[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 163 (Friday, November 15, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H7115-H7145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 0915
KEEP YOUR HEALTH PLAN ACT OF 2013
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I
call up House Resolution 413 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 413
Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be
in order to consider in the House the bill (H.R. 3350) to
authorize health insurance issuers to continue to offer for
sale current individual health insurance coverage in
satisfaction of the minimum essential health insurance
coverage requirement, and for other purposes. All points of
order against consideration of the bill are waived. The bill
shall be considered as read. All points of order against
provisions in the bill are waived. The previous question
shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any
amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion
except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled
by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on
Energy and Commerce; and (2) one motion to recommit.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas is recognized for 1
hour.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the
customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.
During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the
purpose of debate only.
General Leave
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 413 provides for
consideration of H.R. 3350, the Keep Your Plan Act of 2013. The rule
provides for 1 hour of debate controlled by the Committee on Energy and
Commerce, equally divided between the majority and the minority.
Because the bill addresses a targeted emergency situation caused by the
lack of foresight in the Affordable Care Act, namely, the cancellation
of millions of existing health insurance plans despite repeated
promises to the contrary, because of that, the rule makes no amendments
in order. However, the minority is afforded the customary opportunity
to offer one motion to recommit, should they so choose.
This is a fair rule to allow us to give some relief to Americans who
actually want to keep their health insurance plan but are being told
that because of the Affordable Care Act, they may not.
We are now 6 weeks into the disastrous launch of the President's
signature health care law, and more and more problems are uncovered
with each succeeding day. It seems that the President has quickly
forgotten all of the promises made over the past 4 years to the
American people about this law.
In 2009, in a speech before the American Medical Association,
President Obama stated:
We will keep this promise to the American people: if you
like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor,
period. If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to
keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away,
no matter what.
At the end of September, the President said:
The first thing you need to know is this: if you already
have health care, you don't have to do anything.
Americans from across the country, from across the ideological
spectrum agree that President Obama has broken his fundamental promise.
And now his attempts to reconcile this broken promise only serve to
bring further confusion and chaos.
Today, H.R. 3350 offers a real solution. The bill would allow plans
available on the individual market today to be offered in calendar year
2014. It would provide millions of Americans the opportunity to keep
their health care plan in 2014. The bill would also ensure that
Americans keeping their plans would not face a penalty under
ObamaCare's individual mandate.
Mr. Speaker, I have heard from constituents about the problems that
they have faced because of the President's law. A Texan from Flower
Mound, Texas, recently wrote me about how her insurance has doubled in
recent years because of the Affordable Care Act. In short, she wrote me
that ``I miss 2009 when our family health care was affordable.''
Millions of Americans, just like this Texan, are losing their health
care coverage. They are facing massive increases in their premiums and
losing access to their doctor under the Affordable Care Act.
The Associated Press has reported that over 3.5 million people on the
individual insurance market have had their insurance canceled. Let me
restate that: the Associated Press has reported that over 3.5 million
people on the individual insurance market have had their health care
plans canceled. We learned just this week the number of people who
successfully signed up on the President's Web site for the Affordable
Care Act, under 27,000--3.5 million lose their insurance; 27,000 sign
up. It doesn't sound like a fair trade-off.
This is not the first time that the President has realized that his
signature law is significantly flawed. Since the law was passed, the
President has signed seven bills into law that have repealed portions
of the Affordable Care Act. Those were laws passed by the House, passed
by the Senate, and sent down to the White House for signature, the way
it is supposed to happen in a constitutional Republic.
But in addition to these statutory changes that were passed by the
Congress and sent down to the President
[[Page H7116]]
for his signature, the President has taken it upon himself to issue a
multitude of administrative fixes to the law. And now this same
President wants to, once again, fix his own law? Can we really trust
the administration that wrote this disastrous missive in the first
place and so mishandled the implementation? Do we trust them to now fix
it? Do we trust them not to change their minds in 2 or 3 weeks' time
when perhaps winds are blowing from a different direction?
The White House is saying that it will use its administrative
authority to allow health plans that it deemed illegal to now still be
able to be sold, but this bill that the House is considering today
provides a fix that is both constitutional and follows the legal
process.
H.R. 3350 offers a legislative solution to help Americans get a
lifeboat, a life raft up from under the crushing weight of this law.
The bill would grandfather in all existing health care plans so that no
American will lose their coverage as a result of the Affordable Care
Act.
President Obama is shifting the blame. He is saying it is up to
States and the State insurance commissioners to fix the massive problem
that his signature law has created for millions of Americans who are
losing their health insurance.
His attempt at another ``fix'' is quickly coming to a halt. Just
hours after the President's announcement, the Washington State
insurance commissioner announced that he will not allow insurance
companies to continue offering the canceled plans:
We will not be allowing insurance companies to extend their
policies. I believe this is in the best interest of the
health insurance market in Washington.
It is clear that H.R. 3350 offers the only feasible lifeline to
millions of Americans who are crying out for our help. They want to
keep their health care plan. It is our job, it is the job of the
Congress, to protect the American people from the excesses of this
administration. And I urge my colleagues to pass this rule so Americans
will have the opportunity to keep their health care plan.
Let's be very clear here: this bill today cannot fix the Affordable
Care Act. What has been visited upon the American people in the
Affordable Care Act will not be resolved by this action today. It is
merely to stop the bleeding. It is an effort to triage, to stabilize
the patient. Maybe then we can get the same patient to the operating
room to actually fix the problem that bedevils it.
The bill we are voting on today serves to stop that hemorrhaging, and
the hemorrhaging that is occurring is a consequence of the ill-
conceived government takeover of the American health care industry. Any
good triage doctor knows before they can fully treat or cure the
patient they have to deal with the immediate problems. In this case,
they have to stop the hemorrhage of people losing their private health
insurance because of the Affordable Care Act. That is what the House of
Representatives will do today. That is what House Republicans will be
voting in favor of. I hope that our colleagues across the aisle will
see the wisdom in this and join us.
I encourage everyone in this House to vote ``yes'' on the rule and
``yes'' on the underlying bill. Let's stand with millions of Americans
who are visited daily by cancelation notices in their mailboxes.
Despite the promises made to them, they are losing their insurance
because of this disastrous law.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Burgess) for yielding me the time; and I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong, strong opposition to this closed rule
and to the underlying bill. This is effort number 46, by my count, to
gut the Affordable Care Act.
Before I discuss the problems with the underlying bill, let me
address, just so the record is clear, the latest example of lousy
process foisted upon this House by the Republican leadership.
The bill before us today would make sweeping and significant changes
to the Affordable Care Act and, thus, to the Nation's health care
system. It would profoundly affect the lives of millions of Americans,
upend the individual market, and add confusion and uncertainty into an
already complicated situation.
So how many hearings did the Republicans hold on this bill? Zero. Let
me repeat that: zero. How many expert witnesses did they call? Zip. How
many markups did they have in the committees of jurisdiction? Nada. Yet
again, Republican promises of regular order and a thoughtful
legislative process have been thrown out the window.
And with all due respect to my friend from Texas, to stand here and
say with a straight face that this is some kind of an emergency, we
can't have any amendments made in order, we just don't have the time,
defies comprehension.
We have a rule that is closed that allows for 1 hour of debate--not
even split amongst the committees of jurisdiction. This bill, by right,
is not only an Energy and Commerce bill, it is a Ways and Means bill,
but the Ways and Means Committee doesn't get any time to debate this
bill.
Mr. Speaker, 1 hour. You mean we couldn't have 2 hours of debate and
a few amendments? Or 3 hours of debate and a few more amendments? Or 5
hours of debate or a whole day of debate, given the fact that you
didn't hold any hearings on this bill? Give me a break. This is not the
way to run the House of Representatives. This is not the way you
promised you would run the House of Representatives. And, by contrast,
on the Affordable Care Act, we had hundreds of hours of debate and
markups in which Republican amendments were actually accepted. Now you
may not like the Affordable Care Act, but it went through a process.
This went through no process. This was just brought up to the Rules
Committee, and we are told to bring it right to the floor.
This is not a serious attempt to fix the Affordable Care Act. This is
a political statement, and I understand the temptation behind it.
Believe me, no one is more frustrated by the problems with the rollout
of the Affordable Care Act than those of us who voted for it, believe
in it, and want it to work. But instead of working with us to try to
actually fix the problems and make the law work, the Republicans have
brought forth this Upton bill.
Now, Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear about this bill. It is an
attempt to drag us back to the bad old days of the American health care
system. It would allow insurance companies to go back to offering cut-
rate, shoddy policies that lack the consumer protections required by
the Affordable Care Act.
So if you want to go back to a system where insurance companies could
turn people away because they are sick, by all means vote for this
bill. If you want to go back to a time when women were charged higher
rates than men because being a female counted as a preexisting
condition, then vote for the Upton bill. If you believe that insurers
should be allowed to eliminate somebody's coverage if they get sick or
are older or if they have a child or for no good reason whatsoever,
then the Upton bill is for you. In short, a vote for the Upton bill is
a vote in favor of everything the American people say that they hate
about the health care system in this country.
{time} 0930
Yesterday, in the Rules Committee, my friend, Dr. Burgess, made it
very clear that the Upton bill is not an attempt to fix the Affordable
Care Act. They are only interested in full repeal. They are perfectly
satisfied with 40 million Americans having no health insurance at all.
Speaker Boehner made a similar statement yesterday.
As I said, the rollout of the health care plan has not been perfect,
and I know that my own home State of Massachusetts, the rollout of our
State health care law was not perfect either. But Democrats in
Massachusetts did not go out of their way over and over and over again
to sabotage it just because a Republican Governor named Mitt Romney
signed it into law. We worked to make it better. And by 2009, I am
proud to say, my congressional district had the highest rate of
insurance coverage in the entire country. That is a good thing.
If my Republican friends think that we are going to go back to a
system where we in Massachusetts did the right thing but ended up
paying for the
[[Page H7117]]
uncompensated care of people in Texas, North Carolina, Utah, or
anywhere else, they are wrong.
At some point, we have to get serious about the goal of providing
good quality, affordable health insurance to every American. The Upton
bill gets us no closer to that goal. It is yet another political waste
of time.
Mr. Speaker, let me just close by making this observation. What this
debate is about--and it has turned into an ideological debate--is
whether or not you believe that every single American in this country
is entitled to good quality health insurance or not.
My friends on the other side of the aisle obviously believe that it
is okay that 40 million Americans don't have health insurance, because
for the last few years they haven't offered anything other than
repeal--repeal, repeal, repeal--and offering nothing as a substitute.
They think it is okay to let the insurance companies decide whether you
get health care or not based on a preexisting condition or whether you
are a female or whether or not you are too old or too sick or whatever.
They have been perfectly satisfied with the broken system that was in
place.
So that is the choice here. And I would urge my colleagues to
understand that there is something wrong with the fact that, in the
greatest country in the world and the richest country in the history of
the world, so many of our fellow citizens don't have health care, don't
have access to health insurance.
And we can fix that. By fixing that, we not only improve the quality
of life for our neighbors, our friends, and our fellow citizens, but we
also help control health care costs. Because one of the biggest drivers
of increased health care costs is the uncompensated care pool.
So let's get serious. Let's stop this political posturing. I know you
don't like the President. You have gone out of your way to say some
things that are so outrageous, it is hard for me to believe that
Members of Congress would say such things. But get over it and do what
is right for the American people. Vote ``no'' on this closed rule. Vote
``no'' on the underlying bill.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.
First off, I do need to point out that yesterday, the President of
the United States thought that this situation represented an emergency
that required his immediate attention, and he rushed a press conference
at high noon yesterday to announce his resolution for the problem.
As far as the issue of hearings, I will submit a list of eight
hearings that were held in the Energy and Commerce Committee over
calendar year 2013 on the issue of grandfathering health care plans.
But the most important thing I wish to point out, for those of you
who were here in 2009, we will remember, H.R. 3200 was the Democratic
health care reform bill. That bill is now lost forever in the vapor, in
the ether. No one knows what became of it. H.R. 3590 passed the House
of Representatives in July of 2009. It passed as a housing bill. It
went over to the Senate to await further action. The further action was
an amendment by Harry Reid late in December of 2009 ``to strike all
after the enacting clause and insert.'' All the housing language was
taken out, all of the health care language was inserted.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. BURGESS. I yield myself an additional 30 seconds.
As a consequence, this bill came over to the House and we just simply
had to pass it. We had to pass it before we found out what was in it.
We didn't have a hearing on H.R. 3590. We didn't have a markup in any
committee that I sat on in 2010 on H.R. 3590. This was a bill that was
visited upon the American people without the due caution and exercise
of the United States House of Representatives.
CBO Analysis: CBO analysis is not currently available.
Committee Action: The Energy and Commerce Committee has
held the following ACA-related hearings:
Full Committee:
August 1, 2013: PPACA Pulse Check
October 24, 2013: PPACA Implementation Failures: Didn't
Know or Didn't Disclose?
October 30, 2013: PPACA Implementation Failures: Answers
from HHS
Subcommittee on Health:
February 14, 2013: SGR: Data, Measures and Models; Building
a Future Medicare Physician Payment System
February 27, 2013: Fostering Innovation to Fight Waste,
Fraud and Abuse in Health Care
March 13, 2013: Obamacare's Impact on Jobs
March 15, 2013: Unaffordable: Impact of Obamacare on
Americans' Health Insurance Premiums
March 18, 2013: Saving Seniors and Our Most Vulnerable
Citizens from an Entitlement Crisis
March 20, 2013: Health Information Technologies: How
Innovation Benefits Patients
April 3, 2013: Protecting America's Sick and Chronically
Ill
April 18, 2013: A Financial Review of the Department of
Health and Human Services and Its FY 2014 Budget
September 10, 2013: PPACA Pulse Check: Part 2
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations:
March 21, 2013: Health Information Technologies:
Administration Perspectives on Innovation and Regulation
April 24, 2013: The Center for Consumer Information and
Insurance Oversight and the Implementation of the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act
July 18, 2013: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:
Implementation in the Wake of Administrative Delay
September 19, 2013: Two Weeks Until Enrollment: Questions
for CCIIO
Subcommittee on Communications and Technology:
March 19, 2013: Health Information Technologies: Harnessing
Wireless Innovation
Administration Position: A Statement of Administration
Policy is currently not available.
Rule Request: Chairman Upton (R-MI) sent a letter to
Chairman Sessions requesting ``that the Committee on Rules
hold a hearing and grant a closed rule to govern
consideration of H.R. 3350 by the House.''
I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kline), the
chairman of the Education and Labor Committee.
Mr. KLINE. I thank the gentleman for yielding time and for his
incredible leadership on this issue. Dr. Burgess has been championing
real solutions for over 10 years.
Mr. Speaker, 140,000; that is the number of people from my home State
of Minnesota who have been notified their health coverage will be
canceled as a result of the President's health care law.
John, a constituent from Burnsville, recently learned his own health
plan is no longer available. John liked the plan he had and now has to
pay 20 percent more to secure coverage.
For many people, a cancelation notice means more than the loss of an
insurance policy. It means losing access to the trusted doctors,
pediatricians, and nurses who care for their families. We all know how
critical these relationships are, especially in difficult moments when
a loved one is injured or ill; but for countless families, those
relationships will soon be lost, all because Washington bureaucrats
think they know best.
The President promised time and again if people liked their health
care plan, they could keep it; but the American people are discovering
the President failed to keep his word, leaving them with only political
gimmicks and a broken Web site. The President may have apologized--and
we appreciate that--but the country deserves a President who not only
admits when he is wrong, but does what is necessary to make it right.
That is why I support this legislation. The Keep Your Health Plan Act
is about fairness. It is only fair to let people keep the health plan
they like. No one should be forced to purchase a more expensive policy
because the President says so.
It is only fair to help families who are hurting across the country.
The President's plan for more administrative tricks is a disservice to
each and every one of our constituents, and it is only fair to hold the
President accountable for the promises he makes to the American people.
If the President is sincere about undoing some of the damage this law
has created, if he wants to provide real solutions for those losing
their coverage, and if he wants to keep this promise to our Nation's
families, then I urge the President to support the Keep Your Health
Plan Act.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, let me again remind my colleagues that not
a single hearing was held on this bill. Not a single markup was held on
this bill, nothing, and it is coming to the floor under a closed rule.
My Republican friends believe that nobody in this House, Democrats or
[[Page H7118]]
Republicans, have any right to offer an opinion or an alternative. We
are given 1 hour of debate on this. It is not evenly split among the
committees of jurisdiction. One committee of jurisdiction.
This is a joke. This is not what you promised. This is not the open
process. This is not the transparent process on major pieces of
legislation that we were promised. This is a joke.
I will insert into the Record a Statement of Administration Policy
that says that the President, if presented with H.R. 3350, would veto
it.
This is a colossal waste of time.
Statement of Administration Policy
H.R. 3350--Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013
(Rep. Upton, R-MI, and 161 cosponsors, Nov. 14, 2013)
The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R.
3350 because it threatens the health care security of hard
working, middle class families. The Nation is experiencing
the slowest growth in health spending in the last 50 years.
Since 2008, growth in private health insurance spending
stayed between three and four percent--significantly lower
than earlier this decade when growth reached almost 12
percent. With health care costs rising at such low rates,
this bill would be a major step back.
H.R. 3350 rolls back the progress made by allowing insurers
to continue to sell new plans that deploy practices such as
not offering coverage for people with pre-existing
conditions, charging women more than men, and continuing
yearly caps on the amount of care that enrollees receive. The
Administration supports policies that allow people to keep
the health plans that they have. But, policies that reverse
the progress made to extend quality, affordable coverage to
millions of uninsured, hardworking, middle class families are
not the solution. Rather than refighting old political
battles to sabotage the health care law, the Congress should
work with the Administration to improve the law and move
forward.
If the President were presented with H.R. 3350, he would
veto it.
Mr. McGOVERN. I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms.
Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. I thank the distinguished gentleman.
Today, Mr. Speaker, I rise to save lives and to ensure that the
Affordable Care Act does what it was intended to do and what it is
already doing: lifting the lifetime caps, providing preventative care,
taking away the discrimination against women and other ethnic
minorities by eliminating health disparities.
This is a bill that has seen eons of hearings not only in the
underlying committee, but also in the Judiciary Committee and other
committees and ad hoc hearings and briefings over and over again. I
remember sitting and hearing the painful stories of families whose
children had died because they could not get access to health care. But
the Upton bill comes today disguised as a sheep in wolf's clothing. It
discriminates against people with preexisting conditions; it restores
annual caps on the amount of care you can receive; and it forces women
to pay more than men for the same coverage.
This bill is not a fix. It is a dissolver of a good bill.
By the way, Mr. Speaker, let me inform my colleagues that there was
nothing in the Affordable Care Act that dictated to insurance companies
that they had to send cancelation letters. Why don't we hold a hearing
and call the CEOs of the insurance companies and ask them why they
didn't send the normal letter indicating that you have the opportunity
to have a modified policy that will comply with the Affordable Care Act
and that your policies are not canceled because those individuals did
not pay their premium? Ask that question.
I will tell you that there are health professionals and organizations
that believe this particular bill will not work, such as the American
Cancer Society and the American Diabetes Society.
I agree with my colleague that there should have been an open rule.
And the reason that there should have been an open rule is because I
had an amendment that indicated that the conditions specified in the
subsection for health insurance insurer, they must notify enrollees
eligible for such continued coverage. I am glad that the President
yesterday put that language in and also said that you can opt in to
your old policy.
We have answered the call and concern of the American people, but we
have not taken away from them the right to have consumer protections
and insurance coverage that will make their lives better.
I would also suggest that my amendment indicated health insurance
companies are making decisions based on their bottom line, their self-
interests, and have decided to terminate insurance plans that are not
profitable in the new, highly competitive marketplace for health
insurance or want to end insurance for those who are ill and thereby
increase their profit margin by keeping only the healthy and marginally
healthy while discarding the ill, and the amendment should have been
included, because we need to speak to our friends in the health
insurance industry that we are here working together and that those
letters were not necessary.
Mr. Speaker, I want to save lives. I want consumer protections. I
want women not to be discriminated against. Tomorrow, in Houston, we
are opening the doors for enrollment in a health fair that we hope
thousands will come to.
My friends, the Upton bill does not answer the question. Let us save
lives today.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30
seconds.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. I thank the gentleman for his courtesy.
This is what we lived in preceding the Affordable Care Act:
18 percent of the underinsured postponed getting care or treatment,
and some of those people died;
15 percent of the uninsured had problems paying their medical bills,
hounded, hounded, hounded because they didn't have the resources and
even went bankrupt;
10 percent of the uninsured needed prescription drugs but they could
not afford them;
8 percent were hounded by collection agencies because they had to pay
for their mortgage or their food;
6 percent did not seek treatment at all.
Do you know what that equals to? One hundred percent of those
individuals suffering bad health care.
Let us vote down the Upton bill, vote against the underlying rule,
and let's promote the Affordable Care Act and fix it like the President
has done.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the rule and the
underlying bill, H.R. 3350, the so-called ``Keep Your Health Plan Act
of 2013.'' I oppose the rule and the underlying bill for two reasons.
First, the bill will not save lives. Second, the legislation is
unnecessary in light of the action taken yesterday by President Obama,
which should satisfy the proponents of this legislation while at the
same time minimizing the risk to the health and safety of underinsured
Americans, who are persons who have insurance but spend more than 10%
of their income on out-of-pocket medical expenses.
Were it to become law, H.R. 3350 would jeopardize the life and health
of those underinsured who purchase these plans it protects, even though
health insurance plans are available that would in nearly every case
provide more health coverage for less.
Mr. Speaker, researchers have found the following disturbing facts
regarding the underinsured:
Eighteen percent of the underinsured postpone getting care or
treatment;
Fifteen percent of the underinsured had problems paying medical
bills;
Ten percent of the underinsured needed prescription drugs but could
not afford them;
Eight percent were hounded by collection agencies for nonpayment of
medical bills; and
Six percent did not seek treatment even though they needed it.
Mr. Speaker, this is the cost of underinsurance in America--and this
is what we can expect more of should H.R. 3350 become law. The express
purpose of this bill is to allow underinsured persons to retain an
inadequate ``health insurance'' plan on the ground that supposedly it
is the plan the person ``wants to keep.''
Unfortunately, there is nothing in this bill that would provide
consumer education on the inadequacies of the plan and that something
much better is available. For example, there is no requirement in this
bill for the insurer to notify the insured that health insurance
provided through the exchange that provides more and better coverage
for less money.
This means that under H.R. 3350 people will still have problems
paying their medical bills, they will have high bills, and they will
not be able to afford prescription medication or be hounded by medical
bill collectors.
The second reason for opposing this rule and bill is that it is
unnecessary in view of the actions taken yesterday by President Obama.
As the President announced, insurers will be
[[Page H7119]]
permitted to offer consumers the option to renew their 2013 health
plans in 2014, without change, allowing them to keep their plans. This
should satisfy the proponents of the bill.
But the President went further than that because he recognizes that
inadequate insurance is really no insurance at all. That is why the
President conditioned the ability of insurers to offer plan renewals
upon the following:
1. That insurers notify enrollees that they can purchase coverage
through the Health Insurance Marketplace where they can potentially
qualify for premium tax credits; and
2. Those insurers must inform consumers of the protections they are
giving up to keep the plan they have.
Taken together, President Obama's actions are a tempered and measured
response to the alleged problem that this bill seeks to remedy.
I fully applaud what the President has done and I offered an
amendment that would achieve precisely the same results but the Rules
Committee did not make my amendment in order. The text of Jackson Lee
Amendment #1 provides:
(C) Conditions for Continued Offering of Coverage.--The conditions
specified in this subsection for a health insurance issuer offering
continued coverage under subsection (a) are as follows:
(1) The issuer must notify enrollees eligible for such continued
coverage that they can purchase health insurance coverage through the
Health Insurance Marketplace where they can potentially qualify for
premium tax credits.
(2) The issuer must tell consumers what protections they are giving
up to accept the continued coverage they have.
(3) The issuer must provide notice by mail of the offering of such
continued coverage to each affected enrollee; and post these notices on
the issuer's website.
The Jackson Lee Amendment, like the action announced by the
President, is practical, efficient, and addresses the concerns of those
who received cancellation letters from their insurance companies.
It should be noted again that Jackson Lee Amendment #1, and the
President's actions, are each superior to H.R. 3350, which contains no
provision or requirement that consumers who received these notices be
advised by their insurers that they may receive lower insurance rates
with better coverage by shopping online or calling the toll free
number.
Now there may be some who think the availability of the types of
health care insurance that H.R. 3350 would protect is sufficient
for Americans. I do not. Neither does President Obama. The majority of
the American people do not. We believe, and the Affordable Care Act
ensures, that healthcare should be available, accessible and adequate.
Mr. Speaker, adequate health plans have in common the inclusion of
certain minimal benefits and services. The second amendment I offered
to the legislation before us documented the differences between
adequate and inadequate health insurance plans. Unfortunately, the
Rules Committee elected not to make my amendment in order. The text of
Jackson Lee Amendment #2 is as follows:
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
1. Health Insurance companies are making decisions based on their
bottom line self interest and have decided to terminate insurance plans
that are not profitable in the new highly competitive market place for
health insurance, or want to end insurance for those who are ill and
thereby increase their profit margin by keeping only the healthy or
marginally healthy, while discarding the ill.
2. Insurance companies make huge profits when they take premiums and
pay little to no benefits.
3. The plans offered by some insurance companies called ``health
insurance'', in fact offered little if any health care protection
should people with these policies become seriously ill or involved in
an accident that required hospitalization.
4. Catastrophic health plans sold to Americans as insurance were not
first dollar or even the first thousand dollar policies; some required
the first $5,000 to $10,000 of health care costs to be paid by the
holder of the insurance plan whose income was not sufficient to incur
an expense of this magnitude.
5. These plans did not provide many of the minimal benefits of the
Affordable Care Act, such as ambulatory patient services, that provide
treatment using advanced medical devices or technology like an MRI X-
ray.
6. Emergency services were not covered even though emergency room
visits could cost tens of thousands of dollars depending on the nature
of the emergency. Hospitalization coverage was not included in most of
these insurance policies.
7. Maternity and newborn care was not covered nor were pediatric
services so that a healthy birth did not mean that the newborn child
would have a healthy childhood. Mental health, substance abuse disorder
services, and behavioral health treatment were not covered by most of
these insurance plans.
8. Prescription drug benefits and necessary laboratory tests also
were excluded under these insurance plans. Also excluded under these
plans were preventive and wellness services and chronic disease
management.
9. Oral and vision care were not part of these plans, which meant
that one tooth infection or change in eyesight could set someone back
thousands of dollars if they wanted to get treatment.
10. Prescription drug benefits and necessary laboratory tests also
were excluded under these insurance plans.
Also excluded under these plans were preventive and wellness services
and chronic disease management.
12. Oral and vision care were not part of these plans, which meant
that one tooth infection or change in eyesight could set someone back
thousands of dollars if they wanted to get treatment.
Mr. Speaker, my constituents in the 18th Congressional District of
Texas favor the Affordable Care Act because they understand the
insecurity and feeling of helplessness of being uninsured or
underinsured. My home state of Texas has the highest percentage of
uninsured (27.6%) in the Nation, 4% more than Louisiana, the next state
on the list.
The state of Massachusetts, in contrast, boasts the lowest uninsured
rate in the country (4%). This is because Massachusetts several years
ago adopted the health insurance system upon which the Affordable
Health Care Act is based.
The Affordable Care Act when fully implemented will yield the same
benefits for my home state of Texas. In fact, it has already begun to
do so. Take the case of Lucy, who was insured--I should say
underinsured--but had a $7,500 a year deductible. Thanks to the Health
Insurance Exchange she is now much better off. Here is what Lucy has to
say about the Affordable Care Act compared to the plan she had before:
I signed up at Healthcare.gov and I'm going to save $2,300
a year on my premium alone--and more, because my deductible
will drop from $7,500 a year to $3,000 a year. It's still
Blue Cross insurance, and I don't have to change doctors,
either. I had a choice of over 30 plans and several different
companies.
Mr. Speaker, health care coverage must be not only available and
affordable but also adequate in order for consumers to have the health
security and financial protection they need and deserve. The Affordable
Care Act satisfies these criteria; the bill before us does not. That is
why we should reject this rule and the underlying bill.
H.R. 3350 is nothing more than the House Republicans' newest
variation on their very old theme, which is to repeal, impede or
undermine the Affordable Care Act. This bill is the 46th attempt by the
Republicans to deprive the American people of the security and peace of
mind that comes with health care that is affordable, accessible and
adequate.
Of course we should not be surprised. After all, it was the House
Republicans who shut down the federal government for 16 days and cost
the economy $24 billion while refusing to consider any legislation that
would create jobs or address the real needs of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, the bill before us is strongly opposed by a coalition of
some of the Nation's leading health and consumer organizations,
including the following:
Paralyzed Veterans of America
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
American Diabetes Association
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
American Heart Association/American Stroke Association
American Music Therapy Association
The Arc of the United States
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Community Catalyst
Families USA
Health and Wholeness Ministries, Disciples Center for Public Witness
Health Care for America Now
National Alliance on Mental Illness
National Association of County Behavioral Health & Developmental
Disability Directors
National Council of Jewish Women
National Partnership for Women & Families
These groups oppose the bill for substantially the same reasons I
have discussed. While sympathizing with consumers who are receiving
notices from their insurance companies that their policies are not
being renewed for next year because they do not comply with the ACA's
consumer protections, the Coalition rightly observes that:
[T]he solution is not to allow for the continued sale of
inadequate policies[.] Rather, we must educate consumers
about their new health insurance options and ensure that
notices being sent by insurers clearly inform them of the
shortfalls with their current coverage and explain all of
their options for finding better coverage.
I agree. Therefore, I urge all Members to join me in voting against
this rule and the underlying bill.
[[Page H7120]]
November 13, 2013.
Hon. John Boehner,
Speaker of the House, House of Representatives, Washington,
DC.
Hon. Nancy Pelosi,
Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi: Health
care coverage must be not only available and affordable but
also adequate in order for consumers to have the health and
financial protection they need from health insurance. The
Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to ensure that,
beginning in 2014, Americans would have access to health
insurance that meets all three of these important objectives.
Our organizations support these goals, and we are therefore
opposed to H.R. 3350, legislation that would allow health
insurers to continue to sell individual health insurance
policies that are inadequate.
The number of people who are underinsured--meaning that
their insurance does not provide adequate financial
protection when they are sick--has been growing over the last
decade. According to one study, the number of underinsured
adults has increased 80 percent since 2003. More than 60
percent of all bankruptcies in 2007 were a result of illness
and medical bills, and nearly 80 percent of those who filed
for medical bankruptcy were insured. Many consumers with
inadequate coverage do not realize how poor it is until they
are diagnosed with a serious illness and the bills start
rolling in. Only then do they find out that their coverage
may have very low annual coverage limits or exclude coverage
for important and costly services, such as those provided
during a hospital stay.
The ACA includes a number of important protections in
response to the large number of uninsured and to help
guarantee that consumers have access to comprehensive
coverage. The ACA minimizes bankruptcy risk and ensures that
the full range of care consumers need in the event of a
serious or catastrophic illness will be covered. We cannot
afford to go another year without these protections. Among
these protections that apply to non-grandfathered plans sold
in the individual and small group markets are:
A ban on annual limits on coverage. More than 105 million
Americans no longer have lifetime dollar limits on their
coverage because of the ACA, but health plans would still be
able to sell plans with annual limits under this legislation.
A requirement that plans cover 10 categories of essential
health benefits, including doctor visits, hospital care,
preventive care, maternity care, mental health care,
prescription drugs, and rehabilitation services. Many of
these critical benefits are not readily available in the
individual market. For example, only 12 percent of health
plans sold on the individual market cover maternity coverage,
and only 6 percent in the states that do not have a mandate,
leaving women without necessary coverage when they become
pregnant.
A cap on consumers' annual out-of-pocket spending for their
health care to help the nearly 10 million Americans with
health insurance who are unable to afford their medical
bills.
In addition, many consumers who are uninsured or do not
have access to an affordable, adequate health plan from their
employer are also eligible for a premium tax credit to help
them buy such coverage through the Health Insurance
Marketplaces.
Our understanding of this legislation is that it would also
allow insurers to continue to market and sell these plans to
new consumers through 2014, without complying with the rules
that take effect for other plans on January 1. In other
words, insurers marketing these plans outside of the Health
Insurance Marketplaces could continue to refuse to cover
people with pre-existing medical conditions or charge them
higher premiums because of their age or health status. As a
result, younger and healthier people would be more likely to
remain on or newly enroll in these plans, and plans sold
through the Health Insurance Marketplaces would end up
covering mostly older and sicker people. This would drive up
health insurance premiums in the Marketplaces.
We very much sympathize with consumers who are receiving
notices from their insurance companies that their policies
are not being renewed for next year because they do not
comply with the ACA's consumer protections. In at least some
instances, these notices have been very alarming and
misleading for consumers because they fail to let them know
that they may have better, more affordable insurance options
available to them. At least one insurer was fined by a
Department of Insurance for a letter that regulators called
``misleading.'' However, the solution is not to allow for the
continued sale of inadequate policies, particularly now that
more comprehensive coverage is available along with financial
assistance to help make better coverage affordable. Rather,
we must educate consumers about their new health insurance
options and ensure that notices being sent by insurers
clearly inform them of the shortfalls with their current
coverage and explain all of their options for finding better
coverage.
We look forward to working with you to help your
constituents get information about their new options for
fairer, more comprehensive, and more affordable health care
coverage and to make adequate coverage more affordable to
everyone.
Sincerely,
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American
Diabetes Association, American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Heart Association/
American Stroke Association, American Music Therapy
Association, The Arc of the United States, The Autistic Self
Advocacy Network, Community Catalyst, Families USA, Health
and Wholeness Ministries--Disciples Center for Public
Witness, Health Care for America Now, National Alliance on
Mental Illness, National Association of County Behavioral
Health & Developmental Disability Directors, National Council
of Jewish Women, National Partnership for Women & Families,
Paralyzed Veterans of America.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.
Mr. Speaker, that evening in March of 2010 when the Senate bill was
finally going to be considered by the House, there was a meeting of the
Rules Committee that night. Democrats were in charge. I presented
myself to that meeting with 18 amendments to H.R. 3590 that had been
passed by the Senate. Every one of those was summarily rejected.
The problem the Democrats had that day was, should we change a single
word in H.R. 3590 as passed by the Senate, the bill would have to go
back to the Senate and concur with the House amendment to H.R. 3590.
The Majority Leader in the Senate, having lost his 60th vote in a
special election in Massachusetts that year, felt that he could not
pass anything. He could not achieve cloture with only 59 Democrats to
vote in favor of that motion for cloture. That is the reason why not
one word was changed between Christmas Eve of 2009 and the time this
bill was actually passed.
But after H.R. 3590 came back from the Senate, came to the Rules
Committee, did it come to the House under an open rule? No, it did not.
It was a closed rule. We were kept out of the process.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. BURGESS. I yield myself an additional 30 seconds.
It is hard to feel too sad for the gentleman from Massachusetts when
a bill of this magnitude came with so little debate, so little input
from the minority. We have got a 1-page bill before the House today.
This was a 2,700-page bill that affected every man, woman, and child in
this country, not just today, not just tomorrow, but for the next three
decades they will be living under this. And it came under a closed
rule.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
What the gentleman conveniently leaves out are the hundreds of hours
of hearings and markups that occurred in the committees of jurisdiction
on the Affordable Care Act. The committees of jurisdiction were just
cut out of this.
It is becoming a pattern in this House. This is not the only bill
where the committees of jurisdiction have been cut out of the process,
where Members' voices have been silenced, where they are enforcing
rules with an iron fist in this Chamber. So this, unfortunately, is not
unique. It is a pattern.
But to suggest that we don't have the time to offer amendments is
just ridiculous. We have plenty of time. We could debate this all day
if we wanted to, and Members could have an opportunity, both Democrats
and Republicans, to amend this, given the fact that they were denied
that right in the committees of jurisdiction.
Mr. Speaker, I will enter into the Record an article that appeared in
the National Review Online, entitled, ``Boehner: Upton Bill a Step on
Path to ObamaCare Repeal,'' because what is going on here is very
simple.
{time} 0945
If you believe that 40 million Americans should be without health
insurance, then vote for this bill. That is what they want to do. They
want to repeal the Affordable Care Act to go back to a point at which
it was perfectly acceptable and okay to have 40 million Americans
without health insurance. Now, many of us found that statistic
unconscionable in this country, the richest country in the history of
the world, and we thought it was bad policy to allow for so many
uninsured Americans because that also resulted in higher health care
costs, but that is what the goal here is.
The goal here is to undo all of the protections that allow you to
keep
[[Page H7121]]
your kids on your insurance policies until they are 26, that prohibit
insurance companies from discriminating against women because they
define being a female as a preexisting condition, and all of these
artificial rules and regulations that insurance companies threw upon
people, these insurance policies that people bought thinking they had
insurance only to find out when they got sick they had nothing.
If you want to go back to that, then side with my Republican friends;
but what we want to do here is work as we did in Massachusetts, by the
way, with Governor Romney, in order to make this work. I will tell you,
for the life of me, I don't understand why this is such a radical idea
to guarantee everybody in this country good, quality health insurance.
[From the National Review, Nov. 13, 2013]
Boehner: Upton Bill a Step on Path to Obamacare Repeal
(By Jonathan Strong)
Before the government shutdown in July, as the defund push
from Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee was just starting to gain
steam, Speaker John Boehner laid-out his preferred Obamacare
strategy to House Republicans in a closed-door conference
meeting, telling them the GOP could repeal the law with
``targeted strikes that will ultimately dissolve the
Obamacare coalition.''
This morning, in another conference meeting, Boehner
reminded his colleagues about that strategy and explained how
bringing the ``keep your plan'' bill introduced by
Representative Fred Upton to the House floor Friday fits into
it.
``Remember the strategy for stopping Obamacare we laid out
to you back in July. It had two components: Aggressive,
coordinated oversight, and targeted legislative strikes aimed
at shattering the legislative coalition the president has
used to force his law on the nation,'' Boehner said,
according to a person in the room.
``That plan is being executed as we speak. But none of it
will be effective if we aren't communicating. If we aren't
telling the stories our constituents are sharing, then we're
letting them down. It means we aren't doing our best to stop
this law,'' he added.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Pallone), the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce
Committee, who suffered a long and arduous Rules Committee last night.
Mr. PALLONE. I want to thank my colleague from Massachusetts, not
only for having to deal with the ordeal in Rules last night but every
day, but also for what he said about the lack of regular order when
this Upton bill--this bill by the chairman, Mr. Upton--came to the
Rules Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I am a member of the Health Subcommittee of the Energy
and Commerce Committee. I said in Rules last night--and I will say it
again today--that we have had many hearings in the Health Subcommittee
and that we have had hearings in the full Energy and Commerce
Committee. Over the last 2 or 3 weeks, there was ample opportunity to
have this bill proceed with regular order with a subcommittee hearing
markup and with a full committee hearing markup. None of that was done.
This bill just comes here to the floor directly from Rules, and it is a
flawed bill. I want to stress that.
I really believe, Mr. Speaker, that this legislation is just another
attempt by the GOP to undermine the Affordable Care Act. In fact, I
will call this the 46th attempt at repeal. My GOP colleagues have zero
interest in helping people gain and keep their health insurance. They
have zero interest in fixing any problems that may be occurring with
the rollout of the law. They simply want to demonize the President and
his policies, as you have heard over and over again, and they will go
to any length to do so. At the top of the list are their efforts to
sabotage ObamaCare and to force its failure.
Yesterday, the President took some action to help Americans who want
to renew their insurance policies if their insurance companies are
willing to offer that option. Ultimately, though, I believe that these
people will look at the quality plans available in the new Affordable
Care Act insurance marketplace and like what they see because, in most
cases, they will find that they are able to purchase better coverage at
lower prices than their original policies so that, when they get sick
or when they need care, their policies will actually provide it because
most of these older policies simply do not provide adequate insurance.
As I said before, the Upton bill before us is not about giving people
access to health care. It is about sabotaging ObamaCare. One of my
colleagues on the Republican side said they want to have people keep
their insurance. The President's initiative yesterday allows them to
keep their insurance if they want to, but what the Upton bill does is
allow anybody now--anybody, even if they didn't have the old insurance
policies--to buy these new skeletal policies that don't provide
adequate insurance.
So, if you take away the rhetoric of the Republicans, the Upton
bill's practical effect would be to continue to allow insurers to
exclude people from coverage based on preexisting conditions and to
allow insurers to charge women twice as much as men for the same
coverage. It would allow insurers to jack up premiums on a family if
its child gets sick. It would allow insurers to set harsh annual caps
on coverage. All of the discriminatory practices that the ACA and
ObamaCare were designed to eliminate come back under the Upton bill.
This bill would not require health insurers to allow individuals to
keep their current health care plans because insurers can still do
whatever they want. You can't force the insurers to offer the plans. It
basically allows them to sell low-quality 2013 plans all through 2014.
Nothing else.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes.
We have talked about the votes in this House to delay or to modify
portions of the Affordable Care Act. Indeed, the House has passed seven
of those, and they have been signed by the President.
What really doesn't ever get much attention are the multiple times
that the administration--the President, himself--has changed parts of
the Affordable Care Act. If you want to talk about something that was
done without any hearings, if you want to talk about something that was
done in a non-transparent fashion, if you want to talk about something
that was done without the ability to amend or debate on the floor of
the House, then let's go through a few of these.
Number one: A congressional opt-out. The administration gave Members
of Congress and their staffs the option of exempting themselves from
the ObamaCare exchanges that were created by the Affordable Care Act,
which is contrary to the language of the law.
Exchange enrollment: The administration extended by 6 weeks--from
February 14 to March 31, 2014--the period in which people can enroll
for coverage in order to avoid the individual mandate tax penalty.
The employer delay: By an administrative action, which is also
contrary to statutory language in the Affordable Care Act, the
reporting requirements for employers were delayed by 1 year.
Self-attestation: Because of the difficulty of verifying income after
the employer reporting requirement was delayed, the administration
decided it would allow the self-attestation of income by applicants for
health insurance exchanges.
Small businesses on hold: The administration said that the Federal
exchanges for small businesses would not be ready by the 2014 statutory
deadline. Instead, officials delayed until 2015 the implementation of
the Federal shop exchanges.
Closing the high-risk pools: This one was, I thought, particularly
egregious. Mr. Speaker, I, frankly, do not understand why this was not
covered by the Nation's press. The administration decided to halt the
enrollment in Federal high-risk pools, blocking coverage for an
estimated 40,000 new applicants, and it decided, rather than using the
money from a fund under Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius'
control to extend coverage for Americans with preexisting conditions,
that it would, instead, use this money to pay for advertising for the
Affordable Care Act.
Remember, the Affordable Care Act was sold to the American people
because--remember the quotes?--there were 8 to 12 million people with
preexisting conditions. Yet the President's own preexisting pool, which
was started in this law when it was signed in March of 2010, was closed
on February 1 of 2013, barely 2\1/2\ years into its lifespan. Why have
we not heard more about that? This was an administrative action to
restrict people from access to the risk pools that they were told they
were going to get as a consequence of
[[Page H7122]]
the President's health care law. Many of these people probably voted
for the President in November of 2012 because, after all, he was going
to provide them their risk pool insurance for another year--until it
didn't happen.
Is it any wonder why there is no faith in what the administration
says it will do by administrative edict? Why there is no faith in what
has come out of the White House? Why congressional action is not just
constitutionally required but is required for the people of this
country to continue to have faith in their government?
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman talks about faith. I think the American
people have lost faith in the Republican leadership of this House. My
friends are so obsessed with this health care bill that they actually
shut the government down. Ted Cruz was the Speaker of the House here
for a month. I mean, they shut the government down because they do not
believe that 40 million uninsured Americans ought to have health
insurance.
Ezra Klein, in his Washington Post piece on November 14, writes about
the Upton bill.
He says:
It doesn't solve the cancelations problem, but it does
manage to put Republicans on the side of insurers, who want
to continue discriminating against preexisting conditions.
That is what this is all about: giving the insurance companies more
of what they want. If you want to know why, follow the money. It is no
secret where the insurance companies' allegiances are. Quite frankly,
my friends have had 3 years in control to give us their alternative.
They have said ``no'' to everything. No, no, no. They try to undercut
and repeal everything. What have they offered in 3 years? What is their
prescription for the uninsured in America? Take two tax breaks and call
me in the morning. That is the best they could come up with.
This is a good bill, and we need to work to implement it so that we
can make sure that every single American has access to good, quality
health insurance.
With that, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs.
Maloney).
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. I thank the gentleman for
yielding and for his leadership in providing health care for over 40
million Americans who did not have it.
Mr. Speaker, this is the 46th time that our Republican colleagues
have tried to repeal or to undermine the Affordable Care Act. I rise in
opposition to this closed rule, and I urge a ``no'' vote on the Upton
bill.
We are here today supposedly to help those people who unexpectedly
had their insurance policies canceled. This is a real issue as the
President, himself, clearly acknowledged last night. That is why he is
taking steps to help these people in the private health care market
keep their plans. However, the bill before us now not only fails to
solve the problem, it makes things worse by fundamentally undermining
the Affordable Care Act in a way that is calculated to doom it to
eventual failure.
You would be changing the rules in the middle of a game and virtually
guaranteeing that premiums would eventually skyrocket for people who
did the right thing--who went to the exchange and got a plan. This
would price the program out of existence. Doing that would take us all
back to a time when over 40 million Americans did not have access to
affordable health insurance, including 2.6 million New Yorkers.
We must not turn our backs on those people now. We absolutely have
problems we need to fix, and we have issues we need to solve, but we
are on the verge of finally covering millions of Americans who lack the
fundamental security of affordable health coverage for their families.
We are finally close to achieving a goal for millions that has been
pursued for nearly a century under Republican and Democratic
administrations alike.
This is a problem we must solve without turning our backs on those
families forced into bankruptcy simply because someone in the household
got sick. This is a problem we must solve for the sake of all of those
women who were denied insurance or who had to pay up to 40 percent more
for insurance simply because they were women. This is a problem we must
solve for the sake of all of those people with preexisting conditions
and for all of those young adults who can stay on their parents' plans
until they turn 27.
We did not embark on this effort because we thought it would be easy.
We embarked on this effort to provide health care to millions because
we thought it was a moral imperative, an economic necessity, and a
fundamental human right. Yes, it is hard to get it right, but
ultimately this is an effort that history will judge not by the number
of computer errors but by the number of lives saved.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill and
``yes'' for health care for millions of Americans.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute for the purposes of
response.
Talk about changing the rules in the middle of the game. What in the
world was that Presidential press conference 24 hours ago all about? It
was about changing the rules by executive fiat. Again, I just went
through a list of many of the 27 times that the President has changed
the rules in the middle of the game.
What about the times the administration has been engaged in ``hide
the ball'' from the American people, from the Nation's Governors, from
the Nation's insured? What about the fact that the rule for the
essential health benefit was held up until 2 days after Election Day
last year? Then the Governors had to make a decision as to whether or
not to participate in the exchanges in their States a week later. Is it
any wonder they could not make a decision of that amount of import in a
week's time? Sure, they were given another month's extension, but
eventually, 26 Governors said, I can't do it based on the information
provided. Another six Governors said, Okay, but the Federal Government
is going to have to set up the exchanges. That is why you have 32
States for which the Federal Government is having to set up the Federal
fallback exchange.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, at this point, it is my privilege to yield
3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews).
{time} 1000
(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for the time.
In March of 2010, the President signed the Affordable Care Act. In
that law, there was a revision that said on January 1 of 2014 if
insurance plans did not have important consumer protections, like
getting rid of lifetime policy limits and annual limits, that they
couldn't be sold anymore.
For over 3\1/2\ years, the insurance industry had noticed that the
day was coming when they could not sell these plans anymore. They chose
to wait until the last couple of weeks to send out notices to millions
of Americans saying they couldn't renew their plans next year. This is
unfair to those Americans, and it is a problem that ought to be fixed.
The President has stepped forward with a plan to address this to help
those Americans. I support what he is doing. The House Democrats will
have an opportunity to put on the floor some votes that will further
improve that situation as this debate goes on.
This problem of people having their policies canceled is unwarranted
and unwelcome, and we should work together to fix it. The underlying
bill here does not fix the problem; it creates a problem.
It is very important to understand what the underlying bill does. It
says that insurance plans that discriminate against you because you are
a woman or because you had skin cancer, or insurance plans that say
that in the middle of your chemotherapy you can run out of coverage, or
insurance plans that say that after you paid your premiums for months
or even years the insurance company can cancel you because you got
sick, those plans can continue to be sold to everyone--to everyone.
The problem that we are trying to address is people that have such
plans and want to keep them be given the opportunity to keep them. That
is what
[[Page H7123]]
the President's decision does, which is why we support it.
The underlying bill says that these plans can be opened up to anybody
who wants to buy this. That sounds kind of fair at first glance. If
someone wants to buy that kind of plan, shouldn't they be able to?
Well, ladies and gentlemen of the House, here is the question: If
someone buys a plan that pulls the plug on their chemotherapy in the
middle and they keep getting care, who pays for it? The taxpayers do
and the other premium payers do. That is who pays for it.
This plan that is before the House today, this Republican bill, is a
guarantee of rate shock for the American people because here is what
will happen.
If anyone who wants to can buy one of these cars without an airbag or
cars without seatbelts--and that is what these plans are--then you will
find that the new marketplaces don't have enough people in them. When
they don't have enough people in them, the rates will rise. When the
rates spike for people in the marketplaces, they will spike for people
who get employer-sponsored health care because the possibility of the
marketplaces is already reducing the premium increases that employers
are seeing.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. McGOVERN. I yield an additional minute to the gentleman.
Mr. ANDREWS. I thank the gentleman.
So the employer rates, which have risen at the slowest rates in the
last 5 or 6 years, would once again be subject to the kind of spikes
that happen here.
Look, I think there is bipartisan agreement in this Chamber this
morning that if someone has gotten a cancelation notice, we want to
help that person keep their plan if they choose to keep it. We agree
with that, the President agrees with that. That is what he set out to
do.
What we do not want, and what this bill does, is to guarantee rate
shock, guarantee a premium spike for Americans, whether they are in
these plans that we are talking about today, whether they are in the
new marketplaces, or whether they receive insurance through their
employer. We need additional protections where insurance commissioners
around this country can step forward and investigate arbitrary and
unfair practices, where they can protect consumers, and House Democrats
are going to put forward such an opportunity to vote on that at the
conclusion of this debate.
Let's not in the guise of solving one problem magnify another one. We
should oppose this rule and oppose the underlying bill.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is
remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas has 13 minutes
remaining. The gentleman from Colorado has 4\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes for purposes of a
response.
The rate shock issue is one about which every Member of this House
should be concerned.
Let me read to you from a letter I received from a constituent who
lives in The Colony, Texas, a city within my congressional district.
They are complaining about the cost and lack of transparency on the
healthcare.gov Web site:
The prices the ObamaCare Web site say we can expect based
on our ages are $372 to $600. But when I go to actually
purchase, those prices automatically become $870. We don't
qualify for subsidies so that was not part of any of the
calculations.
The constituent goes on to say:
It is bad enough the President has lied to us on multiple
points--$2,500 a year savings, keep your plan, keep your
doctor--but also the Web site is designed to mislead us about
the price as well. What is the reason that the ObamaCare site
and health carrier sites don't agree? I just saw a North
Carolina couple on the news who had the same experience and
the insurance carrier told them that the prices on the
carrier sites are correct and those prices on healthcare.gov
are incorrect.
There is rate shock going on in the country right now. That is what
part of this debate is about today. But let me just caution my
colleagues on the other side of the aisle that the true rate shock
experience is likely to hit in September of 2014, about 6 weeks before
election day on November 14. What is the reason for that rate shock?
Well, we all know that the healthcare.gov Web site was, so far, the
abysmal failure.
The administration is counting on a certain demographic to flood that
Web site and sign up for their wonderful new Elysian Fields of
ObamaCare. It is hard, so they are not going to do it.
But people who are older, perhaps have multiple chronic conditions,
who are actually fearful about losing their health care coverage, they
are going to keep at it. Bless their hearts. They will keep going. They
will keep coming back day after day after day until they can finally
get through and sign up for the insurance policy. Yeah, it is more
expensive than I want, it doesn't cover as much as I want, but, by
golly, I will have something at the start of the year. The problem is
the demographic that the administration counted on to sign up is not
going to sign up.
Beginning about April of next year, the insurance companies are going
to begin to price risk. That is what they do. That is what they do
well. So they are going to post risk and they will post their prices
somewhere along the lines of July 1 to September 30. Those prices for
the renewal of health insurance are going to be staggeringly high; they
will be astonishingly high.
The rate shock that is fixing to happen, you ain't seen nothing yet.
It is coming in the fall, and it will be unbelievable compared to
anything you have seen to date.
I reserve the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President. This restriction
includes quoting from extraneous materials.
Without objection, the gentleman from Colorado now controls the time
and is recognized.
There was no objection.
Mr. POLIS. The Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Pelosi), the Democratic leader.
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank
him for his leadership and that of the full Rules Committee on having
to field some really strange notions masquerading as proposals to
improve the lives of the American people. We see a lot of that these
days.
This one on the floor today really takes the cake because it is
essentially to pull the plug on the Affordable Care Act. While it says
that they want to delay the cancelations that the insurance companies
have written to policyholders, the bill does not mandate.
This is a conversation that is not an action, but it does violence to
the bill in other ways. The idea that it was helping consumers was sort
of the Trojan horse whose underbelly is poisonous in terms of the
health and well-being of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor to speak on the rule because I think
it is really important for Members to vote against the rule as a point
of fairness. If we reject this rule and allow the Rules Committee to
come back to the floor with an opportunity for there to be a Democratic
alternative, that would be fair. What we would do in the vote on the
previous question, which I urge people to vote ``no'' on, would be able
to vote ``yes,'' or consider voting ``yes,'' on a bill that does
exactly what consumers need in terms of this cancelation area.
First of all, it would say that there would be a real delay--a real
delay--for 1 year for the implementation in terms of the individual
policyholders. That is just this piece of the bill that is the
question--individual policyholders.
Ninety-five percent of the American people, as has been said, who
have policies that they like can keep them. It is this 5 percent--and
that is a lot of people, I don't want to minimize that--but,
nonetheless, it is a discrete market.
Let's address that discrete market and in our previous question we
bring up a bill that addresses that discrete market not only by
enabling them to hold their policies for a year, but by requiring that
the insurance companies must tell people not that you are canceled and
we want to sign you up again at a higher cost; instead, insurance
companies would be obliged to tell people what their options are, what
their options are under the Affordable Care Act in terms of having no
lifetime limits on their policies, no annual limits
[[Page H7124]]
on their policies, no preexisting condition, increasing the cost of
their policy, or preventing them from holding their policy should they
become sick, A;
B, it would also make sure that the insurance companies tell people
what their options are in the exchanges, that they may qualify for a
subsidy. In that marketplace the insurance companies are competing--
this is a free market, this exchange--they are competing for their
policy; and, therefore, that has already lowered cost to consumers.
So they may have a better policy with better benefits at a lower cost
and, if they qualify, get a subsidy to do it.
In addition to that, it is really important in every respect in
everything we do, not only just for this individual marketplace, for
people to understand the benefits of the Affordable Care Act that are
available to them. I mentioned no preexisting condition, no annual
limits, no lifetime limits, but also that already for over the past
year young people can be on their parents' insurance. Over 3 million
people have benefited in that regard. Tens of millions of seniors have
benefited from the free prevention check-up--mammograms, whatever kinds
of things--prevention and wellness exams free, no co-pay, no
deductible.
Already seniors are experiencing lower costs for their prescription
drugs because of the Affordable Care Act. Already small children cannot
be discriminated against, nor their families, in seeking insurance
because they have a preexisting condition.
Imagine a child born with a defect for life. They have a preexisting
condition which will cost them dearly in terms of premiums, if they can
even get insurance, and then it would be with limits. Not so. That has
all changed.
That is why on this Upton bill which, as I said, not only does bad
things to the Affordable Care Act in terms of disrupting the risk
pools, it tries to masquerade as something that does something
positive, which it does not. That is why the Upton bill is opposed by a
broad coalition of groups: the American Heart Association, the American
Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society Action Network,
National Partnership for Women and Families, Paralyzed Veterans of
America. Anyone with a preexisting medical condition--100 million
people, families with people with preexisting medical conditions, all
of them benefit. The stories are so glorious and so beautiful about
what a difference the Affordable Care Act has made to families,
especially those with small children or those with preexisting
conditions, and to seniors. And, again, being a woman is no longer a
preexisting medical condition.
So this is politics; it is not about policy. It isn't any attempt to
improve the Affordable Care Act. One way to improve it, though, is what
we have in our previous question: give the State insurance
commissioners the authority, all of them--some of them have it--but
ensure that all of them have the authority to investigate and act upon
rate increases, as well as the nature of these letters that were sent
out without the integrity that they should have had.
Again, we require that also in these letters the insurance companies
make sure that people know what their opportunities are.
{time} 1015
So what we are proposing today really does make a difference. In
fact, we wanted to get this requirement of the insurance commissioners
in the underlying bill, and then we said, okay, we will do that as an
improvement. Today is the day that we can do that by voting ``no'' on
the rule, enabling us to bring a bill to the floor that would do that.
I urge our colleagues to support the Affordable Care Act, support
what it does for American families, stand with those who fought for
Social Security, for Medicare, and affordable care for all Americans
because these are three pillars of equal weight in terms of the
economic and health security of the American people. They honor the
vows of our Founders for life, a healthier life; liberty, the liberty
to pursue your happiness so that you are not job locked, constrained by
a policy, but free to follow your passion to be self-employed, to start
a business, to change jobs, to be entrepreneurial--life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.
Vote ``no'' on the rule.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I want to remind Members of the House of Representatives
about the President's press conference yesterday. I would like to read
from the transcript of his remarks. The President yesterday, he first
talked about the problems with the healthcare.gov Web site, ``big
problems, and maybe we can talk about those a little bit,'' but then he
went on to say:
The other problem that has received a lot of attention
concerns Americans who've received letters from their
insurers that they may be losing the plans they bought in the
old individual market, often because they no longer meet the
law's requirements.
It seems pretty straightforward to me what the President was saying
yesterday.
He goes on to say:
Now, as I indicated earlier, I completely get how upsetting
this can be for a lot of Americans, particularly after
assurances they heard from me that, if they had a plan that
they liked, they could keep it. And to those Americans, I
hear you loud and clear. I said that I would do everything we
can to fix this problem, and today I am offering an idea that
will help do it.
Already people who have plans that predate the Affordable
Care Act can keep those plans if they haven't changed. That
was already in the law. That's what's called a grandfather
that was included in the law. Today, we're going to extend
that principle both to the people whose plans have changed
since the law took effect and to people who bought plans
since the law took effect.
You know, it is interesting, the 10th Amendment to the Constitution
should actually protect the States to issue their own directives
through their State insurance commissioners. They didn't need the
President of the United States to do that. That is a power that has
been enshrined to them in the Constitution. The problem is that power
was taken away under the Affordable Care Act. Now they have attempted
to bring it back. But the fact of the matter is, in many States,
patients and constituents won't have that protection, but the Upton
bill today will actually provide that protection.
Make no mistake, the Upton bill is not a fix-it bill to the
Affordable Care Act; it is a lifeline that we are extending to our
constituents who have lost the coverage that they were told that they
could keep.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah).
Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I only have a minute, so let me be concise.
On Monday, I was in San Diego with 30,000 brain researchers excited
about the age of discovery and attacking diseases like Alzheimer's and
bipolar and schizophrenia. Yesterday, via satellite, I spoke to a
public health conference in Brussels for the European Union. Their
theme was that the wealth of their member countries was the health of
their population.
And then I come to the floor today where we see people who want to
retreat from the idea which is to make sure that every single person in
our country, for the first time in this Nation's history, has access to
affordable health care coverage. There will be no retreat, no
equivocation. I know there is this desire among Members on the other
team always to somehow go backwards, to some other age in our country
as if our future is in the past. Our future and the shaping impulse of
our country is in the future, and it is in the health of the citizens
of our country.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the vice chair of the full committee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to stand in support
of the rule that will allow us to bring the Keep Your Health Plan Act
to the floor.
It is important that we take this action today on H.R. 3350 because
we have heard from the American people, from coast to coast, that they
do not want the President's health care law. They do not like the
President's health care law. They feel as if, and have realized that
what is happening with this law is that, number one, it is restricting
their choice and options when it comes to health insurance, and, number
two, the cost is skyrocketing.
[[Page H7125]]
Now, we know that that is very important to our families who have
chosen health plans that meet their needs--health savings accounts that
allowed them to take individual responsibility for their health care,
allowed them the opportunities for choosing doctors and physicians and
keeping those doctors and physicians--and what the American people are
telling us and our constituents are telling us is that they do, indeed,
feel betrayed by the empty promises that the President and this
administration have made.
They are also quite concerned about the botched Web site rollout; as
I said, the insurance premiums; and, oh, those cancelation notices that
are hitting the mailboxes of millions of Americans. They say, This is
not what we bargained for. It is not what we were promised. It is not
what we voted or spoke in favor of. And so they are asking us to take
an action, and H.R. 3350 does take that action.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I want to go back to 2010 when we had a conference
and the President was before us, and I asked him a question about the
ability to keep plans and for individuals to stay insured. I spoke
because of the experience we had had in my State of Tennessee with the
test case for HillaryCare, which was called TennCare. We saw the
effects of that. We knew it was the test case for a public option in
health care; we knew it was too expensive to afford; and, overall, we
knew it did not work.
In his response, the President mentioned a little bit about some
stray cats and dogs and that he thought they had that cleaned up. But I
have to tell you that our constituents and their policies are not stray
cats and dogs, and they deserve to have the opportunity to keep their
health care and not to be treated in a disrespectful manner or to be
discarded to the sidelines.
So the President needs to realize he cannot go around waving a magic
wand and fixing this by executive fiat. This is a law. We are a Nation
of laws, and we abide by the rule of law. ObamaCare, the President's
health care law, is the law of the land. In order to provide relief to
the American people who have clearly spoken to say they do not want
this law, it requires an action of Congress.
Today's action will provide relief for some individuals--not as many
as we would like, but it is one step in providing some relief. The
American people have grown weary of this administration spending money
that it does not have on programs the American people do not want. The
President's health care law is a great example of a program that the
American people do not want, so they have come to us as the people's
representative and reminded us that we are a government of, by, and for
the people that should be working for the people. And as one of my
constituents told me Monday, we, the people, are going to start being
the people and holding this administration and this Congress
accountable. Today is one of those steps that we are taking on behalf
of our constituents and the people of this great Nation.
I thank the gentleman from Texas for the exceptional work that he has
done in working with Chairman Upton from Michigan in bringing this to
the floor.
Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
California (Mr. Becerra), the chair of the Democratic Caucus.
Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
In the past month, 500,000 Americans have secured affordable health
insurance. They are people that include folks in my State of California
like Erin Kotecki Vest, who said the old plan she had had all sorts of
deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. At the end of the day, what does
she say after going on Covered California's marketplace exchange? She
will be saving $18,900 per year by having shopped on the exchange under
the Affordable Care Act.
Paulo Dawud said he passed on an employer-based insurance policy that
would have cost him $504 a month. He got on Covered California's Web
site. He picked Kaiser. He now qualifies for a plan that charges $176 a
month.
Allen Pacela says his wife would not have insurance coverage at all
as of January 1. They shopped on the Web site. They are now saving
$8,000 a year for, as he says, ``a very much better plan.''
And Andrew Stryker from Los Angeles, California, 34 years old, lives
in the city of Los Angeles, had to wait 3 hours to enroll--$6,000
savings.
Let's improve this plan. Let's not destroy it. It is time to move
forward and give Americans what they need--health security.
Mr. POLIS. If I may inquire, does the gentleman have any remaining
speakers?
Mr. BURGESS. Well, I am always here, so I remain as a speaker.
Mr. POLIS. Is the gentleman prepared to close?
Mr. BURGESS. Absolutely.
Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
If we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the
rule that will allow the House to vote on a substitute that allows
Americans to keep their insurance if they like it.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the
amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately
prior to the vote on the previous question.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Colorado?
There was no objection.
Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of ways that we can
improve upon the Affordable Care Act. One of the ones that I would like
to highlight that we could be bringing here to the floor today that the
Senate already passed is comprehensive immigration reform.
H.R. 15 here in the House, a bipartisan bill that I am confident
would pass if brought to the floor, would finally make a dent in the
fact that there are more than 10 million people here in this country
illegally, the vast majority of whom don't have any access to health
insurance. So American citizens are essentially being forced to pay for
the health care costs of people who are here illegal every day until we
pass comprehensive immigration reform.
We are wondering why rates are going up. It is no surprise, Mr.
Speaker. When somebody doesn't have insurance, their costs are shifted
on to other people who do. Now, yes, there are Americans who don't have
insurance, and the Affordable Care Act helps increase the access that
many Americans have to insurance, but it doesn't do a thing about the
fact that there are more than 10 million people here illegally in this
country in violation of our laws who do not have health care insurance.
If we can pass H.R. 15, Mr. Speaker, people who are here illegally will
have to get insurance on their own instead of forcing Americans to pay
for their insurance.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this rule, defeat the previous
question.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I can't help but think back to that September evening in 2009 when
the President stood before a joint session of Congress after the August
recess and made a statement to the Nation that, yes, he was trying to
change health care but not to worry, that no one who was in the country
without the benefit of a Social Security number would be included in
that cost because many people are concerned that the cost for the
Affordable Care Act, already high, would expand unreasonably if that
were to change; and the President made a promise to the American people
that night.
{time} 1030
Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot of stuff today. I really wish there
had been that much interest in improving the Affordable Care Act before
it passed the first time. We all know the reasons why those
improvements were not offered and why we just simply had to have a take
it or leave it proposition that was ultimately signed into law.
Mr. Speaker, today's rule provides for the consideration of a
critical bill to protect the millions of Americans who are facing the
loss of health insurance that they were promised that they could keep.
I certainly thank my friend from Michigan (Mr. Upton), the chairman
of the Energy and Commerce Committee, for producing this thoughtful
piece of legislation.
[[Page H7126]]
Mr. Speaker, I ask for its approval by the body.
The material previously referred to by Mr. Polis is as follows:
Strike all and insert the following:
Resolved, That immediately upon adoption of this
resolution, it shall be in order to consider in the House the
bill (H.R. 3350) to authorize health insurance issuers to
continue to offer for sale current individual health
insurance coverage in satisfaction of the minimum essential
health insurance coverage requirement, and for other
purposes. All points of order against consideration of the
bill are waived. An amendment in the nature of a substitute
consisting of the text printed in section 2 of this
resolution shall be considered as adopted. The bill, as
amended, shall be considered as read. All points of order
against provisions in the bill, as amended, are waived. The
previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill,
as amended, and on any amendment thereto without intervening
motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and
controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the
[Committee on Energy and Commerce]; and (2) one motion to
recommit with or without instructions.
Section 2. The text of the amendment in the nature of a
substitute referenced in the first section is as follows:
H.R. _
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Consumer Health Plan
Protection Act of 2013''.
SEC. 2. MAINTAINING EXISTING COVERAGE.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any provision of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (including any
amendment made by such Act or by the Health Care and
Education Reconciliation Act of 2010), in the case of health
insurance coverage offered by a health insurance issuer in
the individual market that is in effect for an individual as
of October 1, 2013, the issuer may continue such coverage for
such individual for a plan year beginning in 2014 in such
market outside of an Exchange established under section 1311
or 1321 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 18031, 18041).
(b) Treatment as Grandfathered Health Plan in Satisfaction
of Minimum Essential Coverage.--Health insurance coverage
described in subsection (a) shall be treated as a
grandfathered health plan for purposes of the amendment made
by section 1501(b) of the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act.
(c) Notice.--As a condition for a health insurance issuer
to continue health insurance coverage under subsection (a),
the issuer shall provide for notice to each individual to be
offered such continued coverage (and for other individuals
covered under health insurance coverage offered by such
issuer for whom such continued coverage is not offered)
prompt notice of the following:
(1) The health insurance coverage options available to the
individual through the Marketplace under the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act and how to exercise such
options.
(2) The premium and cost-sharing assistance available for
coverage obtained through such Marketplace.
(3) The consumer protections provided under such Act that
are not provided under the continuing health insurance
coverage.
(d) Construction Regarding Notices of Cancellation or
Conversion.--
(1) In general.--Nothing in this section shall be construed
to prevent the Secretary of Health and Human Services from
requiring State insurance commissioners--
(A) to investigate and take appropriate administrative or
other actions (such as the imposition of a fine) on cases of
inadequate notices of cancellations or conversions of health
insurance coverage in the individual market that take effect
on or after January 1, 2014; and
(B) to submit to the Secretary reports on the
investigations and actions so taken.
(2) Inadequate notice.--In this subsection, a notice of the
cancellation or conversion of individual health insurance
coverage shall be treated as inadequate if the notice--
(A) fails to contain information contained in subsection
(c);
(B) fails to be transparent by inappropriately steering
individuals to more expensive plans provided by the
cancelling issuer; or
(C) fails to otherwise comply with requirements of law.
(e) Construction Regarding Protection Against
Discriminatory Rates.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed as preventing the Secretary or the relevant State
insurance commissioner or State regulator from taking
corrective actions to ensure that any excessive, unjustified,
or unfairly discriminatory rates for the continued coverage
offered under subsection (a) are corrected prior to renewal.
(f) Construction Regarding Premium Protection.--Nothing in
this section shall be construed as preventing the Secretary
from using all available tools to ensure that Marketplace
premiums are not adversely affected by the operation of this
section.
SEC. 3. REQUIRING STATE INSURANCE COMMISSIONERS TO
INVESTIGATE INSTANCES OF INADEQUATE NOTICES OF
CANCELLATION OR CONVERSION OF INDIVIDUAL HEALTH
INSURANCE POLICIES.
(a) In General.--Each State insurance commissioner shall
investigate and take appropriate administrative or other
actions (such as the imposition of a fine) on cases of
inadequate notices of cancellations or conversions of health
insurance coverage in the individual market that take effect
on or after January 1, 2014.
(b) Inadequate Notice.--In this section, a notice of the
cancellation or conversion of individual health insurance
coverage shall be treated as inadequate if the notice--
(1) fails to contain information--
(A) on obtaining health insurance coverage through an
Exchange under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act;
(B) on the possible availability of assistance under such
Act towards payment of the premiums and cost-sharing for such
coverage; and
(C) on the improved benefits for coverage through an
Exchange, compared to health insurance coverage not offered
through an Exchange;
(2) fails to be transparent by inappropriately steering
individuals to more expensive plans provided by the
cancelling issuer; or
(3) fails to otherwise comply with requirements of law.
(c) Reports.--
(1) State commissioners to hhs.--Not later than March 31,
2014, each State insurance commissioner shall submit to the
Secretary of Health and Human Services a report on the
investigations and actions described in subsection (a).
(2) HHS report to congress.--Not later than April 30, 2014,
the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on such
investigations and actions.
(d) Definitions of State, Health Insurance Coverage, and
Individual Market.--In this section, the terms ``State'',
``health insurance coverage'', and ``individual market'' have
the meanings given such terms for purposes of title I of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
SEC. 4. PROTECTION OF CONSUMERS FROM EXCESSIVE, UNJUSTIFIED,
OR UNFAIRLY DISCRIMINATORY RATES.
(a) Protection From Excessive, Unjustified, or Unfairly
Discriminatory Rates.--The first section 2794 of the Public
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300gg-94), as added by section
1003 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(Public Law 111-148), is amended by adding at the end the
following new subsection:
``(e) Protection From Excessive, Unjustified, or Unfairly
Discriminatory Rates.--
``(1) Authority of states.--Nothing in this section shall
be construed to prohibit a State from imposing requirements
(including requirements relating to rate review standards and
procedures and information reporting) on health insurance
issuers with respect to rates that are in addition to the
requirements of this section and are more protective of
consumers than such requirements.
``(2) Consultation in rate review process.--In carrying out
this section, the Secretary shall consult with the National
Association of Insurance Commissioners and consumer groups.
``(3) Determination of who conducts reviews for each
state.--The Secretary shall determine, after the date of
enactment of this section and periodically thereafter, the
following:
``(A) In which markets in each State the State insurance
commissioner or relevant State regulator shall undertake the
corrective actions under paragraph (4), as a condition of the
State receiving the grant in subsection (c), based on the
Secretary's determination that the State regulator is
adequately undertaking and utilizing such actions in that
market.
``(B) In which markets in each State the Secretary shall
undertake the corrective actions under paragraph (4), in
cooperation with the relevant State insurance commissioner or
State regulator, based on the Secretary's determination that
the State is not adequately undertaking and utilizing such
actions in that market.
``(4) Corrective action for excessive, unjustified, or
unfairly discriminatory rates.--In accordance with the
process established under this section, the Secretary or the
relevant State insurance commissioner or State regulator
shall take corrective actions to ensure that any excessive,
unjustified, or unfairly discriminatory rates are corrected
prior to implementation, or as soon as possible thereafter,
through mechanisms such as--
``(A) denying rates;
``(B) modifying rates; or
``(C) requiring rebates to consumers.
``(5) Noncompliance.--Failure to comply with any corrective
action taken by the Secretary under this subsection may
result in the application of civil monetary penalties and, if
the Secretary determines appropriate, make the plan involved
ineligible for classification as a Qualified Health Plan.''.
(b) Clarification of Regulatory Authority.--Such section is
further amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in the heading, by striking ``Premium'' and inserting
``Rate'';
(B) in paragraph (1), by striking ``unreasonable increases
in premiums'' and inserting ``potentially excessive,
unjustified, or unfairly discriminatory rates, including
premiums,''; and
(C) in paragraph (2)--
(i) by striking ``an unreasonable premium increase'' and
inserting ``a potentially excessive, unjustified, or unfairly
discriminatory rate'';
(ii) by striking ``the increase'' and inserting ``the
rate''; and
[[Page H7127]]
(iii) by striking ``such increases'' and inserting ``such
rates'';
(2) in subsection (b)--
(A) by striking ``premium increases'' each place it appears
and inserting ``rates''; and
(B) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking ``premium'' and
inserting ``rate''; and
(3) in subsection (c)(1)--
(A) in the heading, by striking ``Premium'' and inserting
``Rate'';
(B) by inserting ``that satisfy the condition under
subsection (e)(3)(A)'' after ``award grants to States''; and
(C) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``premium increases''
and inserting ``rates''.
(c) Conforming Amendment.--Title XXVII of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300gg et seq.) is amended--
(1) in section 2723 (42 U.S.C. 300gg-22), as redesignated
by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act--
(A) in subsection (a)--
(i) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``and section 2794''
after ``this part''; and
(ii) in paragraph (2), by inserting ``or section 2794''
after ``this part''; and
(B) in subsection (b)--
(i) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``and section 2794''
after ``this part''; and
(ii) in paragraph (2)--
(I) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ``or section 2794
that is'' after ``this part''; and
(II) in subparagraph (C)(ii), by inserting ``or section
2794'' after ``this part''; and
(2) in section 2761 (42 U.S.C. 300gg-61)--
(A) in subsection (a)--
(i) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``and section 2794''
after ``this part''; and
(ii) in paragraph (2)--
(I) by inserting ``or section 2794'' after ``set forth in
this part''; and
(II) by inserting ``and section 2794'' after ``the
requirements of this part''; and
(B) in subsection (b)--
(i) by inserting ``and section 2794'' after ``this part'';
and
(ii) by inserting ``and section 2794'' after ``part A''.
(d) Applicability to Grandfathered Plans.--Section
1251(a)(4)(A) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act (Public Law 111-148), as added by section 2301 of the
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Public
Law 111-152), is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(v) Section 2794 (relating to reasonableness of rates
with respect to health insurance coverage).''.
(e) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, such sums as
may be necessary.
(f) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act and
shall be implemented with respect to health plans beginning
not later than January 1, 2014.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time and
move the previous question on the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on ordering the previous
question.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, the Chair
will reduce to 5 minutes the minimum time for any electronic vote on
the question of adoption of the resolution.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 225,
nays 193, not voting 12, as follows:
[Roll No. 583]
YEAS--225
Aderholt
Amash
Amodei
Bachmann
Bachus
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Benishek
Bentivolio
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Broun (GA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Burgess
Calvert
Camp
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Coble
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Conaway
Cook
Cotton
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Culberson
Daines
Davis, Rodney
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guthrie
Hall
Hanna
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Heck (NV)
Hensarling
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Joyce
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Labrador
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Lankford
Latham
Latta
LoBiondo
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Marchant
Massie
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Palazzo
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Petri
Pittenger
Pitts
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Radel
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Royce
Runyan
Ryan (WI)
Salmon
Sanford
Scalise
Schock
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Southerland
Stewart
Stivers
Stockman
Stutzman
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walorski
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (IN)
NAYS--193
Andrews
Barber
Barrow (GA)
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Bera (CA)
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown (FL)
Brownley (CA)
Bustos
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Connolly
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle
Duckworth
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Enyart
Eshoo
Esty
Farr
Fattah
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Garcia
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hahn
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Holt
Honda
Horsford
Hoyer
Huffman
Israel
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
Kirkpatrick
Kuster
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lynch
Maffei
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
Meeks
Meng
Michaud
Moore
Moran
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Negrete McLeod
Nolan
O'Rourke
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters (CA)
Peters (MI)
Peterson
Pingree (ME)
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Richmond
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schneider
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell (AL)
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--12
Campbell
Cohen
Gosar
Herrera Beutler
Jones
Marino
McCarthy (NY)
Miller, George
Poe (TX)
Rush
Tsongas
Young (AK)
{time} 1057
Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Messrs. BEN RAY LUJAN of New Mexico and BARBER
changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Mr. MATHESON changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the previous question was ordered.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Stated against:
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained at a hearing of
the Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law, on
which I serve as Ranking Member. I was therefore unable to be present
for rollcall vote No. 583, the Previous Question on the Rule to
consider H.R. 3350.
Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Recorded Vote
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. This is a 5-minute vote.
[[Page H7128]]
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 228,
noes 189, not voting 13, as follows:
[Roll No. 584]
AYES--228
Aderholt
Amash
Amodei
Bachmann
Bachus
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Benishek
Bentivolio
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Brady (TX)
Braley (IA)
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Broun (GA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Burgess
Calvert
Camp
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Coble
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Conaway
Cook
Costa
Cotton
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Culberson
Daines
Davis, Rodney
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guthrie
Hall
Hanna
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Heck (NV)
Hensarling
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Joyce
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Labrador
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Lankford
Latham
Latta
LoBiondo
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Marchant
Marino
Massie
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Owens
Palazzo
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Peterson
Petri
Pittenger
Pitts
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Radel
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Royce
Runyan
Ryan (WI)
Salmon
Sanford
Scalise
Schock
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Southerland
Stewart
Stivers
Stockman
Stutzman
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walorski
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (IN)
NOES--189
Andrews
Barrow (GA)
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Bera (CA)
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Brady (PA)
Brown (FL)
Brownley (CA)
Bustos
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly
Conyers
Cooper
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle
Duckworth
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Enyart
Eshoo
Esty
Farr
Fattah
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Garcia
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hahn
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Holt
Honda
Horsford
Hoyer
Huffman
Israel
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
Kirkpatrick
Kuster
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lynch
Maffei
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
Meeks
Meng
Michaud
Moore
Moran
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Negrete McLeod
Nolan
O'Rourke
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters (CA)
Peters (MI)
Pingree (ME)
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Richmond
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schneider
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell (AL)
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--13
Barber
Boustany
Campbell
Gosar
Herrera Beutler
Jones
McCarthy (NY)
Miller, George
Poe (TX)
Rush
Sensenbrenner
Tsongas
Young (AK)
{time} 1105
So the resolution was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated for:
Mr. BARBER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 584 I was unavoidably
detained and missed this vote.
Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the provisions of House
Resolution 413, I call up the bill (H.R. 3350) to authorize health
insurance issuers to continue to offer for sale current individual
health insurance coverage in satisfaction of the minimum essential
health insurance coverage requirement, and for other purposes, and ask
for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Yoder). Pursuant to House Resolution
413, the bill is considered read.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 3350
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Keep Your Health Plan Act of
2013''.
SEC. 2. IF YOU LIKE YOUR HEALTH CARE PLAN, YOU CAN KEEP IT.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any provision of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (including any
amendment made by such Act or by the Health Care and
Education Reconciliation Act of 2010), a health insurance
issuer that has in effect health insurance coverage in the
individual market as of January 1, 2013, may continue after
such date to offer such coverage for sale during 2014 in such
market outside of an Exchange established under section 1311
or 1321 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 18031, 18041).
(b) Treatment as Grandfathered Health Plan in Satisfaction
of Minimum Essential Coverage.--Health insurance coverage
described in subsection (a) shall be treated as a
grandfathered health plan for purposes of the amendment made
by section 1501(b) of the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and
the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) each will control 30
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.
General Leave
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on H.R. 3350.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Michigan?
There was no objection.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1\1/2\ minutes.
Mr. Speaker, across generations, Presidencies are often associated
with one famous utterance: ``Ask not what your country can do for
you,'' ``The only thing we have to fear,'' ``Tear down this wall.'' And
our current President will be no different: ``If you like your health
care plan, you can keep it, period.''
For the last 3 years, the President repeated this promise in selling
his signature law, and he did so with the knowledge that it would not
be met. Millions of Americans, including nearly 250,000 in Michigan,
took the President at his word and now, unexpectedly, are receiving
cancelation notices. They are confused, worried, and upset. Today we
stand with those families with the Keep Your Health Plan Act.
This bill is to help provide peace of mind to folks like the farmer
in Bangor, Michigan, who just found out after purchasing his family's
insurance for the last 30 years that he will be able to keep that plan
no more. And the sticker shock will be unbearable, as the premiums
double and their deductible jumps nearly $3,000. Sadly, they are not
alone. For millions of Americans, it is cancelations today, sticker
shock tomorrow.
For the last 6 weeks, the White House stood idly by, ignoring the
pleas of millions. But as the administration's allies in Congress
panicked, the White House went from attacking our thoughtful bill to
making an end run
[[Page H7129]]
around Congress with a universal ``fix.''
Our straightforward one-page bill says if you like your current
coverage, you should be able to keep it. The President should heed his
own advice and work with us, the Congress, as the Founders intended,
not around the legislative process.
Everyone today should embrace the Keep Your Health Plan Act, and our
efforts to protect Americans from the damage of this law should not
stop there. Let's keep the promise.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes.
This bill is not a bill to let people keep their health insurance
plans. The President took care of that issue yesterday. This bill is
another vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It would take away the
core protections of that law.
This bill creates an entire shadow market of substandard health care
plans. It will destabilize the health insurance exchanges, raise
premiums, and continue to allow insurers to discriminate on the basis
of preexisting conditions.
The bill takes away the core consumer protections that are part of
the law. Under the Republican bill, it ensures to cherry-pick the best
risks and destabilize the insurance market for everyone else. That is
what we would have if they repealed the law. People would still be out
of a chance to get health insurance.
Now, I understand the concern of many Members, that individuals
should be able to keep their health insurance if they like it; but
there is a profound difference between providing relief for individuals
whose policies have been canceled, which is what the President did
yesterday, and re-creating the discriminatory, inefficient insurance
market that we had before health reform, which is what this bill will
do.
We need to have some perspective on this issue. For those currently
in the individual insurance market, nearly 5 million people, they will
be eligible for a tax credit worth an average of $5,000. Over a million
more people will be eligible for Medicaid, which means additional
savings. Because of better coverage that protects them from crippling
medical costs, millions more will lower their out-of-pocket costs; and
the 25 million Americans without insurance will finally get a good deal
on quality coverage.
No one can be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions. No
one will see higher rates because they get sick. No one will see their
rates go up. No one will run up against annual coverage limits or
realize too late that their plan didn't cover the key benefits that
they need.
{time} 1115
This week, we learned that 1.5 million people have already applied
for coverage--a faster signup rate than experienced in Massachusetts--
even with all the technical problems we have had. In my State of
California, nearly 400,000 people have begun applications in the first
month.
There will be a total of 6 months to sign up.
This program is going to work. These are significant signs of
progress.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. WAXMAN. I yield myself an additional 10 seconds.
They show us we are on our way to dramatically expanding health
insurance coverage in this Nation. This bill will take us backwards.
I urge a ``no'' vote, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the
good State of Oregon (Mr. Walden).
Mr. WALDEN. I thank the chairman for yielding and for bringing this
bill to the floor.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the voice of at least 150,000 Oregonians
who have already received their cancelation notices. They have been
told that the policy they liked, that they wanted to keep, they cannot
have any longer.
I was out in my district for 8 straight days last week--36 meetings,
12 counties, 2,476 miles on the road, from morning to late at night.
And I am going to tell you there are people like Chuck and Jan in
Medford who had gone into retirement, had health insurance, and got a
notice that their plan has been canceled.
From Mitchell to Bend to Enterprise to Medford--all over--not only
are their plans being canceled, the replacements are coming back with
deductibles that are $12,000 to $15,000, when they were paying a couple
thousand dollars. The premiums are going up--in some cases, double or
more.
Some of them may get a subsidy, a lot of them won't, and now they
don't have the plan they were promised that they could keep.
And another thing that is insidious that is going on below the
surface, in meeting after meeting, hours are being cut back. People are
losing their jobs. They are getting less take-home pay because of
ObamaCare. This is a problem all across America.
The promise that you could keep your plan was never to be kept, and
they knew it. And they continued to say it, and it wasn't true.
People are losing their plans, they are losing their coverage, and
they are losing access to the specialists that may save their lives.
They won't be able to keep their doctors. Oh, they may, but if the
doctor is out of network, there is no cap on what they will pay in
terms of a deductible. So financially, you take away their access to
health care.
The prices have gone up; the access has gone down. And by the way, in
many cases, they have lost their jobs or their hours have been cut
back.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New
York (Mr. Rangel), who played such an important role in drafting the
Affordable Care Act.
Mr. RANGEL. Let me thank Congressman Waxman for giving me this
opportunity.
The majority has said that Presidents are remembered by certain
things, and this outstanding President will be remembered because he
said, if you have a plan--and he didn't say ``no matter how bad it
is''--you can keep it. I think he will be remembered historically as
being the first President in the United States of America that has told
people that, for the first time, every American will have access to
affordable health care.
On the other side, history is going to record them, too. They never
said that they had any concern at all and never had a plan for the 30
million people that every day are waiting for this plan to go into
effect, and that they would publicly acknowledge that they don't want
to improve upon mistakes that may have been made but they want to
derail, to destroy, and to eliminate and to repeal universal health
care for Americans.
I say this. The President apologized yesterday, and I apologize for
the United States Congress to those people without insurance today.
If you believe that the administration has done something wrong, for
God's sake, let's work together to correct it. But to just ignore the
fact that 70 percent of Americans already have good insurance and it is
going to be improved, to ignore the fact that 30 million people and
their legacy is in jeopardy because they can't afford to have serious
illnesses, and to believe that those that belong to the 5 percent that
really get caught in what we are supposed to be fixing today, I tell
you that there is no evidence at all that the Republican Party wanted
to fix anything for the uninsured of America.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Georgia, Dr. Gingrey, a member of the Health Subcommittee.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from New York just
said it: universal health care, single-payer system, a government
takeover of one-sixth of our economy. That is what they wanted from the
very beginning.
I rise today in support of H.R. 3350, the Keep Your Health Plan Act
now.
The Obama administration's health exchange enrollment announcement on
Wednesday is one of the myriad reasons we must pass this bill. Frankly,
these long-awaited numbers did not come as a surprise to us. A mere
100,000 registered for health care on the new marketplaces when they
anticipated 500,000. According to a Health and Human Services report,
the number does not distinguish even between those that actually paid a
premium and those that just selected a plan by clicking a button on the
Web site.
Mr. Speaker, the number of Americans who have had their health plans
[[Page H7130]]
canceled is in the millions--exponentially higher than those who
receive coverage under ObamaCare.
This disastrous law was destined to fail from the start. We on this
side of the aisle, the Republicans--and indeed, the American people--
have known for 3 years that this plan is unworkable for small
businesses; it is unfair for physicians and their patients; and it is
unaffordable for we the taxpayer, we the people.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3350.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Pallone), the top Democrat on the Health Subcommittee of
Energy and Commerce.
Mr. PALLONE. Thank you, Mr. Waxman.
Unfortunately, today's bill is a ruse. It claims to make things
better, but all it does is to make things terribly worse. Republicans
will hide behind a sound bite and nice-sounding title. But what this
bill really does is to go back to the old, broken health insurance
system.
This is just another attempt for the GOP to repeal the provisions of
the Affordable Care Act. They have made it their mission to push the
ACA to failure, and the only consequence is just that: seriously
damaging the insurance provisions of the Affordable Care Act and the
millions of Americans who are expected to benefit from the improved
coverage and premium and cost-sharing subsidies available through the
new health insurance marketplace.
The GOP claims the bill allows people to keep their health plans, but
actually it allows old policies with fewer benefits and sometimes
higher prices to be sold to new enrollees.
One of the major goals of the ACA was to improve the quality of
health insurance policies sold on the private market. Beginning in
2014, health insurance plans can no longer deny coverage for adults
with preexisting conditions or charge those individuals more for
coverage. And there are a lot of other discriminatory practices that
are eliminated by the ACA.
We need to be open to constructive changes to make this law work to
the best of its ability, but that is not what the GOP is doing today.
No one believes the Republicans care about ensuring that people have
health insurance. If they did, then Republicans would not, for purely
political reasons, refuse to expand Medicaid with those Republican
Governors in the States where now 5 million hardworking Americans
across 26 States will not have Medicaid expansion because of Republican
politics.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the President took action to help Americans
who want to renew their old insurance policies. Ultimately, though, I
hope that those Americans who want to renew those old policies will
look at the quality plans available in the new Affordable Care Act
insurance marketplace and like what they see. In most cases, they will
find they are able to purchase better coverage at a lower price than
their original policies, so, when they get sick or need care, they will
actually have it--not with these old policies that, for the most part,
are not going to provide them with good health insurance.
I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill. This is just another repeal
effort on the part of the Republicans. They are not serious about
trying to provide insurance, and this will accomplish nothing for the
American people.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Barton), the chairman emeritus of the Energy and Commerce
Committee.
(Mr. BARTON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. BARTON. I appreciate the chairman yielding.
Mr. Speaker, we are here today to begin the long process of
amending--hopefully improving, and if that is not possible, at some
point in time, repealing--the Affordable Care Act.
The President, as everybody knows by now, repeatedly said that if you
like your health insurance, you can keep it. Well, it has been proven
that even when he said it, that was not true. Yesterday, the President
admitted as much when he said for the next year he would try to honor
that promise, if only in the breach.
The Upton bill actually correctly honors that promise in the correct
way by legislatively saying that insurance can continue to provide
these private policies--and I would assume some employer-sponsored
policies--regardless of whether they meet the new minimum standards
under the Affordable Care Act. The bill does not require insurance
companies to do so, but it does allow them to do so. As sponsors of the
bill, it is our hope that many companies will do so. It is a reasonable
expectation that millions of Americans, given that choice, will
actually keep the plans that they have and that they like.
At some point in time, though, Mr. Speaker--this bill is not the end
of the process; it is the beginning--we need to come back and fix the
rest of the law or perhaps even change it or repeal it.
I have a bill that I hope will be brought to the floor at some point
in the near future that will make ObamaCare voluntary. Let the American
people choose what parts of the new law they like, and if they decide
they don't like some parts or all of the law, they wouldn't be
compelled--mandated--to continue to use some of these new policies.
So, Mr. Speaker, I want to commend Chairman Upton and Subcommittee
Chairman Pitts for bringing this bill so expeditiously to the floor. I
would hope that we can have a unanimous vote in support of it.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman will not get a unanimous vote.
At this time, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr.
Levin), the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee.
(Mr. LEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, the Republicans are on a mission of
destruction. Nothing will satisfy them except that very mission. The
Upton bill is another weapon in that mission. What the Republicans fear
most of all is that health care reform will eventually work. The Upton
bill is a bill to make sure that it does not work.
The President has taken a step to help people keep their policies.
The Upton bill opens the door to anyone at all to make sure that health
care reform is not workable and that the private market cannot work. So
back to the time of 50 million uninsured. So back to the time of
cancelation for preexisting conditions. So back to the time of no cap.
The alternative is bankruptcy.
Eight years ago, the Medicare drug program that Republicans had
passed got off to a rocky start. Did we Democrats pounce on it for
political gain? No. We put the country first and helped make the
program a success. The Republicans are marching in the opposite
direction--the path of destroying instead of making something work.
Let's work together to make it work rather than destroying what
Americans want: a healthy health care program for all Americans.
{time} 1130
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Cantor), the majority leader of the House.
Mr. CANTOR. I thank the chairman, the gentleman from Michigan.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Keep Your Health Plan
Act.
Many Americans today are worried. They are worried about their jobs,
worried about saving for their children's college educations or worried
about saving for their retirements, and now, Mr. Speaker, millions of
Americans are worried about coming home and opening their mailboxes to
find out that their health care coverage has been taken from them
because of the President's health care law.
The President repeatedly said that if you liked your health care
plan, you could keep it. We knew this was a promise he could not keep,
and now it is a promise he has broken. As a result, millions of
Americans across the country are receiving cancelation letters just
like this one.
Mr. Speaker, this letter was sent to me by a constituent of mine. His
name is Bruno Gora. He is from Richmond, Virginia. Bruno is self-
employed, and he purchases his health care plan through Anthem
BlueCross/Blue Shield. A few weeks ago, he was shocked to receive this
letter because this letter clearly reads: ``To meet the
[[Page H7131]]
requirements of the new law, your current plan can no longer be
offered.'' Purchasing a new plan could potentially cost Mr. Gora
thousands of dollars.
Why should he or anyone else be forced off their plan if they want to
keep it?
Working families across America were counting on the President to
keep his promise. Now they are counting on us to ease some of the pain
that his health care law has brought on them.
Yesterday, President Obama announced that he was going to be making
some unilateral changes, but the changes he proposed and the ones we
are proposing in the House have some very clear differences.
The President's plan restricts coverage previously available to only
those who already had it while forcing others to purchase a plan from
healthcare.gov or to buy more expensive coverage that may not fit their
needs. The White House doesn't even know how they are going to
implement the plan they announced yesterday.
This proposal that we are talking about here, Chairman Upton's plan,
aims to help Americans keep their health insurance and give their
neighbors a chance to buy the same plans rather than forcing them onto
a faulty Web site to buy new coverage they may not like or cannot
afford. Under this legislation, there is no confusion. The Keep Your
Health Plan Act removes the impediment in the law that restricts
insurance plans from being offered.
The only way to completely stop any more cancelation letters like the
one Mr. Gora received is through a full repeal of ObamaCare. Today,
however, we have an opportunity to stand united and pass a bipartisan
measure that aims to slow the growing number of Americans harmed by
this law.
I would like to thank Chairman Upton for his hard work and dedication
to the issue, and I urge all of my colleagues in the House to support
this bill.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I wish to yield 3 minutes to
the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), the dean of the House, the
chairman emeritus of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the longest-
standing Member in support of universal health care coverage.
(Mr. DINGELL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. DINGELL. I thank my friend for yielding me this time, and I
express great affection and respect for my dear friend, the gentleman
from Michigan (Mr. Upton), who serves the House and his constituents
well.
However, Mr. Speaker, this is a regrettable piece of legislation. It
is nothing more or less than the kind of insurance policies, which are
being authorized by it, that were sold by snake oil salesmen around
this country, policies which gave no relief, no help, and no benefit to
the American people.
The sad situation is that this not only allows some people to keep
their policies, but it allows a lot of snake oil salesmen to run around
the country, selling bad policies which undo almost all of the
protections which we have put into the Affordable Care Act, things like
protections against preexisting conditions or the fact that a woman who
might be buying a policy can be charged more under this legislation on
a new policy issued by some sneaky insurance company.
The harsh fact of the matter is that this is not a help to citizens.
The President said yesterday that he was going to take steps to correct
the problems. If we really want to have this done properly, then that
is the way to do it. Let us work together to have these matters
corrected properly. Let us see to it that the American people get the
protections they need against abusive practices and not that we return
to them.
H.R. 3350 allows the new sales of bad policies--which contain
programs and practices that are barred by ACA--to new and gullible
purchasers, the ones whom we say we seek to protect. As I observed
yesterday, the insurance companies feel that this is going to cause
huge confusion in the market, and they do not seek this legislation.
The average citizen has been sold a bill of lading which is just
plainly false. He is not going to be benefited by H.R. 3350. He is
simply going to be afforded the opportunity to buy bad policies,
whereas what we want to do is see to it that if he has his policy he
can keep it. The hard fact of the matter is that he can keep it, and he
doesn't need the legislation before us.
The legislation before us simply assures that folks can run around
selling bad policies under fictional and false misrepresentations to do
hurt to the American people, who, frankly, need protection against the
abuses that the Affordable Care Act would put in place.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I now yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. SCALISE. I thank the gentleman from Michigan for bringing this
bill to the floor, which I support.
Mr. Speaker, we all heard that promise that if you like what you
have, you can keep it. It is probably the most often repeated promise
that Barack Obama has made in his 5 years as President. Yet the
President is finally acknowledging that that promise will not be kept
to millions of Americans who are losing the good plans they like.
They can't feign that they didn't know this was going to happen, by
the way, Mr. Speaker, because, back in 2010, the administration had a
report that said over 60 percent of private plans would be canceled
under the President's health care law. I have seen it myself in my
district. I have got Chris from Covington and Aaron from Slidell who
have gotten letters saying they are going to lose the good plans they
have because of the President's health care law.
The President's answer was, Oh, it was a lousy plan.
Mr. Speaker, it was not a lousy plan for Chris or for Aaron or for
the millions of Americans who are losing their plans. They liked their
plans. Some Washington politician shouldn't be able to say, I don't
think it is good enough, so I am going to take it from you even though
it is right for your family.
Let's put patients and doctors back in charge of these decisions.
Let's empower hardworking families to be the ones in control of their
health care decisions, not some Washington politician. I urge the
passage of this bill.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentlelady from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, the number one cause of personal
bankruptcies in this country is the cost of health care. Most of those
people are so-called ``insured.'' These are the policies that are being
offered that people find out, when they get sick, that they really
aren't insured.
A major goal of ObamaCare is to protect every consumer from the worst
abuses of the private health insurance industry. Starting next year, no
consumer can be denied coverage or charged more due to a preexisting
condition. This means that 129 million Americans will no longer have to
live in fear that they could, one day, be unable to obtain affordable
coverage needed to maintain their health or even to save their lives.
The Upton bill would turn back the clock. The Upton bill would allow
insurers to cherry-pick among all health care consumers--the young, the
healthy--by offering non-ObamaCare-compliant policies, leaving only the
old and sick to purchase coverage in the marketplace. This is something
they have wanted to do and have been doing for decades. This is going
to drive up premiums and allow just the type of discrimination that
ObamaCare absolutely ends.
Speaker Boehner said yesterday, We have currently the best health
care delivery system in the world.
Are you kidding me--with tens of millions of people uninsured and
tens of millions more with bad policies that don't cover this?
Rather than taking steps to weaken ObamaCare, my Republican
colleagues should be taking this opportunity to build on ObamaCare; as
the President said, to fix it.
Last week, I spoke with the director of the Illinois Department of
Insurance about some of the unreasonable rate increases my constituents
have faced in the past and their concerns about the new rates being
quoted in letters they received from their insurers this fall. He told
me that he doesn't have the authority he wants in order to protect
consumers from excessive premiums. This authority includes the
[[Page H7132]]
ability to deny or to modify any unreasonable premium. Illinois isn't
alone.
Today, Republicans denied us the opportunity to address this by
refusing to consider legislation that would move us forward and provide
rate modification authority in every State. Instead, they are choosing
to move a bill that would drive up premium rates and undermine
ObamaCare's new benefits and protections.
I want to caution people. Rather than re-up with some of the policies
they have, check it out. What is really covered? Is there
hospitalization? Is the emergency room covered? How many times can you
go see your doctor? Go to the marketplace. It will be fixed. Pick a
plan that is going to provide you with the real coverage and the
essential benefits that you need that are provided under ObamaCare. We
want to protect you from junk plans that are out there, but we want to
let you re-up in plans that actually offer you the kind of coverage you
want, that is essential, which is what the President did yesterday.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, at this point, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), the Republican whip.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the chairman for his work in
keeping his pledge of bringing this bill to the floor.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3350, the Keep Your
Health Plan Act.
From the start, ObamaCare has been a disaster.
First, the individual mandate was a bad idea before and is even more
dangerous now because it is forcing people to choose health care they
do not want, cannot afford, and isn't right for themselves and their
families.
Second, the President's credibility continues to crumble as
independent news sources have confirmed that he intentionally broke his
promise to every American about whether they can keep his insurance
under this law.
We will continue to see the shock waves of ObamaCare. Today, it is
the fact that Americans cannot keep their coverage. Tomorrow, it will
be the staggering and unexpected cost. Next month, it will be about
losing access to their doctors, and the list continues. No
administrative fix will undo the harm this law has caused.
Republicans believe that we must try and help Americans who have been
harmed by ObamaCare. That is why, today, we will pass a bill to allow
Americans to continue to enroll in plans currently offered without
facing the individual mandate penalty. What the American people and our
constituents need is certainty. The only approach that begins to
provide them certainty is the bill before us today.
Our bill allows Americans a choice. It lets individuals keep their
health care plans while giving others who currently are uninsured an
escape hatch from ObamaCare. Our bill will allow individuals, whether
one is a mother of a sick child, a small business owner, or a young,
invincible adult, to keep their current plans. The National Federation
of Independent Business and senior groups, such as 60 Plus, are urging
Congress to fulfill its duty and pass this bill.
I urge my Democratic friends to join with us. Many of them voted for
this bill. They stated they had an intent that Americans could keep
their plans. Today is their opportunity to keep that pledge.
{time} 1145
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from the State of Washington, Dr. McDermott, who is the
ranking member of the Health Subcommittee of Ways and Means.
(Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, my mother used to say ``patience is a
virtue.'' I haven't seen so much panic on this floor since 9/11.
Now, the fact is that a couple of Members who used to be here--Jay
Inslee, who is now Governor of the State of Washington, and Mike
Kreidler, who is the insurance commissioner of the State of
Washington--have already said they will not implement this because it
is not good for the people of the State of Washington. They have looked
at it.
We have worked hard to implement the Affordable Care Act. Now we have
a bill out here with no hearings whatsoever run out here, and we are
told there will be no confusion. There will be nothing but confusion.
You have 50 insurance commissioners around this country who are going
to be suddenly given a bill after we write some rules and regulations
here that require the insurance companies to sell policies to people.
I can't believe what I am hearing. I thought that the Republicans
believed in the free enterprise system. This is socialism. This is
government saying to insurance companies: you must sell a policy to
somebody next year that you sold to them this year.
When did we shift on the Republican side to the Congress telling an
insurance company who they have to sell a policy to or what is in the
policy?
The fact is that they are going to have to put the policy out there.
They have been working on implementing this law for 3 years. Now 6
weeks before it actually begins to take effect, we run in here and say,
wait a minute, wait a minute, you got to start selling policies like
the ones that you sold last year.
Do you think they didn't think through what they are doing? I mean, I
don't understand. The free enterprise system is lions and they are
eating antelopes.
I urge you to vote ``no'' against this because you are going to
create endless confusion in this country and the insurance market.
Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner,
November 14, 2013.
Kreidler Statement on President Obama's Announcement Today
Olympia, WA.--``We have worked for three years to implement
the Affordable Care Act in a way that works best for
Washingtonians. One goal of our efforts has been to build a
stable, fair and competitive individual health insurance
market.
I know that many people who buy their own health insurance
have struggled to keep their coverage. That is why we have
worked so hard to make these significant changes. We have
brought meaningful benefits to this market that the rest of
us with employer-sponsored health plans have enjoyed for
years; benefits like prescription drug coverage, maternity
care, and reasonable limits on out-of-pocket costs. Our
state-based Exchange--Wahealthplanfinder.org--is up and
running and successfully enrolling thousands of consumers.
I understand that many people are upset by the notices they
have recently received from their health plans and they may
not need the new benefits today. But I have serious concerns
about how President Obama's proposal would be implemented and
more significantly, its potential impact on the overall
stability of our health insurance market.
I do not believe his proposal is a good deal for the state
of Washington. In the interest of keeping the consumer
protections we have enacted and ensuring that we keep health
insurance costs down for all consumers, we are staying the
course. We will not be allowing insurance companies to extend
their policies. I believe this is in the best interest of the
health insurance market in Washington.
We estimate that 290,000 people will need to buy new
coverage and that at least half of them will qualify for a
premium subsidy. I encourage anyone who is shopping for new
health plans--whether you've been uninsured or have received
a cancellation notice from your insurer--to look at all of
your options. Don't just take what your insurance company
says. You may find better, more affordable coverage with a
different insurer. There are 46 individual health plans for
sale in the Exchange and 51 plans available outside the
Exchange. If you need help reviewing your options, contact a
navigator or an agent or broker.
____
November 14, 2013.
Gov. Inslee Statement on Obama Administration's Affordable Care Act
Announcement
Gov. Jay Inslee issued this statement in response to
Thursday's announcement by President Obama that insurers
could continue to offer individual insurance plans that don't
comply with the ACA:
``We appreciate President Obama's efforts, through the
administrative fix announced today, to address the concerns
of those who have gotten `cancellation' letters from their
insurance companies.
``Each state will be examining this option to see whether
it works for them, and we know different states will come to
different conclusions.
``Here in Washington, we are fortunate to have a robust
insurance exchange, with 46 plans from eight different
carriers. We're also fortunate that our exchange, the
Washington Healthplanfinder, is up and running and enrolling
tens of thousands of people in meaningful and affordable
health coverage.
``Because of that, the majority of Washingtonians who get
these letters are able to find
[[Page H7133]]
better plans and get tax subsidies to help pay for them. They
are getting better coverage at a better price.
``Largely because of the success we've had implementing the
Affordable Care Act so far, Insurance Commissioner Mike
Kreidler has concluded that the option of extending old
health plans is not a good solution for the state of
Washington.
``We understand that these cancellation letters can be
upsetting, and we want to make sure everyone knows how to
find the best deal for themselves and their families. We
encourage everyone to explore their options on the Washington
Healthplanfinder--www.wahealthplanfinder.org_and seek out
the help of an in-person assistor or broker to find a plan
that fits their needs and their budgets.
``We also want to make sure that the people of our state
have meaningful health insurance that will cover them when
they get sick or end up in the hospital or find they need
ongoing prescription drugs, and we know the plans we have in
Washington will do that.''
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds.
The gentleman needs to read our bill. It doesn't say that the
insurance companies must sell those policies. That may be in the Senate
bill, the Landrieu bill. It is not in this bill.
I yield 1 minute to the vice chair of the Energy and Commerce
Committee, the gentlelady from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn).
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for the superb job
that he has done on bringing H.R. 3350 to the floor; and I thank him
for listening to millions of Americans who have been so forthright in
saying we do not want the President's health care law; it is destroying
our access to the health care that we like; it is taking away our
health care plans.
Never has there been a Federal mandate that has just swept so many
people aside and said you must buy this product.
Some of you have asked, why are we doing this? Let me tell you why.
We are doing it for my constituents like Carolyn and Lucy and Cindy and
Wilma, all small business owners, all female heads of households, who
have written us and have said we are being forced out--forced out--of
the plan that we like, we are being forced away from the doctor that we
like, we are being forced to buy a product we do not like.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from
Connecticut, Rosa DeLauro.
Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, since this Republican majority took office,
we have taken vote after vote after vote intended to disrupt, delay,
defund, or outright repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Last month, this House majority shut down the Federal Government.
They threatened a catastrophic debt default in order to gut this law.
Now, when the Affordable Care Act is going into effect, are we
supposed to believe that this Republican majority is putting forth a
good-faith effort to improve the bill? It doesn't wash, and it defies
imagination.
This bill is designed to weaken the health care law to roll back the
clock on the reforms we worked so hard to pass. It takes us back to the
unacceptable state of our health care system before we passed the
Affordable Care Act.
Remember, the health care system was failing people. Every year
health care costs skyrocketed, small businesses priced out of the
market, employers asking for higher contributions in co-pays and
dropping coverage, people with preexisting conditions being socked or
left on their own. Every year more people had no insurance whatsoever.
This bill allows insurers to continue to provide substandard health
insurance plans to families, even to new customers. Americans on these
plans will be denied access to preventive services with no out-of-
pocket costs. It takes us back to a time when people were not
guaranteed coverage for maternity, pediatric care, hospitalizations,
where families faced annual caps, lifetime caps. It takes us back to a
health insurance market that rejects people with preexisting
conditions.
Once again, this Republican majority is trying to put insurers back
in the driver's seat, let them control the health of American families.
This majority was never interested in reforming our broken health care
system. They have never been interested in the Affordable Care Act, and
now they are not interested as well. This is a cynical, transparently
political bill. Oppose it.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Pennsylvania, Dr. Tim Murphy, the chairman of the Oversight and
Investigations Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, the majority is very
concerned about health insurance plans and very concerned about those
people who have lost their plans.
When this bill was originally marked up a couple of years ago in the
Energy and Commerce Committee, repeatedly we heard from Members on the
other side of the aisle saying that if people liked their plan they
could keep it. Indefinitely they were grandfathered in.
This needed a fix several months ago. The President of the United
States has said he wants Republicans and Democrats to work together for
a solution. We are offering to work together, and yet the President has
said he would veto this. But the President offered only a partial fix.
It will lead to more confusion.
The question is: Will it lead to class action suits against insurance
companies who fail to comply with the law? Many States are saying this
partial fix is not sufficient.
We need a legislative fix. We need a way that people can still have
their option for buying their plan. What we have to see here is that it
is a bigger problem for American families who have found that their
insurance is lost and they want to be able to keep it.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining on
both sides.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from California has 10\1/2\
minutes remaining. The gentleman from Michigan has 16\3/4\ minutes
remaining.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill which will
undermine the providing of health care at affordable prices for
millions and millions and millions of Americans.
We said to those Americans that prior to the adoption of this act if
they had a policy, they could keep it. That was accurate. It didn't say
that the insurance companies would have to continue to offer it, which,
as I understand it, that side of the aisle wouldn't be for in any
event. The fact of the matter is that statement was correct.
Subsequent to that, there were policies offered and insurance
companies knew and policyholders should have known because it was in
the law that they would be subject to minimum requirements. Why?
Because as The Heritage Foundation said when it originally came up with
this idea, everybody ought to take personal responsibility.
I have heard a lot of talk on your side of the aisle, Mr. Speaker,
about personal responsibility. I believe in that.
The Upton bill, as everybody knows, will skew the risk pool and
encourage adverse selection. Anybody who knows anything about insurance
knows that if you have adverse selection, the prices for those who need
insurance will go up very substantially while, yes, the prices for
those who don't need insurance will go down very sharply. Quite
frankly, if all of us knew we would never be in an automobile accident,
we wouldn't have to have automobile insurance, except, of course, the
law in almost every State requires us to have it so that others will be
protected as well.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional minute to the
gentleman.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
Ladies and gentlemen, this bill is offered by people who, according
to their own rhetoric, want to repeal the Affordable Care Act. That is
a fair position; but now they are trying to do so with a Trojan horse
they call ``the Upton bill'' that, in effect, will fix what people are
concerned about. The fact of the matter is it will not fix that
problem, but what it will do is undermine the ability of millions and
millions and millions of people to have health security.
I would urge my colleagues to defeat this Trojan horse. I would urge
my colleagues to say to the American people, look, we are prepared to
work together.
The President has offered a compromise which will have the effect of
[[Page H7134]]
not opening up the policies to everybody, but to those people that had
a policy. That is a reasonable step to take. That is a step that,
perhaps, we can take together and get accomplished.
Let's reject this bill and let's stand with the millions of people
who want affordable, quality health care for themselves and their
families.
Mr. Speaker, the Affordable Care Act is good for our country, and it
is already benefiting millions of people.
Today, those who are uninsured can sign up for affordable plans
through the state and federal marketplaces--and over 1.5 million
Americans have already applied for coverage. In spite of that,
Republicans remain fixated on repealing this law--rather than working
with us to improve it.
Today, we are witnessing their latest assault on health care reform,
with their 46th vote to undermine the Affordable Care Act. Once again,
instead of providing a solution, their bill will only create more
problems.
This stands in sharp contrast with the approach of President Obama
and Democrats, which is to work together to make improvements where
needed.
In that vein, President Obama announced yesterday that insurers can
continue to sell 2013 plans through next year to those Americans who
are already enrolled in an individual market policy. And the
administration will require insurance companies to be more transparent
by sharing information with consumers about other coverage options
through the marketplaces--many that provide better benefits at a lower
cost.
The President's plan will also mitigate the risk of premium increases
that could result from the grandfathering of these insurance policies.
That is something the gentleman from Michigan's bill does not do--which
means that his bill will lead to higher premiums and greater
uncertainty for all consumers.
And his bill would undermine the health care reforms that are
yielding real benefits for millions of Americans.
I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation.
Instead, let's work together to make sure the Affordable Care Act is
implemented effectively and that Americans will continue to benefit
from it.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Lance), a member of the Health Subcommittee on Energy and
Commerce.
Mr. LANCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of Chairman Upton's
legislation, which will provide much-needed certainty and relief for
millions of Americans, including 800,000 in New Jersey.
Regarding this issue, The New York Times editorialized this morning
that the President has ``damaged his credibility, and it is uncertain
how he can earn back the public's trust.''
I would suggest support of this bipartisan legislation will earn back
the President's trust. This matter should be addressed legislatively
and permanently and not administratively and temporarily, as the
President suggested yesterday. It is time for us to work together.
I strongly support Chairman Upton's legislation. I am sure it will
pass in a bipartisan fashion and there will be bipartisan support in
the other House.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Louisiana, Dr. Cassidy, a member of the Health Subcommittee.
Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. Speaker, for the last 30 years, I have worked in a
hospital for the uninsured. What I have learned is that unless you
trust the families, unless you give power to the patient, you truly
cannot make good medical decisions.
This is an email I got from someone who is my age--mid-50s. She says
that we just got a letter from our health care provider, we had a major
medical with a $10,000 deductible. We have lost that. We were told the
insurance was not acceptable as written, so now our new policy has a
$7,000 deductible and it cost us $10,000 more a year.
The deductible goes down by $3,000, their premium up by $10,000. This
is not power to the family or to the patient. This is Washington
saying, thou shalt spend thy money in the way that we direct you to
spend it.
Frankly, I don't know if we can reconstruct the private insurance
market. It may have been decimated by the Affordable Care Act. The last
chance probably was the Enzi resolution on the Senate side in which it
was pointed out that as many as 80 percent of Americans will lose their
individual policy, but every Democrat voted against that Enzi
resolution.
There is hope. It is the Keep Your Health Plan Act, which allows the
policies to be resold, to occasionally be tweaked and, by the way, to
be sold to others, preserving, if you will, the power of big numbers,
which is key to the insurance industry.
{time} 1200
Now, the other option, the President and the others on the Senate
side, don't allow these policies to be sold to others. And so without
allowing that, of course they are eventually going to be actuarially
unsound and collapse. It is a sleight of hand which is disingenuous in
terms of its intent. We give power to the patients. We must trust
families. We should pass the Keep Your Health Plan Act and allow
families to make their own decisions.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from New
York (Ms. Velazquez).
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, let's be clear about the bill before us today. This bill
is not an attempt to help Americans keep their insurance plans. The
President already announced a plan to help address that goal. Instead,
this bill takes a meat cleaver approach, allowing insurance companies
to market inadequate policies to new enrollees.
Remember the bad old days when preexisting conditions were
discriminated against? This bill brings back that practice. Remember
women paying more for coverage simply because of their gender? That is
A-okay under this bill. Remember annual caps that let insurance
companies stop paying when a consumer came down with an expensive
illness? That is back, too. And what about small businesses facing
double-digit hikes in their premium costs?
If we want to take up targeted legislation helping those whose
policies are being discontinued, then let's do that. But let's call
this bill what it is--a return to the day when insurance companies
preyed on working families and the 46th attempt to repeal the
Affordable Care Act.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from West
Virginia (Mr. McKinley), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. McKINLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman.
I rise today to be the voice of the citizens of the First District of
West Virginia and support House bill H.R. 3350. Let me share just two
of the messages of the thousands that we have received.
Linda from Philippi, West Virginia, writes:
I am losing my health insurance due to ObamaCare. My policy
has been canceled, and I am being forced to enter the
exchange. I like my current policy. Under the exchange, I
will be forced to pay $200 more. I am being hurt by
ObamaCare. This simply isn't fair.
And Sherry from Weirton, West Virginia, tells us:
My parents, both retired, received a letter from their
insurance company letting them know their new rate starting
in January. The increase is so much they can't afford it. I
pray that they can continue to receive the health care that
they choose so they can continue to be healthy. They deserve
better.
Mr. Speaker, these are only two of the stories out of the thousands
we could share. Consequently, I am urging my colleagues to support this
particular legislation.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains on both sides?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from California has 6 minutes
remaining. The gentleman from Michigan has 12\3/4\ minutes remaining.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Colorado (Mr. Gardner).
Mr. GARDNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the committee for
his work on this bill and the legislation before us.
Mr. Speaker, 250,000 Coloradoans have had their health care plans
canceled. I join them. Here is my letter. As one of the insurance
policyholders in Colorado, I, too, had my insurance canceled. I am part
of 250,000 people who had a health care plan they were told they could
keep, but they won't be able to.
Noel from eastern Colorado contacted my office to tell me that his
insurance has been canceled, insurance
[[Page H7135]]
that he liked, that he was promised by the President that he would get
to keep. Mr. Speaker, Noel tells the story that he has two kids and a
third on the way. He tells the story that his premium is going to go up
by about $400 as a result of the changes under the health care bill,
and that with the addition of his third child, it will go up another
$300 more a month. His family doesn't make much money. For eastern
Colorado, they actually do better than others. They bring home $5,000 a
month. But to see that kind of a health care cost increase when they
were promised if they like their health care policy, they could keep it
is simply wrong.
We have been accused in this bill of rolling back the law. This bill
does one thing. It rolls back a broken promise. It rolls back a broken
promise so we can keep our health care plans and so that the 250,000
people in Colorado can keep their health care plans. In fact, it does
go back. It goes back to a time when President Obama promised the
American people that, if they liked their health care plan, they could
keep it, period. It goes back to a time when Kathleen Sebelius,
Secretary of HHS, said, if you like your health care plan, you can keep
it. It goes back to a time when the majority who passed the legislation
in the House and in the Senate said, if you like your health care plan,
you can keep it, period.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), a member of the Ways and Means Committee.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy in
yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, the expectation that somehow the elements of the
Affordable Care Act would not be implemented is just simply false.
People can keep health insurance, but there are always going to be the
new standards to make sure that people no longer have insurance in name
only. That is what we heard about repeatedly in the efforts to try to
reform the health care system--that people had great health care plans
until they got sick. We have minimum standards going forward, and all
plans will be required to meet those standards. That was in the law,
and that is reasonable.
We are in the midst of the greatest, most significant reform of
health care in a generation, and it is already having significant
effects. Medical inflation, medical cost inflation is at a 40-year low
over the course of the last 3 years. We have significant expansion of
coverage already. Hundreds of thousands of people in lower incomes have
been able to have access to health care for the first time. Small
businesses that have been burdened for years by health care costs now
get access to tax credits, and it gets better for them going forward.
It is, I think, ironic for people to talk about somebody losing
access to a doctor who is no longer in a network. That happens every
year. It happened previously. It will happen in the future unless you
are going to somehow sentence doctors to participate in plans. You
can't force them.
And shedding crocodile tears because there are some plans that are
canceled, in the individual insurance market, routinely 40, 50, 60
percent every year are turned over.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. WAXMAN. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. I sat on the floor and heard my colleague from Oregon
(Mr. Walden) talk about a very attractive family from southern Oregon
that is somehow going to now face a $12,000 deductible. I want to take
a deep dive with Greg and find out what is going on with that family
because we have found people have been using ObamaCare for an excuse
for some things that are going to happen anyway, or that people
misunderstand.
Let's do this together. Let's explore these areas. Let's give people
information going forward, and let's make the system work better, not
create a parallel system that will make it work worse.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), a member of the Health Subcommittee.
Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for sponsoring this
great bill.
In my State of Florida, 300,000 individuals have lost their health
care plans due to ObamaCare, and hardworking Americans, like my
constituent Mark from Pasco County, are being adversely affected by
this law.
Mark currently has a plan that he likes, but ObamaCare will take it
away. His new equivalent plan on the exchange comes with a $12,000
deductible and $1,000 monthly premiums. He and his wife are about 60
years old and do not qualify for subsidies. They are very healthy, but
they are punished, Mr. Speaker. I don't understand, they are punished
by the President's health care law.
That is why I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the Keep Your
Health Plan Act to remove the barriers preventing hardworking Americans
from keeping their health care plans under ObamaCare. We need to pass
this bill so we can give the American people the peace of mind they
deserve.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Nebraska (Mr. Terry), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. TERRY. Mr. Speaker, this is really about trust, and people like
Andrea from Omaha feels like that trust has been violated. It has been
broken. She was told that she could keep her policy, but then she
received her letter saying you cannot keep your policy.
A working mom with two young children, her family's premium has risen
to $770 from $450 per quarter. Her responsibility for coinsurance is
now 50 percent, up from what it was before at 15 percent. Her out-of-
pocket costs rose to over $2,000, and she is paying more for less now.
This isn't a better policy, as we have been told. It takes a big
chunk of their family budget. Unfortunately, under ObamaCare, she can't
keep her plan. She gets more with less.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie).
Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this legislation
allowing individuals to keep their plans into 2014.
Yesterday, my colleagues and I shared powerful stories of many of our
constituents who have experienced cancelations and mass rate increases
due to ObamaCare. In addition to these individuals, I have many more
stories of Kentuckians seeing their plans canceled due to ObamaCare.
More recently, Sylvia Martin from Owensboro wrote to me that her
coverage was canceled, and she so far has been unable to get insurance.
H.R. 3350 would allow insurance companies to continue offering 2013
plans, which would benefit the millions of Americans who have seen
their current plans canceled. The American people were told repeatedly
that if they liked their plan, they can keep it. House Republicans
today are trying to honor that promise.
Mr. WAXMAN. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Tennessee (Mr. Roe).
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman, and I rise
in support of the Keep Your Health Plan Act.
This bill is important for many people in my district, including
Joann. Joann lives in Limestone, Tennessee, and because her policy
doesn't meet the minimum requirements set by ObamaCare, she has been
forced to buy a more expensive health care plan. Her premiums will rise
from about $95 a month to $200 a month. Joann thought $95 was
affordable, but $200 not.
Despite promises of more affordable health care, this law is making
insurance unattainable for many across my home State.
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, our State's largest insurer, has
announced it will be forced to send 66,000 cancelation notices to my
fellow Tennesseeans because of ObamaCare; a Medicaid plan called Cover
Tennessee, another 16,000 lose their care.
Mr. Speaker, it is well past the time for President Obama to work
with Members of Congress to provide relief to families hurting because
of this law. I urge my colleagues to support the Keep Your Health Plan
Act.
[[Page H7136]]
{time} 1215
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time is remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Michigan has 7 minutes
remaining, and the gentleman from California has 3\1/2\ minutes
remaining.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North
Carolina (Mr. Meadows).
Mr. MEADOWS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3350, the
Keep Your Health Plan Act, and I would like to thank Chairman Upton for
bringing this bill forward.
Despite President Obama's reassurances that ``if you like your health
care plan, you can keep it,'' 3.5 million plans have already been
canceled because of ObamaCare.
Cynthia, a constituent from Granite Falls, North Carolina, told me
about her family recently. She and her husband and three boys have a
premium that was $300 that has now risen to $1,206, Mr. Speaker.
The rhetoric from the Democrats has said that the Republicans are
only interested in pushing for a repeal of the health care law, rather
than fixing it, but this is not true. So far this Congress, Republicans
have introduced 102 bills designed to fix the broken areas of
ObamaCare. The Democrats by contrast, a mere 17.
Republicans are bringing another fix today, Mr. Speaker, to the House
floor. The Keep your Health Plan Act allows families across the country
like Cynthia's to keep their policies without penalty.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly).
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and I
rise in strong support of H.R. 3350.
This is a piece of legislation that protects the people, not a
political party, not politicians, not Presidents who don't keep
promises.
This is a letter I got from Melissa and Riley from Hermitage,
Pennsylvania. Riley is a college student paying for her own education.
She is working part time at minimum wage in a local grocery store,
paying for what she calls an affordable $70 per month for her health
care coverage. Because of the Affordable Care Act, her hours at the
store have been cut back, and now, to add insult to injury, she has
been notified by the insurance provider that because of ObamaCare, she
will be canceled after another year and that she is going to be forced
to choose a plan that costs triple what she is paying now.
Riley's mom, Melissa, also sent a letter to our office, a letter of
desperation stating that her health insurance provider, the one she has
always relied on, has now informed her that she will no longer be
covered after November 25. In her letter to our office, Melissa writes:
When my daughter or I purchase our own health care in an
attempt to be self-sufficient in this country, we are
penalized, not rewarded.
Mr. President, keep your promise. I can't believe for 3 years we have
told people you can keep these policies, you don't have to worry about
it, period. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, period.
Now we find out that it was all just talk, and that is what this
country is fed up with. They are tired of the talk that comes out of
Washington. They want to have people start representing them. That is
what we are here to do. Both sides of the aisle, ladies and gentlemen,
both sides of the aisle. It is time to stop the spin.
I really feel sorry for the people who sit in the gallery here. We
need to put seatbelts in. This room is spinning so fast sometimes, it
is hard for them to walk straight when they walk out of here.
I tell you what. Our party will continue to commit ourselves to doing
what is right for the American people.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks
to the Chair.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. UPTON. May I ask the gentleman from California how many speakers
he has left?
Mr. WAXMAN. We have two speakers left.
Mr. UPTON. We just have two speakers as well, myself and Mrs.
Ellmers.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina
(Mrs. Ellmers).
Mrs. ELLMERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3350, the
Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013.
As my colleagues across the aisle have pointed out over and over and
over again, the ACA is law, but it cannot simply be undone by the White
House, and it does call on us in the Congress to do so.
Mr. Speaker, we women in this country make 80 percent of the health
care decisions, and women in this country have now been told by the
President and our Democratic colleagues that the health care choices
that they have made to cover their families are not adequate. In fact,
they are being called subpar, and they are trying to intervene. They
are trying to keep the women in this country from providing that good,
sound health care coverage for their families.
That is why we are voting on this bill today, Mr. Speaker. We are
voting on it because these are good decisions that have been made by
the American people, they are good decisions that have been made by the
moms across this country for their families, and we need to do
everything we can to protect that.
I call on my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 3350, so that women
in this country can continue to do the good job they are doing for
their families and provide good health care coverage.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Pelosi), the Democratic leader.
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I
commend him for his great leadership in helping to pass the Affordable
Care Act, honoring the vows of our Founders for liberty, the freedom to
pursue their happiness. It is life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. A
healthier life and freedom to pursue that happiness.
It is a funny thing when people talk about Washington, D.C., and how
people don't get along well, we disagree. We have major disagreements
on policy, and one of them is whether health care is a right for all in
our country or a privilege for the few, but it doesn't take away from
the fact that we are people and we serve in this institution, and we
have some areas of agreement one day and the kaleidoscope changes the
next day to the point where people are always surprised when I say to
them, ``I pray for the Congress every day, and on Sunday especially. I
pray for our Republican colleagues, as well as our Democratic
colleagues, as well as the President of the United States, Barack Obama
or George W. Bush, or whoever he may be, because the success of the
President and the success of all of us is a success for the American
people, if we can work together to find common ground for the public
good.''
When I pray for all of us, I have wishes for us. I wish that my
Republican colleagues could see how successful the Affordable Care Act
is in California. I wish you could hear the stories of family after
family after family being liberated, freed from the constraint of being
job-locked because the family has a preexisting condition so that now
they can follow their passion and not be chained by a policy, follow
their passion to be self-employed, to start a business, or to change
jobs.
I wish you could hear all of these stories. I wish you would not
close your mind to them because this initiative has been
transformative. I would have hoped that whatever had been proposed
would be to strengthen or improve it, and we all have the humility to
know that any bill, whatever our pride of involvement in it is, can be
improved.
That is why it is particularly disappointing to come to the floor
today to see a bill that says to the Affordable Care Act and all of
these people with all of their stories, we are going to unravel this,
we are going to unravel all of the good things, whether it is
preexisting conditions, ending that discrimination, whether it is
lifetime limits, whether it is annual limits, whether it is being a
women no longer being a preexisting condition, whether it is for
seniors or for kids 18-26 years old or for little children, even now,
before the bill is fully enacted. So I hope and I pray, and I wish that
our colleagues
[[Page H7137]]
could see the evidence and that the decisions would be evidence-based
rather than politically motivated.
I think it is really important what this Congress does today. Each
Member has to make his or her own decisions, but the fact is that in
this body, our words weigh a ton and our votes are even weightier than
that. I hope the message that comes out of this Congress is that there
is a discussion going on, but there is a values decision that has been
made in favor of the American people. If we have to thread a needle to
get a result, let's do that, but let's not unravel the whole sweater
because that would not be a comfort to the American people.
Let's act to strengthen, not weaken. Let's vote ``no'' on the Upton
bill.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Doyle), a very distinguished member of
the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. DOYLE. Mr. Speaker, let's think about where America was prior to
the enactment of the Affordable Care Act.
There were 30 to 40 million of our citizens without insurance. People
with preexisting conditions either couldn't get insurance or had to pay
so much they couldn't afford their insurance. Women were being charged
twice as much as men. People that had insurance had annual and lifetime
caps.
Did you ever wonder why when you would see families holding
fundraisers to raise money for their kid's drugs when a kid has cancer?
These are people who had insurance and came up against the annual caps
or lifetime caps, and the insurance company didn't pay any more. Half
the families in America are filing bankruptcy. People with insurance up
against caps, no more payments, families losing everything.
We put an end to that with the Affordable Care Act. How did we do
that? We come up with a private system that required everybody to
participate--young and old, rich and poor, healthy and sick. When you
put everybody in that risk pool, healthy people help us enable the
insurance industry to keep rates at an affordable rate for those people
who have preexisting conditions and who have chronic diseases. That is
how the system works.
What my colleague, Mr. Upton, is proposing today unravels that
system. Make no mistake about it. If we continue to allow private
insurance companies to sell policies that discriminate against women,
that set annual caps and lifetime caps, if we continue to allow all of
those practices that 80 percent to 90 percent of Americans say they
want in their health care system, then that risk pool goes away, rates
go sky high, and you will have raised premiums for every American in
this country.
I say to my colleagues, there are unforeseen circumstances we knew
would come up in this bill. I led the charge in my caucus. I told my
caucus if the President doesn't come up with a fix, if our leadership
doesn't have an alternative solution to this, many of us would consider
voting for the Upton bill, as bad as it is, because it undermines the
health care bill.
The good news is the President has responded. We will have a motion
to recommit today that responds, and I want to make it clear that there
is nothing in the Upton bill that mandates insurance companies to do
this. This is a shallow bill.
In the end, let me just say, my friends, have some credibility. You
introduced 102 bills, and you never put one of them on the floor for a
vote. So don't pretend you care about the American people's health care
here. You are just trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Democrats
are not going to let you do that.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their
remarks to the Chair and not to others in the second person.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have
remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Michigan has 2\1/2\
minutes remaining.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I say to my friend from Pennsylvania, we would have liked to have had
some amendments when the Affordable Care Act passed. The rule denied us
any amendments.
Why are we here this afternoon?
Most observers of the legislative process would say that the
President's health care act would never have passed back in 2010
without the assurance that the President gave, even many times this
year, that you could keep your health care if you liked it. If you
liked it, you didn't have to do anything, period. I don't think it
would have passed in this Chamber or in this Senate without that
promise that the President gave.
Then, millions of Americans in the last couple of months have gotten
mail. In that mail, there are the cancelation notices. They are seeing
their rates go up 200 percent, 300 percent, even 400 percent.
Deductibles are going up in the thousands of dollars. People were
coming to us all last week when we were home for our veterans events
and parades and all the things that we did. They were bringing those
letters to us and saying, Hey, what is going on? I thought I could keep
this?
Until yesterday afternoon, when it looked like we were going to get
as many as 300 votes, including perhaps Mr. Doyle's and others, when it
looked like we were going to get 300 votes for a bill that we
introduced only a week and a half ago, all of a sudden the President
felt that he needed to act. It wasn't until this bill that he came to
the mic and said, You know what? I made a mistake. I am sorry. Maybe
this thing will fix it.
{time} 1230
But until then, he was going to sit on his hands and just watch us,
watch millions of Americans literally watch their health care, watch
maybe their economic lives, just go over the cliff. He was prepared to
do that, until we showed that we had some bipartisan zip around here to
try and, in fact, enforce, make whole his promise that he has said over
and over and over again.
That is what this bill does. Read it. It is not too long, a couple of
sentences long.
I commend our leadership for bringing this bill to the floor as fast
as they can. Man, 5 or 6 legislative days from when it was introduced,
that is pretty good.
More importantly, it got a wake-up call to someone down the street on
Pennsylvania Avenue, saying, hey, something is wrong. Let's restore
what we might have said. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the
bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this
unnecessary legislation. The President has stepped up to the plate,
admitted he made a mistake, and took steps to remedy it. This
legislation rolls back too many important provisions without doing
anything good beyond what the President has already done.
I believe in the Affordable Care Act. This important legislation
ended insurance company practices that prevented Americans from
accessing quality health insurance. But, I am disappointed in how the
law has been rolled out since October 1st. In fact, I think that we
should extend open enrollment for an equal amount of time as the
website has been down. Why are we not doing that today instead?
This law is too important to fumble the roll out. I represent an area
that has one of the highest uninsured rates in the country. Our
district also has one of the highest rates of people who have jobs but
no health insurance. Before the ACA, the individual marketplace wasn't
the right solution for our constituents and after the ACA, the
individual marketplace is still not the right place.
The bill before us essentially restores the individual marketplace as
it was prior to the ACA. It means insurance companies can refuse
coverage because of pre-existing conditions and it means people can
lose coverage because they have gotten too sick. I agree that we should
allow people who are in the individual marketplace in 2013 and want to
remain in it, to do so for another year.
But the bill today is yet another attempt to undo some of the best
parts of this law: the minimum essential benefits and I cannot support
it.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R.
3350, the ``Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013.'' I oppose the bill for
two reasons.
First, the Affordable Care Act health insurance plans offered by
private insurance companies have 10 basic options that saves lives.
Second, the legislation is unnecessary in light of the action taken
yesterday by President Obama, which should satisfy the proponents of
this legislation while at the same time minimizing the risk to the
health and safety of
[[Page H7138]]
underinsured Americans, who are persons who have insurance but spend
more than 10 percent of their income on out-of-pocket medical expenses.
Were it to become law, H.R. 3350 would jeopardize the life and health
of those underinsured who purchase these plans this bill protects, even
though health insurance plans are available that would in nearly every
case provide more health coverage for less.
Mr. Speaker, the Affordable Care Act that the Republicans have tried
for 46 times to end, delay or impede is working my constituents of the
18th Congressional District and the people of Texas.
Flora Alexandra Brewer of Fort Worth a real estate development
business owner who works from home kept trying to sign into the
website. She was determined to participate in the exchange. She said
that her family had pre-existing conditions. Flora said that, ``There's
nothing more expensive out there on any of the websites that I have
looked at than what I am currently paying for COBRA.
For the past 10 months, Flora has been paying nearly $1,900 a month
for health insurance for her, her husband and one of her sons. She
knows that she will most likely not qualify for any subsidies, but she
believes she will save around $500 a month under the program commonly
known as Obamacare.
Those potential savings motivate Brewer not to give up on the
exchange.
On Wednesday, she called the toll free number listed on
healthcare.gov. She spoke to a representative and enrolled in 15
minutes. She will soon receive an email and a packet in the mail
detailing the polices and rates she and her family are eligible for.''
Mark Sullivan, an Entrepreneur from Austin, enrolled in a Plan that
reduces his monthly premiums by half, expands his coverage, and gave
him the financial security to focus on his small business. ``Mark now
feels confident focusing on the success of his new consulting business,
saying health insurance is 'one less thing I have to think about' as he
pours his time and talent into this next major career move.
Mark also thinks the marketplace will make it possible for more
people to start new businesses and wants to share his success with the
larger entrepreneurial community in Austin. After comparing plans, Mark
settled on a bronze option and added dental insurance. He will receive
an $82 per month subsidy, which will halve the monthly premium he will
pay down to $78.''
Lucy after choosing from over 30 plans is saving $2,300 a year on her
premium and $4,000 on her deductible, said that ``I signed up at
Healthcare.gov and I'm going to save $2,300 a year on my premium
alone--and more, because my deductible will drop from $7,500 a year to
$3,000 a year. It's still Blue Cross insurance, and I don't have to
change doctors, either. I had a choice of over 30 plans and several
different companies.''
Mr. Speaker, according to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the
Uninsured 47 million persons under the age of retirement were uninsured
in 2012. Most of the uninsured are self-employed or employed by small
businesses. Another 28 million people were enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP
programs to gain access to health insurance.
The overwhelming majority (59 percent) of the insured receive their
insurance through employer health plans. However, one in six of the
uninsured have at least one working person in their household.
Mr. Speaker, this is the cost of underinsurance in America--and this
is what we can expect more of should H.R. 3350 become law. The express
purpose of this bill is to allow underinsured persons to retain an
inadequate ``health insurance'' plan on the ground that supposedly it
is the plan the person ``wants to keep.''
Unfortunately, there is nothing in this bill that would provide
consumer education on the inadequacies of the plan and that something
much better is available. For example, there is no requirement in this
bill for the insurer to notify the insured that health insurance
provided through the exchange that provides more and better coverage
for less money.
This means that under H.R. 3350 people will still have problems
paying their medical bills, they will have high bills, and they will
not be able to afford prescription medication or be hounded by medical
bill collectors. Further, this bill would allow these health insurance
plans to be sold to new customers who may not know about the
potentially better options available on the health insurance exchanges.
The second reason for opposing this rule and bill is that it is
unnecessary in view the actions taken yesterday by President Obama. As
the President announced, insurers will be permitted to offer consumers
the option to renew their 2013 health plans in 2014, without change,
allowing them to keep their plans. This should satisfy the proponents
of the bill.
But the President went further than that because he recognizes that
inadequate insurance is really no insurance at all. That is why the
President conditioned the ability of insurers to offer plan renewals
upon the following:
1. That insurers notify enrollees that they can purchase coverage
through the Health Insurance Marketplace where they can potentially
qualify for premium tax credits; and
2. Those insurers must inform consumers of the protections they are
giving up to keep the plan they have.
Taken together, President Obama's actions are a tempered and measured
response to the alleged problem that this bill seeks to remedy.
I fully applaud what the President has done.
There may be some who think the availability of the types of health
care insurance that H.R. 3350 would protect is sufficient for
Americans. I do not. Neither does President Obama. The majority of the
American people do not. We believe, and the Affordable Care Act
ensures, that healthcare should be available, accessible and adequate.
Mr. Speaker, adequate health plans have in common the inclusion of
certain minimal benefits and services.
Mr. Speaker, my constituents in the 18th Congressional District of
Texas favor the Affordable Care Act because they understand the
insecurity and feeling of helplessness of being uninsured or
underinsured. My home state of Texas has the highest percentage of
uninsured (27.6 percent) in the nation, 4 percent more than Louisiana
the next state on the list.
The state of Massachusetts, in contrast, boasts the lowest uninsured
rate in the country (4 percent). This is because Massachusetts several
years ago adopted the health insurance system upon which the Affordable
Health Care Act is based.
Mr. Speaker, health care coverage must be not only available and
affordable but also adequate in order for consumers to have the health
security and financial protection they need and deserve. The Affordable
Care Act satisfies these criteria; the bill before us does not. That is
why we should reject this rule and the underlying bill.
H.R. 3350 is nothing more than the House Republicans' newest
variation on their very old theme, which is to repeal, impede or
undermine the Affordable Care Act. This bill is the 46th attempt by the
Republicans to deprive the American people of the security and peace of
mind that comes with health care that is affordable, accessible and
adequate.
Of course we should not be surprised. After all, it was the House
Republicans who shut down the Federal Government for 16 days and cost
the economy $24 billion while refusing to consider any legislation that
would create jobs or address the real needs of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, the bill before is strongly opposed by a coalition of
some of the nation's leading health and consumer organizations,
including the following:
Paralyzed Veterans of America.
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
American Diabetes Association.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME).
American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
American Music Therapy Association.
The Arc of the United States.
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network.
Community Catalyst.
Families USA.
Health and Wholeness Ministries, Disciples Center for Public Witness.
Health Care for America Now.
National Alliance on Mental Illness.
National Association of County Behavioral Health & Developmental
Disability Directors.
National Council of Jewish Women.
National Partnership for Women & Families.
These groups oppose the bill for substantially the same reasons I
have discussed. While sympathizing with consumers who are receiving
notices from their insurance companies that their policies are not
being renewed for next year because they do not comply with the ACA's
consumer protections, the Coalition rightly observes that:
[T]he solution is not to allow for the continued sale of
inadequate policies[.] Rather, we must educate consumers
about their new health insurance options and ensure that
notices being sent by insurers clearly inform them of the
shortfalls with their current coverage and explain all of
their options for finding better coverage.
I agree. Therefore, I urge all Members to join me in voting against
this bill.
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 3350. This bill
has no purpose, other than to destroy the effort to provide excellent,
affordable health care to Americans in every walk of life. Yesterday,
the President provided a workable solution to allow insurance companies
to continue to offer existing policies to people who want to keep their
policies. But the Upton bill we are considering today would allow both
those that had these plans, and those that did not, to obtain care
under these plans. Especially, people could buy plans that
[[Page H7139]]
don't really offer much ``insurance'' at all should anyone in their
family get sick.
The comprehensive health care reform legislation we passed in 2010
was a sincere and honorable effort to provide every American with
access to affordable and quality health coverage. The law was designed
to ensure that health coverage would include access to free preventive
services, and would also be robust enough to actually help an
individual afford critical, life-saving care should they fall ill.
The legislation that we are considering today accomplishes none of
those goals. H.R. 3350 would allow insurance companies to continue to
sell and attract new customers to substandard health plans that offer
little protection.
I have received calls and letters from constituents over the past
several weeks who share with me their frustration that their health
plan has been cancelled. And I sympathize with them. They tell me in
complete sincerity that they like these plans--after all, they are not
used to having any choice. They think their previous insurance plan is
all they can afford. But under the Affordable Care Act they now have
the ability to buy real insurance that will not drop them when their
kid gets sick or require them to a huge deductible and with government
subsidies in an active insurance marketplace, most will probably save
money on their premiums.
But I have also heard from constituents who have fallen ill, and
during that time of personal turmoil, learn that their insurance does
not cover the treatment they need. Their ``Basic and Essential Plan,''
as they're called in New Jersey, does not cover their basic or
essential needs. They are on their own, and they will have to pay out-
of-pocket for the chemotherapy, hospital tests, or physical therapy
their doctor ordered.
Prior to health reform, in 2007, more than 60 percent of all
bankruptcies were a result of illness and medical bills, and nearly 80
percent of those who filed for medical bankruptcy were insured.
We passed the Affordable Care Act not only to extend coverage to the
48 million uninsured Americans, but also to improve insurance for the
millions more Americans who are underinsured. H.R. 3350 would undermine
the Affordable Care Act by allowing new, additional customers to
purchase health insurance that provides limited protection, and little
prevention. It would result in even more Americans becoming
underinsured and lead to additional family's filing for medical
bankruptcy.
Many parts of the ACA are working and have very beneficial effects
for ordinary Americans--removing caps that cut off coverage even in the
middle of critical treatments, allowing 25 year olds who are trying to
get on their feet professionally to stay on their parent's policies,
guaranteeing equally good coverage at equal cost for women, increasing
access to preventive care, and other things. I would hope the sponsors
of this bill would devote their best efforts to making the remaining
parts of the legislation work. That is what they owe their
constituents, rather than trying to destroy this sincere, honorable
effort to make health care as good as possible in America.
The rollout of the health insurance Marketplace has not been smooth,
and I am as frustrated as everyone else, but the potential for
Americans to gain affordable and comprehensive coverage is still
enormous. Nearly one million New Jerseyans lack health insurance, and
there are still many more underinsured. I am committed to protecting
the provisions of health care reform so that New Jerseyans have access
to health coverage that is affordable, comprehensive, and reliable.
Therefore, I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing this bill and
get to work on implementing the Affordable Care Act so Americans have
access to better health care coverage.
Mr. POSEY. ``Mr. Speaker, ``As a direct result of the health care
law, 10 million Americans risk having their health insurance plans
cancelled. Tens of millions more are seeing their costs go up and
coverage changed, and they are losing access to their doctors and
health care networks.
``I get messages daily from my constituents who have had their
policies cancelled, seen 200%--400% increases in their health insurance
premiums, or who have been cut to part-time work because of the new
law. They are finding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to be unaffordable
for their families.
``Today the House will consider bipartisan legislation that will help
reverse these effects of this law for many Americans, providing relief
to some of those who have been harmed.
``The sad reality is that the ACA is inherently flawed and
unworkable, and this reality is starting to catch-up with Americans
across this nation. The broken website is just the tip of the
disastrous iceberg as the law has fundamental and costly flaws.
``The fact that the Administration has now decided to waive ACA
mandates is testimony to the fact that the health care law is directly
responsible for millions of Americans losing their coverage, huge
increases in health care premiums, along with the loss of access to
doctors and hospital networks. There would be no need for the
Administration to waive the health care law if the law was not the
problem.
``Unfortunately, the Administration's proposal falls short by only
providing a short-term waiver of the mandates. If it's so bad, then we
really should be addressing the fundamental flaws, not simply trying to
get beyond the next election. The only way to fix this situation, which
will get worse, is for Washington to scrap this law and start over in a
transparent process with bipartisan reforms that respect individual
freedom and fairness.''
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, today the House considered a bill
introduced by Rep. Fred Upton deceptively titled the ``Keep Your Health
Plan Act of 2013.'' The bill actually does nothing to address the
situation in which some individuals have had their coverage canceled by
their insurance provider. Rather this bill would allow insurance
companies to continue selling substandard insurance plans to anyone,
even those who currently do not have any insurance, on the open market
without the new benefits or protections of the Affordable Care Act
(ACA).
In contrast, President Obama has put forth a reasonable solution that
extends the grandfathering provision of the law. Under that provision,
insurance plans in place on March 23, 2010, the date the ACA was signed
into law, are considered grandfathered. At issue now are those plans
issued since then that do not meet the minimum standards of the ACA.
This week, the President announced an extension of the grandfathering
provisions that will empower insurance companies and state
commissioners of insurance to allow those older plans to continue to be
offered for one more year. If the insurance companies decide to
continue offering those plans, they must notify all individuals who
have received a cancellation notice and anyone else at risk of
receiving one to inform them of their right to continue their previous
coverage so long as the insurer discloses what benefits and
protections--such as caps on premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, free
preventive care, or guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions--
will not be provided. They also have to inform these individuals of
their right to pursue new coverage that does include the wide range of
consumer protections and reforms through the health insurance
exchanges.
The reason I voted for and continue to support the ACA is precisely
because of those consumer and patient protection reforms. We cannot
allow Americans to be subjected to capricious cancellations, lifetime
limits on their coverage, no coverage or unaffordable coverage because
of pre-existing conditions, and higher premiums based on gender for the
same basic coverage. Enrollment in the new insurance plans is
increasing with each passing day along with reports of people being
pleasantly surprised that they can in fact find insurance plans with
premiums that are comparable to, or in many cases less than, their
current coverage, and we expect that to continue.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 413, the previous question is ordered on
the bill.
The question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was
read the third time.
Motion to Recommit
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman opposed to the bill?
Mr. ANDREWS. I am opposed to the bill.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve a point of order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. A point of order from the gentleman from
Michigan has been reserved.
The Clerk will report the motion to recommit.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Andrews moves to recommit the bill H.R. 3350 to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce with instructions to report
the same back to the House forthwith with the following
amendment:
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Consumer Health Plan
Protection Act of 2013''.
SEC. 2. MAINTAINING EXISTING COVERAGE.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any provision of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (including any
amendment made by such Act or by the Health Care and
Education Reconciliation Act of 2010), in the case of health
insurance coverage offered by a health insurance issuer in
the individual market that is in effect for an individual as
of October 1, 2013, the issuer may continue such coverage for
such individual for a plan year beginning in 2014 in such
market outside of an Exchange established under section 1311
or 1321 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 18031, 18041).
[[Page H7140]]
(b) Treatment as Grandfathered Health Plan in Satisfaction
of Minimum Essential Coverage.--Health insurance coverage
described in subsection (a) shall be treated as a
grandfathered health plan for purposes of the amendment made
by section 1501(b) of the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act.
(c) Notice.--As a condition for a health insurance issuer
to continue health insurance coverage under subsection (a),
the issuer shall provide for notice to each individual to be
offered such continued coverage (and for other individuals
covered under health insurance coverage offered by such
issuer for whom such continued coverage is not offered)
prompt notice of the following:
(1) The health insurance coverage options available to the
individual through the Marketplace under the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act and how to exercise such
options.
(2) The premium and cost-sharing assistance available for
coverage obtained through such Marketplace.
(3) The consumer protections provided under such Act that
are not provided under the continuing health insurance
coverage.
SEC. 3. REQUIRING STATE INSURANCE COMMISSIONERS TO
INVESTIGATE INSTANCES OF INADEQUATE NOTICES OF
CANCELLATION OR CONVERSION OF INDIVIDUAL HEALTH
INSURANCE POLICIES.
(a) In General.--Each State insurance commissioner shall
investigate and take appropriate administrative or other
actions (such as the imposition of a fine) on cases of
inadequate notices of cancellations or conversions of health
insurance coverage in the individual market that take effect
on or after January 1, 2014.
(b) Inadequate Notice.--In this section, a notice of the
cancellation or conversion of individual health insurance
coverage shall be treated as inadequate if the notice--
(1) fails to contain information--
(A) on obtaining health insurance coverage through an
Exchange under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act;
(B) on the possible availability of assistance under such
Act towards payment of the premiums and cost-sharing for such
coverage; and
(C) on the improved benefits for coverage through an
Exchange, compared to health insurance coverage not offered
through an Exchange;
(2) fails to be transparent by inappropriately steering
individuals to more expensive plans provided by the
cancelling issuer; or
(3) fails to otherwise comply with requirements of law.
(c) Reports.--
(1) State commissioners to hhs.--Not later than March 31,
2014, each State insurance commissioner shall submit to the
Secretary of Health and Human Services a report on the
investigations and actions described in subsection (a).
(2) HHS report to congress.--Not later than April 30, 2014,
the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on such
investigations and actions.
(d) Definitions of State, Health Insurance Coverage, and
Individual Market.--In this section, the terms ``State'',
``health insurance coverage'', and ``individual market'' have
the meanings given such terms for purposes of title I of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
SEC. 4. PROTECTION OF CONSUMERS FROM EXCESSIVE, UNJUSTIFIED,
OR UNFAIRLY DISCRIMINATORY RATES.
(a) Protection From Excessive, Unjustified, or Unfairly
Discriminatory Rates.--The first section 2794 of the Public
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300gg-94), as added by section
1003 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(Public Law 111-148), is amended by adding at the end the
following new subsection:
``(e) Protection From Excessive, Unjustified, or Unfairly
Discriminatory Rates.--
``(1) Authority of states.--Nothing in this section shall
be construed to prohibit a State from imposing requirements
(including requirements relating to rate review standards and
procedures and information reporting) on health insurance
issuers with respect to rates that are in addition to the
requirements of this section and are more protective of
consumers than such requirements.
``(2) Consultation in rate review process.--In carrying out
this section, the Secretary shall consult with the National
Association of Insurance Commissioners and consumer groups.
``(3) Determination of who conducts reviews for each
state.--The Secretary shall determine, after the date of
enactment of this section and periodically thereafter, the
following:
``(A) In which markets in each State the State insurance
commissioner or relevant State regulator shall undertake the
corrective actions under paragraph (4), as a condition of the
State receiving the grant in subsection (c), based on the
Secretary's determination that the State regulator is
adequately undertaking and utilizing such actions in that
market.
``(B) In which markets in each State the Secretary shall
undertake the corrective actions under paragraph (4), in
cooperation with the relevant State insurance commissioner or
State regulator, based on the Secretary's determination that
the State is not adequately undertaking and utilizing such
actions in that market.
``(4) Corrective action for excessive, unjustified, or
unfairly discriminatory rates.--In accordance with the
process established under this section, the Secretary or the
relevant State insurance commissioner or State regulator
shall take corrective actions to ensure that any excessive,
unjustified, or unfairly discriminatory rates are corrected
prior to implementation, or as soon as possible thereafter,
through mechanisms such as--
``(A) denying rates;
``(B) modifying rates; or
``(C) requiring rebates to consumers.
``(5) Noncompliance.--Failure to comply with any corrective
action taken by the Secretary under this subsection may
result in the application of civil monetary penalties and, if
the Secretary determines appropriate, make the plan involved
ineligible for classification as a Qualified Health Plan.''.
(b) Clarification of Regulatory Authority.--Such section is
further amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in the heading, by striking ``Premium'' and inserting
``Rate'';
(B) in paragraph (1), by striking ``unreasonable increases
in premiums'' and inserting ``potentially excessive,
unjustified, or unfairly discriminatory rates, including
premiums,''; and
(C) in paragraph (2)--
(i) by striking ``an unreasonable premium increase'' and
inserting ``a potentially excessive, unjustified, or unfairly
discriminatory rate'';
(ii) by striking ``the increase'' and inserting ``the
rate''; and
(iii) by striking ``such increases'' and inserting ``such
rates'';
(2) in subsection (b)--
(A) by striking ``premium increases'' each place it appears
and inserting ``rates''; and
(B) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking ``premium'' and
inserting ``rate''; and
(3) in subsection (c)(1)--
(A) in the heading, by striking ``Premium'' and inserting
``Rate'';
(B) by inserting ``that satisfy the condition under
subsection (e)(3)(A)'' after ``award grants to States''; and
(C) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``premium increases''
and inserting ``rates''.
(c) Conforming Amendment.--Title XXVII of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300gg et seq.) is amended--
(1) in section 2723 (42 U.S.C. 300gg-22), as redesignated
by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act--
(A) in subsection (a)--
(i) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``and section 2794''
after ``this part''; and
(ii) in paragraph (2), by inserting ``or section 2794''
after ``this part''; and
(B) in subsection (b)--
(i) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``and section 2794''
after ``this part''; and
(ii) in paragraph (2)--
(I) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ``or section 2794
that is'' after ``this part''; and
(II) in subparagraph (C)(ii), by inserting ``or section
2794'' after ``this part''; and
(2) in section 2761 (42 U.S.C. 300gg-61)--
(A) in subsection (a)--
(i) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``and section 2794''
after ``this part''; and
(ii) in paragraph (2)--
(I) by inserting ``or section 2794'' after ``set forth in
this part''; and
(II) by inserting ``and section 2794'' after ``the
requirements of this part''; and
(B) in subsection (b)--
(i) by inserting ``and section 2794'' after ``this part'';
and
(ii) by inserting ``and section 2794'' after ``part A''.
(d) Applicability to Grandfathered Plans.--Section
1251(a)(4)(A) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act (Public Law 111-148), as added by section 2301 of the
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Public
Law 111-152), is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(v) Section 2794 (relating to reasonableness of rates
with respect to health insurance coverage).''.
(e) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, such sums as
may be necessary.
(f) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act and
shall be implemented with respect to health plans beginning
not later than January 1, 2014.
Mr. ANDREWS (during the reading). Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous
consent to dispense with the reading.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I object.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Objection is heard.
The Clerk will continue to read.
The Clerk continued to read.
Mr. UPTON (during the reading). Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent
to dispense with the reading of the motion.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Michigan?
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from New Jersey is recognized
for 5 minutes in support of his motion.
(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, and my colleagues, we have listened to the
many stories told by people this morning with great empathy about
people
[[Page H7141]]
who got a cancelation notice and want to keep the policy that they
have.
The issue before the House is whether we want to solve the problem or
create another problem. That is the issue. If we want to work together,
as we should, to solve the problem of Americans receiving cancelation
notices and not being able to keep policies that they have, it requires
us to do three things.
First, we have to legally authorize insurance companies to offer
these policies on into the future. The Democratic plan which I have
proposed does that and, frankly, so does Mr. Upton's bill.
The second thing that we have to do, though, is make sure that the
insurance companies offer the plans for sale. It really does you no
good at all if you have the right to buy a plan that the insurance
company refuses to sell.
Mr. Upton's bill is mute on that point. It might be called the
``Insurance Companies Bill of Rights'' because they have the right to
do or not do anything they choose, but the people that we all say that
we want to protect really have no rights at all. This is an important
distinguishing point in the plan that I am offering now, and I would
urge everyone to support.
We have drawn from language offered by my friend from Illinois (Ms.
Schakowsky) which requires State insurance commissioners around this
country to be vigilant protectors of consumers, rather than corporate
apologists for insurance companies.
Our plan says that if someone's cancelation was arbitrary and
thoughtless and unfair, the insurance commissioner must act and protect
the people that we heard read in those letters today.
Our plan says that if rate increases are discriminatory, if you got a
rate increase because you are a woman who is pregnant, or you got a
rate increase because you had skin cancer, or breast cancer, or
diabetes, that the insurance commissioner must act and protect the
consumer against that indignity.
It does you no good that this bill is called the ``Keep Your
Insurance If You Want To Bill.'' It should be called the ``Keep Your
Insurance If You Want To And The Insurance Company Allows You To
Bill.'' We are correcting that wrong and remedying that wrong with our
plan.
Thirdly, it doesn't do any good to give people the chance to renew
their plans if that renewal results in a huge premium increase for
everyone else in the country. That is what the underlying bill does.
The underlying bill says that these plans, which I would really
equate to selling an automobile with no airbags and no seatbelts--now,
our plan says, look, if you want to keep driving a car with no airbags
and no seatbelts, you can keep driving, but people can't sell a car
with no airbags and no seatbelts to a new consumer, which is what the
underlying bill permits.
Now, when that happens, here is what is going to happen. People in
the new State marketplaces are going to see a huge increase in their
premiums. People who get covered at work are going to see a huge
increase in their premiums. It is going to spill over to Medigap
policies for seniors and people on Medicare.
The bill really should be called the ``Guaranteed Premium Increase
Act of 2013'' because that is what it is.
Our bill corrects that by saying, let's help the people we say we
want to try to help, people who like their plan and want to keep it,
not everyone that the insurance company could dupe or lure into buying
a car with no airbag and no seatbelts.
Finally, working together means not forgetting about some other
people who write letters we haven't heard much about today, the family
that Mr. Doyle talked about, whose daughter has cancer, who has an
insurance policy, but has to have a beef and beer or a golf tournament
to raise money to pay their bills. I want to help that person and not
repeal the Affordable Care Act.
How about the woman who had breast cancer 10 years ago and can now be
told, we are sorry, you can't buy an insurance policy. You have got to
pay more if you do. I want to help her by banning discrimination based
on preexisting conditions.
If we really want to work together, let's adopt this plan. Let's
really help the people we say we are trying to help, and not the
insurance industry of the United States of America.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Point of Order
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I regret that I do insist on the point of
order.
In my opinion, the pending amendment violates clause 7 of rule XVI of
the rules of the House which requires that an amendment be germane to
the matter it is amending. It is not germane to the bill because
section 3 imposes a mandate on State insurance commissioners, and
section 4 amends the Public Health Service Act which is, in fact,
beyond the scope of the base text.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does any Member wish to speak to the point
of order?
Mr. ANDREWS. I do, Mr. Speaker.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from New Jersey is recognized
to speak to the point of order.
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is my friend, the
chairman's objection is based on the principle of germaneness. The
underlying bill, by its very title, purports to protect Americans who
have received a cancelation notice for a policy that they want to keep.
Now, there is a disagreement here over how to protect those
Americans. The underlying bill does not have requirements that State
insurance commissioners act to protect those individuals. Our plan
does. Our plan does.
This is a disagreement over the means to protect American consumers.
The underlying bill says we will trust the insurance industry. Our bill
says, no, we will enforce the insurance laws.
I would respectfully submit this does not rise to a difference in
germaneness. This is a difference of opinion. The bill on the floor
purports to protect the Americans that I talked about. We think it
doesn't. Our plan does protect those Americans in a different way.
The underlying subject matter of this bill is how do you protect
Americans who wish to keep the insurance plan that they have. We
believe we have a more effective way of doing that. The majority
disagrees. The House deserves a vote on that. No technicality, no
procedural nicety should deny us the chance to take a vote on whose
plan is right. We should proceed with this vote.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does any other Member wish to speak to the
point of order?
Seeing none, the Chair is prepared to rule.
The gentleman from Michigan makes a point of order that the
instructions proposed in the motion to recommit offered by the
gentleman from New Jersey are not germane.
Clause 7 of rule XVI, the germaneness rule, provides that no
proposition on a subject different from that under consideration shall
be admitted under color of amendment.
The bill permits health insurance issuers that offered health
insurance coverage in the individual market on January 1, 2013, to
continue to make such coverage available for sale during 2014.
The amendment proposed in the motion to recommit, in pertinent part,
requires State insurance commissioners to examine notices of health
insurance cancelations or conversions. It also addresses the regulation
of health insurance rates. Specifically, the amendment delineates what
would constitute inadequate notice of cancelation or conversions of
health insurance coverage, and directs State insurance commissioners to
investigate such cases of inadequate notice. Additionally, it permits
the Secretary of Health and Human Services or the relevant State
insurance regulator to take corrective actions if health insurance
rates are determined to be excessive, unjustified, or unfairly
discriminatory. Such corrective action may include the assessment of
civil monetary penalties.
The bill does not address any of these subject matters. Instead, it
is confined to the subject matter of extending into 2014 the authority
to offer health insurance coverage that was for sale on the individual
market in 2013.
The Chair finds that the amendment proposed in the motion to recommit
goes beyond the subject matter of the underlying bill. It is therefore
not germane. The point of order is sustained.
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I respectfully appeal the ruling of the
Chair.
[[Page H7142]]
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is, Shall the decision of the
Chair stand as the judgment of the House?
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I move to table the appeal of the ruling of
the Chair.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to table.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, this 15-
minute vote on the motion to table will be followed by a 5-minute vote
on passage of the bill, if arising without further proceedings in
recommittal.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 229,
nays 191, not voting 10, as follows:
[Roll No. 585]
YEAS--229
Aderholt
Amash
Amodei
Bachmann
Bachus
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Benishek
Bentivolio
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Broun (GA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Burgess
Calvert
Camp
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Coble
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Conaway
Cook
Cotton
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Culberson
Daines
Davis, Rodney
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gowdy
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guthrie
Hall
Hanna
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Heck (NV)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Joyce
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Labrador
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Lankford
Latham
Latta
LoBiondo
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Marchant
Marino
Massie
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Palazzo
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Petri
Pittenger
Pitts
Poe (TX)
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Radel
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Royce
Runyan
Ryan (WI)
Salmon
Sanford
Scalise
Schock
Schrader
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Southerland
Stewart
Stivers
Stockman
Stutzman
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walorski
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IN)
NAYS--191
Andrews
Barber
Barrow (GA)
Bass
Beatty
Bera (CA)
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown (FL)
Brownley (CA)
Bustos
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle
Duckworth
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Enyart
Eshoo
Esty
Farr
Fattah
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Garcia
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hahn
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Holt
Honda
Horsford
Hoyer
Huffman
Israel
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
Kirkpatrick
Kuster
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lynch
Maffei
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
Meeks
Meng
Michaud
Moore
Moran
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Negrete McLeod
Nolan
O'Rourke
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters (CA)
Peters (MI)
Peterson
Pingree (ME)
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Richmond
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schneider
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell (AL)
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Sinema
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--10
Becerra
Campbell
Gosar
Granger
Jones
McCarthy (NY)
Miller, George
Rush
Sires
Tsongas
{time} 1307
Messrs. GARAMENDI, DEUTCH, BLUMENAUER, OWENS, LARSEN of Washington,
BEN RAY LUJAN of New Mexico, and Ms. WILSON of Florida changed their
vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Messrs. ROE of Tennessee, TERRY, JORDAN, BARTON, TIBERI, MURPHY of
Pennsylvania, KING of New York, CANTOR, and McINTYRE changed their vote
from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the motion to table was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Motion to Recommit
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman opposed to the bill?
Mr. ANDREWS. I am opposed to the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion to
recommit.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Andrews moves to recommit the bill H.R. 3350 to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce with instructions to report
the same back to the House forthwith with the following
amendment:
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Consumer Health Plan
Protection Act of 2013''.
SEC. 2. MAINTAINING EXISTING COVERAGE.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any provision of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (including any
amendment made by such Act or by the Health Care and
Education Reconciliation Act of 2010), in the case of health
insurance coverage offered by a health insurance issuer in
the individual market that is in effect for an individual as
of October 1, 2013, the issuer may continue such coverage for
such individual for a plan year beginning in 2014 in such
market outside of an Exchange established under section 1311
or 1321 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 18031, 18041).
(b) Treatment as Grandfathered Health Plan in Satisfaction
of Minimum Essential Coverage.--Health insurance coverage
described in subsection (a) shall be treated as a
grandfathered health plan for purposes of the amendment made
by section 1501(b) of the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act.
(c) Notice.--As a condition for a health insurance issuer
to continue health insurance coverage under subsection (a),
the issuer shall provide for notice to each individual to be
offered such continued coverage (and for other individuals
covered under health insurance coverage offered by such
issuer for whom such continued coverage is not offered)
prompt notice of the following:
(1) The health insurance coverage options available to the
individual through the Marketplace under the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act and how to exercise such
options.
(2) The premium and cost-sharing assistance available for
coverage obtained through such Marketplace.
(3) The consumer protections provided under such Act that
are not provided under the continuing health insurance
coverage.
(d) Construction Regarding Notices of Cancellation or
Conversion.--
(1) In general.--Nothing in this section shall be construed
to prevent the Secretary of Health and Human Services from
requiring State insurance commissioners--
(A) to investigate and take appropriate administrative or
other actions (such as the imposition of a fine) on cases of
inadequate notices of cancellations or conversions of health
insurance coverage in the individual market that take effect
on or after January 1, 2014; and
(B) to submit to the Secretary reports on the
investigations and actions so taken.
[[Page H7143]]
(2) Inadequate notice.--In this subection, a notice of the
cancellation or conversion of individual health insurance
coverage shall be treated as inadequate if the notice--
(A) fails to contain information contained in subsection
(c);
(B) fails to be transparent by inappropriately steering
individuals to more expensive plans provided by the
cancelling issuer; or
(C) fails to otherwise comply with requirements of law.
(e) Construction Regarding Protection Against
Discriminatory Rates.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed as preventing the Secretary or the relevant State
insurance commissioner or State regulator from taking
corrective actions to ensure that any excessive, unjustified,
or unfairly discriminatory rates for the continued coverage
offered under subsection (a) are corrected prior to renewal.
(f) Construction Regarding Premium Protection.--Nothing in
this section shall be construed as preventing the Secretary
from using all available tools to ensure that Marketplace
premiums are not adversely affected by the operation of this
section.
Mr. UPTON (during the reading). Mr. Speaker, I reserve a point of
order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. A point of order is reserved.
The gentleman from New Jersey is recognized for 5 minutes in support
of his motion.
(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. ANDREWS. We come here as stewards of a very sacred trust--to look
after the people that are the backbone of this country. We are having
this debate this afternoon because we have all heard from men and women
across this country who are very upset that an insurance policy that
they want to keep has been canceled.
{time} 1315
These constituents are very upset and very troubled, and we are
brought here to work together to figure out a solution to that problem.
What is the solution?
First of all, they ought to have the ability to have their insurance
companies offer them the policies for sale. Frankly, the underlying
bill does that, and so does the plan that I am presenting.
Secondly, there ought to be some way that the insurance companies are
given some incentive at the very at least, direction, to sell the
policy. It doesn't do you a whole lot of good to have the right to buy
a policy that the insurance company is not selling, and this plan has
some measures which make it more likely that insurance companies would
do that.
Thirdly, to solve that person's problem, we have to make sure that in
solving his problem we are not creating another one; that by permitting
these policies to be sold for another year, which this does, that we
are not spiking the premiums of people in the exchange marketplaces or
of people who get their insurance through work.
I have heard a number of Members say that they want a chance for us
to work together to solve this problem. Here is that chance because
this plan does the three things that I just talked about, but this
plan, I think, is different than the underlying bill because this is
not a step to unravel the Affordable Care Act; it is a step to improve
it--which is the fundamental question, and there are some other people
whose stories ought to be told here this afternoon, too.
There is a family this weekend that is having a social to raise money
to pay the medical bills for their son or daughter who has cancer,
because the insurance policy they thought they had stopped paying their
son's or daughter's bills. Their voice should be heard. If you repeal
the Affordable Care Act, their voice is silenced.
There are women in this country who go to try to start a business.
They try to buy an insurance policy, and they are told, We won't sell
you one because you had children or you are a female or you had breast
cancer 10 years ago. If you repeal the Affordable Care Act, her voice
is silenced.
Mr. Speaker, there are sons and daughters of Americans who are 22, 23
years old who didn't have health insurance before because they couldn't
get that first full-time job who now have health insurance because they
are on their moms' or dads' policies. If you repeal the Affordable Care
Act, their voices will be silenced.
There are senior citizens who used to run out of drug coverage,
prescription coverage, around Labor Day because the Medicare doughnut
hole popped up. Because of the Affordable Care Act, they are now able
to buy their prescriptions at an affordable price and are now able to
pay their prescription bills until the end of the year. If you repeal
the Affordable Care Act, their voices are silenced.
We come here this afternoon to solve the problem of Americans who
want to keep their coverage but who have had it canceled. We want to
work together to solve that problem. That is what this plan does.
When we look at women being turned away because of preexisting
conditions, we will not be silenced. When we look at 22-year-olds who
will lose their coverage if you repeal the Affordable Care Act, we will
not be silenced. When you look at seniors who will lose the ability to
pay their prescription drugs if you repeal the ACA, we will not be
silenced.
We are here to solve problems, not to create them. If you want to
work together in a way that improves this law, we are your able and
willing partner, but if the intention is to unravel this protection for
the American people, we will stand, we will speak, we will fight, and
we will oppose every such effort.
Vote ``yes'' for this motion and ``no'' on the underlying bill.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my point of order and seek time in
opposition to the motion to recommit.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The point of order is withdrawn.
The gentleman from Michigan is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, the debate today on whether to support this
bill comes down to a very simple question: Why not?
If millions of Americans want the choice of keeping the insurance
that they have, why not?
If you believe Congress acting together, not the President acting
unilaterally, should try to help people who have lost their coverage,
why not?
If you believe that ordinary Americans, not the Federal Government,
should decide what their insurance plans look like, why not?
We have a chance today to provide hope to millions of Americans who
got that cancelation notice, hope that they can keep the insurance that
they like, hope that they are going to have even more choices, and hope
that they, not the Federal Government, can pick what their insurance
plans actually look like.
So let me be clear.
Our bill, H.R. 3350, does not fix ObamaCare, the President's health
care bill. It is only an attempt to help people harmed by this law. But
if we can provide some relief to people from this disaster, why not?
Let's defeat the motion to recommit and pass the underlying bill.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is
ordered on the motion to recommit.
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to recommit.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the noes appeared to have it.
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, the Chair
will reduce to 5 minutes the minimum time for any electronic vote on
the question of passage.
This is a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 187,
nays 230, not voting 13, as follows:
[Roll No. 586]
YEAS--187
Andrews
Barber
Barrow (GA)
Bass
Beatty
Bera (CA)
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown (FL)
Brownley (CA)
Bustos
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle
Duckworth
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Enyart
Eshoo
Esty
Farr
Fattah
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Garcia
Grayson
Green, Al
Grijalva
Gutierrez
[[Page H7144]]
Hahn
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Holt
Honda
Horsford
Hoyer
Huffman
Israel
Jackson Lee
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
Kirkpatrick
Kuster
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lynch
Maffei
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
Meeks
Meng
Moore
Moran
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Negrete McLeod
Nolan
O'Rourke
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters (CA)
Peters (MI)
Peterson
Pingree (ME)
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Richmond
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schneider
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell (AL)
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Sinema
Slaughter
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth
NAYS--230
Aderholt
Amash
Amodei
Bachmann
Bachus
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Benishek
Bentivolio
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Broun (GA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Burgess
Calvert
Camp
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Coble
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Conaway
Cook
Cotton
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Culberson
Daines
Davis, Rodney
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gowdy
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guthrie
Hall
Hanna
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Heck (NV)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Joyce
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Labrador
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Lankford
Latham
Latta
LoBiondo
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Marchant
Marino
Massie
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Palazzo
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Petri
Pittenger
Pitts
Poe (TX)
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Radel
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Royce
Runyan
Ryan (WI)
Salmon
Sanford
Scalise
Schock
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Southerland
Stewart
Stivers
Stockman
Stutzman
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walorski
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IN)
NOT VOTING--13
Becerra
Butterfield
Campbell
Gosar
Granger
Green, Gene
Jeffries
Jones
McCarthy (NY)
Miller, George
Rush
Sires
Tsongas
{time} 1327
Mr. VEASEY changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
So the motion to recommit was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the bill.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Recorded Vote
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 261,
noes 157, not voting 12, as follows:
[Roll No. 587]
AYES--261
Aderholt
Amash
Amodei
Bachmann
Bachus
Barber
Barletta
Barr
Barrow (GA)
Barton
Benishek
Bentivolio
Bera (CA)
Bilirakis
Bishop (NY)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Braley (IA)
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Brownley (CA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Burgess
Bustos
Calvert
Camp
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Coble
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Conaway
Cook
Costa
Cotton
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Culberson
Daines
Davis, Rodney
DeFazio
DelBene
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Duckworth
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Enyart
Esty
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foster
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallego
Garamendi
Garcia
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gowdy
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guthrie
Hanna
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Heck (NV)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Joyce
Kelly (PA)
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Kuster
Labrador
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Lankford
Latham
Latta
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Maffei
Maloney, Sean
Marchant
Marino
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (FL)
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Noem
Nolan
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Owens
Palazzo
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Peters (CA)
Peters (MI)
Peterson
Petri
Pittenger
Pitts
Poe (TX)
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Radel
Rahall
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Royce
Ruiz
Runyan
Ryan (WI)
Salmon
Sanford
Scalise
Schneider
Schock
Schrader
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shea-Porter
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Sinema
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Southerland
Stewart
Stivers
Stockman
Stutzman
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Vela
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walorski
Walz
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IN)
NOES--157
Andrews
Bass
Beatty
Bishop (GA)
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Brady (PA)
Bridenstine
Broun (GA)
Brown (FL)
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly
Conyers
Cooper
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Farr
Fattah
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Grayson
Green, Al
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hahn
Hall
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Holt
Honda
Horsford
Hoyer
Huffman
Israel
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kirkpatrick
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis
Lipinski
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lynch
Maloney, Carolyn
Massie
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
Meeks
Meng
Michaud
Moore
Moran
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Negrete McLeod
O'Rourke
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Pingree (ME)
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rangel
Richmond
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell (AL)
Sherman
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
[[Page H7145]]
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Velazquez
Visclosky
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--12
Becerra
Campbell
Cardenas
Gosar
Granger
Green, Gene
Jones
McCarthy (NY)
Miller, George
Rush
Sires
Tsongas
{time} 1334
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated against:
Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 587--Final
Passage. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''
Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, on Friday, November 15, 2013, I was unable
to cast my floor vote on rollcall votes. Had I been present for the
votes, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall vote 587.
Personal Explanation
Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably
detained due to official business in California today and missed roll
Nos. 583 through 587. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on
roll No. 586. I would have voted ``nay'' on roll Nos. 583, 584, 585,
and 587.
____________________