[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 69 (Thursday, May 16, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H2707]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REGARDING THE PATIENTS' RIGHTS REPEAL ACT
(Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute.)
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I wanted a moment to reflect. This was
a very sad day for me. Having been here during the emotional time
during the debate on the Affordable Care Act, remembering the long
hours and the deliberation in the committees in regular order, the
opportunity for Republicans to offer amendments, and then today for the
37th time this particular act has now hurt millions of Americans.
My State is number one. Today, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to call the roll
and ask those citizens of those States to call their Senators. For how
can you vote for such a repeal of the Patients' Rights Act when Texas,
Louisiana, Nevada, California, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Alaska,
Mississippi, and Oklahoma all have uninsured over 20 percent, with
Texas being 28.4 percent?
It is poverty that drives the need to expand Medicaid to my State, to
my Governor. It is poverty that drives this. Whether you are poor,
whether you are low-income, whether you are working middle class, the
Affordable Care Act is to lift your boat to give you the opportunity to
have preventive health care to be able to have access to doctors. Why
would anybody vote to repeal the Patients' Rights Act?
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