[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 8, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H2997-H2998]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW CAN HURT YOU

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Al Green) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it is said that what you don't 
know won't hurt you. What you don't know won't hurt you. I disagree.
  What you don't know about health care can hurt you. What you don't 
know about a treatable condition that can harm you, possibly kill you, 
what you don't know about it can hurt you.
  I don't believe in the idiom, the adage, what you don't know won't 
hurt you. I believe you should know the truth because the truth can set 
you free.
  So let us take a moment now and look at just one aspect of what is 
called the Ryan budget. Let's look at health care. The Ryan budget 
repeals the Affordable Care Act. It repeals it without replacing it.
  What you don't know can hurt you. But if you know the truth, it can 
liberate you. We need to get the truth to the masses so that the masses 
can understand the impact of repealing without replacing.
  Let's reflect upon 2009, when we embarked upon the task of developing 
an Affordable Care Act. In 2009, we were spending $2.5 trillion per 
year on

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health care. $2.5 trillion is a very large number, and it is difficult 
to get your mind around it. However, $2.5 trillion is $79,000 a second. 
$79,000 a second is what we were spending.
  17.6 percent of the GDP, $100 billion being spent on persons without 
insurance in various venues, emergency rooms, and other places. It was 
projected that by 2018 we would spend $4.4 trillion per year.
  Know the truth. It can liberate you.
  $4.4 trillion is $139,000 per second; estimated that it would be 
about 20.3 percent of GDP.
  In 2009 we had 40 to 50 million people uninsured, depending on who is 
counting and how you count. In 2009 we had 45,000 people per year dying 
because they didn't have insurance. This is per Harvard University. One 
person dying every 12 minutes.
  In 2009, in the State of Texas we had 6 million people uninsured, and 
20 percent of the children in the State of Texas uninsured.
  We had to do something about health care if, for no other reason, to 
simply bend the cost curve. And the cost curve is bending. It is 
projected that, in the first 10 years, it would bend the cost curve 
about $100 billion, and in the next 10 years, $1 trillion.
  Know the truth, and the truth can liberate you, my dear friends. The 
truth is this: if the Ryan budget repeals the Affordable Care Act and 
it is not replaced--and there is no replacement provision in that 
budget--seniors who are on Medicare are going to see the doughnut hole 
expand rather than close.
  The doughnut hole is that point at which seniors have to pay more for 
prescription drugs, more than many can afford. What you don't know can 
hurt you, seniors, when the doughnut hole starts to expand.
  The budget would cause those who are 26 years of age, under 26 years 
of age, who are on policies of their parents, to come off.
  Young people are invincible until they have an accident and get hurt 
and need health care. They are invincible until they find out they have 
a condition that is curable and they need health care.
  Young people, what you don't know can hurt you. But the truth can 
liberate you so that you can do the right thing as it relates to this 
budget and let people know that you are opposed to what can happen to 
you.
  This budget will cause preexisting conditions to become an 
uninsurable circumstance in your life. There are people who are born 
with preexisting conditions. These people will not be insurable. The 
Affordable Care Act eliminates preexisting conditions as a reason not 
to ensure people.
  We would go back to people being born with preexisting conditions, 
many of whom would have to wait until they can afford or get to 
Medicare before they could get insurance. Medicare is a type of 
insurance.
  This budget would cause women to, again, have to go back to a 
circumstance wherein they, by virtue of their condition of being a 
woman, would have a preexisting condition.
  Mr. Speaker, I will put a ``to be continued'' in this message. But 
what you don't know can hurt you. The truth can set you free.
  God bless you.

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