immunize them
from getting sick.
{time} 2140
We're all going to get sick one day. We're all going to need medical
care. We're all going to, at some point, need the care of a doctor or a
nurse. And it costs money. And if we don't have insurance, it can't be
paid for. So people without insurance don't get access to the health
care system until they get so ill that they have to go to the emergency
room. And at that point, taxpayers have to subsidize that cost. And so
it stands to reason that with 17 percent of our gross domestic product
being spent for medical care in this country, and the fact that that
has an impact on our interstate commerce, it means that the Federal
Government certainly has a role to play in regulating the health
insurance industry. And that's exactly what we did.
I want to now recognize, or flip it, if you will, back to my good
friend from the Virgin Islands.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I want to thank you, Mr. Johnson, for helping to
clarify some of the important areas that are provided for in the
Affordable Care Act. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but
not everyone is entitled to creating their own facts. And I think what
we're hearing tonight are the facts.
I would like to yield now 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas,
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I thank the gentlelady. It is a pleasure to
be able to join my colleagues on the floor, including Congressman
Gregory Meeks of New York, who we'll have the opportunity to hear from,
and I thank Dr. Christensen for your continued leadership, and my
colleague on Judiciary Committee, we had the opportunity to contribute
to the debate today.
The Judiciary Committee has as its jurisdiction the Constitution, and
our friends on the other side of the aisle keep talking about that this
is unconstitutional. It baffles me and almost frustrates me because I'm
trying to grab hold to what the argument is, particularly since we have
had Medicare by the Federal Government since 1965, and it has withstood
any constitutional challenge, and that was implemented under the
Commerce Act.
But frankly, if we have an argument to make on the Constitution, I
will share with you why this is clearly a constitutional bill, because
we are actually denying people both due process and equal protection
under the law under the present system because we have a nation that is
divided between the haves and have-nots. Forty million-plus, 44
million, now I hear 32 million persons were uninsured. That's what
grabbed our attention. Those people did not have access to health care.
Clearly, if you look at the Constitution that says that the 14th
Amendment says equal protection under the law, all people treated
equally, and the Fifth Amendment says can't deprive someone of life or
liberty without due process. Well, I can tell you over the time that we
debated this bill we saw the numbers of people who actually died
because they could not get access to health care. We are reminded of
our good colleague, Congressman Cummings, who told the story over and
over again of a young teenager, 12- or 13-year-old boy, African
American boy, who had an abscess, a tooth abscess, and clearly could
have been saved, his life was before him. But he died because his
mother did not have insurance or really did not have access to go
anywhere to have this particular health matter taken care of. It became
a crisis, and he died.
So I want to say to my friends, these are the basic points that I
want to raise today while I discuss this question of the 14th Amendment
and the Fifth Amendment. First of all, you hear the question of how
offended people are, I don't want to be told to buy insurance. Why
should I have to be forced to buy insurance? Well, as everyone knows,
there is a 10th Amendment that says what is not left to the Federal
Government is given to the States. States require you to have auto
insurance. If you do not have it, you are fined. You get a ticket.
Because they have calculated that the burden of not having health
insurance is too great to bear. And so when we think of people not
having health insurance because they don't have access, we have
determined that the burden is too great to bear, $143 billion if this
bill is repealed right away, and $1 trillion over 20 years that we will
lose, or the deficit will be built. And I would imagine it might be
more if you determine the people that will be uninsured who will go on
to the county system.
Does everybody know in these districts around the Nation who are
complaining about this bill that your hospitals, your county hospitals
that are burdening your local taxpayers will be actually compensated
for uncompensated care? I don't know about anyone here, but I can tell
you my hospitals are jumping for joy.
And so I just want to point this out. Children with preexisting
conditions are denied coverage, that is the sickle cell child, that is
the individual with heart disease. We determined in our Democratic
Policy and Steering Committee that children are the greatest that have
the possibility of dying because of lack of coverage. And so all of
these children, asthma, parents who have children with asthma, they are
born, and there are babies with asthma. Do you realize they cannot or
could not get insurance even on their parents' insurance? Asthma. How
many children have died with asthma? Particularly in the minority
community, where we have been subjected to poor quality living
conditions. Maybe the air quality, because of where we live, industrial
waste, or maybe it is because of the quality of the house that you are
in, asbestos, other ailments that create conditions that cause
respiratory illnesses in children, those are respiratory illnesses,
young people age 26. A young man by the name of Andrew today said he's
been working very hard, he graduated from college, but unfortunately
the job that he had offered to him has been pushed back because of the
economy. He is working to get more experience as an intern with no
compensation. His family cannot afford to keep him on to pay for
independent insurance at this point. But yet he is being constructive,
and he can be constructive because he can be on his parents' insurance.
Pregnant women and breast and prostate cancer patients, in particular,
African American women and minority women have a devastating form of
breast cancer. My father had prostate cancer, and at the age he was and
the atmosphere that we were in and the medical access he had at that
time, one, he didn't tell the family, two, we were uninformed about
this thing called prostate cancer, and we didn't find out about it
until it had metastasized. My father actually had lung cancer and brain
cancer.
There is a statistic: An African American male over 65 that did not
have the proper access to health care to be able to catch his prostate
cancer. Now this bill will provide for preventive care so that members,
no matter what economic station you are in or status you are in, you
have the ability to access health care, meaning you can go to a
community health clinic or the community health centers, excuse me, or
you may be able to buy your own health insurance at the rate in the
amount you can.
There is a complaint here, as I said, about lacking the ability or
not wanting to buy health insurance. Well, I would argue to that
person, the argument I made about the 10th Amendment and automobile
insurance, but I also argue, would you rather have these individuals
die or burden the massive public health system? Or would you rather
have them have access to be healthy as opposed to being sick?
Then something has been said, job-killing bill. And one of the points
that the Republicans make is 650,000 jobs lost. They are not telling
the accurate story. The 650,000 jobs lost are people deciding not to
work or to work less because they now have the ability to get their own
insurance that is not tied to a job through the exchange. That is the
accuracy of it. It's voluntary, voluntary separation from a job because
I am independent now to be able to go into business, to be a sole
entrepreneur, a sole proprietor, and still have my insurance. And so
these people would immediately be thrown off because a pregnant woman
would be considered a preexisting disease; breast cancer, obviously one
of the more devastating diseases; prostate cancer. And
[[Page H251]]
do you know what else? Heart disease which kills or has 43 million
women today living with heart disease, some of whom do not know it
because they do not have preventive care.
And then, our seniors have been frightened by death panels. Seniors,
let me simply say to you, there will be living panels because you will
get a 50 percent discount on your doughnut hole process and brand name
prescription drugs. But more importantly, you'll be able to have a
primary care doctor, you'll have community health clinics you can go
to, you'll have what we call a medical home so you won't have to be
worrying about, who is my doctor? You will have a consistent doctor,
maybe even electronic records.
Particularly hard-hit are minority seniors or seniors in rural areas
where hospitals are not even. But if they can go to a community health
clinic that can diagnose them so they don't have to go to an emergency
room or be helicoptered to a major city because they reached a crisis,
seniors, this is a living bill for you.
{time} 2150
And then, of course, this whole question of the deficit, I've already
mentioned, but this idea of small businesses, let me tell you that
small businesses are jumping for joy. Dr. Odetta Coin today said to us
that she is glad that her pediatric practice will be able to get tax
credits for her employees to provide health care and that she will be
able to add another nurse practitioner just because this bill provides
for small businesses.
So I can only say that this whole question of job loss is shaky, the
whole question of the Constitution is shakier, and I conclude by saying
this, and I will be on the floor again tomorrow: The Constitution has
been misused in this debate. I beg of people to get the Constitution.
It is quite the opposite. H.R. 2 is unconstitutional, because it
creates an unequal system in America, a system of unequalness as
relates to health care. We've lived that way but we have not been able
to get those who have been most deprived to take this case up all the
way to the Supreme Court. Why did I not have health insurance? Why does
my neighbor have it and I don't have it? Well, we are now equalizing.
With the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, we're giving you
the protection of the Constitution to the 14th Amendment and the Fifth
Amendment of due process and equal protection. I can't imagine a better
way to value America than to say that all of us deserve the dignity of
our flag and our Constitution.
I thank the gentlelady, Dr. Christensen, for her leadership.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Jackson Lee, and thank you
for tying in to the constitutional issues, because we're going to be
asked to provide constitutional references for every legislation that
we introduce and the constitutional issue has been raised over and over
again and I thank you for addressing that in your remarks.
I would now like to yield to the gentleman from New York, Congressman
Meeks.
Mr. MEEKS. I want to thank the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands. I
also want to thank the gentlelady from Houston, Texas, Sheila Jackson
Lee, for that excellent statement on the Constitution and the 14th and
the Fifth Amendments.
I am so serious about this issue that on this night when I don't have
much of a voice, it is important to talk about what is really going on
here. When you think about the Constitution, the first thing that we
were doing when we came back in the 112th was the reading of the
Constitution. The Constitution was really put in place to help and
protect Americans. It's one thing to read the Constitution. It's
another thing to live the Constitution. I think the gentlelady put out
the facts clearly down to the 14th and the Fifth Amendments, this is
constitutional. I think it is also clearly what the Constitution, what
the individuals who wrote in 1787, it was a committee of the Federal
Convention, that it should remind us that the sacred text employs and
empowers us to provide for and protect the American people.
What is the most precious thing that one has? Is it money? What is
the most precious thing? It's called life. Without life, what do we
have? And what is the most important thing in living a good life? It's
health. So wouldn't it seem that what would be the most appropriate
thing to do is that we provide health care for Americans? It is without
question I think that we can agree, whether we're Democrat or
Republican, we believe that we have the best country on the planet, in
the history of the planet. But look at the blemish that history will
record on our great Nation if we do not provide or give access to
health care for all Americans. This is a struggle that we have had for
debate after debate after debate, from President before President
before President. And finally this Congress did come together in the
111th Congress and said, we're going to provide health care to 95
percent of all Americans. No, we're not perfect. The fact of the matter
is I don't know any bill that has ever been passed in any legislative
body that is perfect. We've got to work, and in fact we talk about our
union, to make it a more better union. The health care reform bill
clearly does that.
Now the logic to come and to repeal the whole bill confuses me. For
even the Constitution of the United States of America was not a perfect
document. Clearly for those of us who happen to be African Americans,
when the Founding Fathers wrote it, they said we were only three-fifths
of a human being. Clearly the Constitution didn't give women the right
to vote. The document itself as it was initially written was flawed.
But we as a Nation didn't say come and strike the entire Constitution;
repeal the Constitution. That's not what was done. What we did was we
said, Let's fix it. Let's look and see where we can agree upon to amend
it. In fact, there was a small debate on the floor right here which
Constitution would be read. Would it be the amended version? And that's
what we talked about, the amended version of the Constitution. That's
what was read here.
So where is the logic now where we clearly have the law of the land
to come and say, get rid of it all? You've clearly heard from the
gentleman from Georgia and the others that have spoken this evening
about making sure that there is no individual who's denied health care
because of a preexisting condition. This bill assures us of that. If
you have a child under 26 years of age, not working, they can stay on
their parents' health care. Seniors and the doughnut hole, we fixed
that.
So if you've got a serious problem that you want to negotiate and
talk about that's within this bill that's a problem, that's a flaw,
that needs to be amended, then I think that as a body we can sit down
and work together to get that done.
And so I say when I look at where we are, or ask my staff, for
example, in my little district in New York, the Sixth Congressional
District.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman from the Virgin
Islands has expired.
Mr. MEEKS. Let me just end by saying this.
Let's make sure that health care is not a privilege for a few but a
right for the many. Let us make sure that we do not destroy this great
health care reform bill that's now law.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, let me thank our CBC
Chair, Emanuel Cleaver and the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands,
Congresswoman Christensen for anchoring this Special Order in order to
pursue a very important discussion on the leadership of the
Congressional Black Caucus and the Health Care Reform.
We remain committed to our diligent work to be the conscience of the
Congress, but also to provide dedicated and focused service to the
citizens and Congressional Districts that have elected us. I hope that
this discussion will highlight the impact of how the repeal of the
Affordable Act would impact the American people; particularly, within
the minority community.
We know that not all Americans have equal access to health care.
It is all too unfortunate that persons of low-income, or of diverse
racial and ethnic backgrounds, and other underserved populations have
higher rates of disease.
This same population frequently experience fewer treatment options,
and reduced access to the care they need.
Worst of all, minority populations are also less likely to have
health insurance than the population as a whole.
But now, because of the Affordable Care Act, minorities can benefit
from:
Preventative Care that includes regular screenings, annual wellness
check-ups, cancer screenings, and immunizations--all at no additional
cost.
[[Page H252]]
Care that is coordinated to help patients manage their chronic
diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, high-blood pressure, cancer,
and many other ailments that require multiple health teams.
Training to increase diversity within the health professions so that
patients have more choice of providers who are racially and ethnically
diverse. Also, health plans will be required to use language services
and community outreach in underserved communities.
Expansion of the health care workforce with increased funding for
community health centers, which provide comprehensive health care for
everyone no matter how much they are able to pay.
Banning insurance companies from discriminating against those
patients who have been sick. No longer will sick patients be excluded
from coverage or charged higher premiums. Neither will women have to
pay higher premiums simply because of their gender.
I am confident that if we repeal Affordable Care Act, we present a
grave, unhealthy danger to the lives of our most vulnerable populations
who need health care most by playing politics.
I urge my Republican colleagues to revisit the thought of repealing
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by working with eager
Democrats to continue building a bridge to a healthier America--for
all.
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