[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 92 (Wednesday, June 10, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3978-S3979]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OBAMACARE
Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is very difficult to respond to fiction,
and that is what we just heard. We heard a speech based on fiction, a
speech based on no facts, a speech based on made-up facts.
It is so hard to comprehend the different areas the majority leader
spoke of with no basis in reality. On the subject of health care, it is
as if he doesn't realize that 16.5 million people have health
insurance.
He denigrates people who aren't insured. Because of Obamacare, they
now have the ability to go to a doctor or a hospital when they are sick
because of Medicaid. Is there anything wrong with that? In America
everyone is not rich. In America not everyone is middle class. Some
people are falling through the cracks, and the fact that in the State
of Kentucky a lot of people there now have the ability to go to doctors
when they are sick or hurt shouldn't be anything that people make fun
of.
Health care has changed dramatically. I walked into a drugstore near
my home here in Washington--CVS. As a result of ObamaCare and other
reasons, you can go into that drugstore now and have a test for strep.
If you need medicine, they can give it to you. That is progress in
medicine in America.
My friend the Republican leader talks as if he would like to return
to the time prior to ObamaCare, when insurance companies defined the
people
[[Page S3979]]
who have preexisting disabilities. Let's go back to that system. Let's
go back to the system where if you have a child who has diabetes, you
can't get that kid insured. If you have been in an automobile accident
and you broke your neck--even if you are doing fine now, but from the
doctor's reports it shows that you broke your neck--you can't get
insurance. People with debilitating diseases now can get help.
The overwhelming majority of Americans, statistically, who enrolled
in health care plans under the new law are satisfied with the coverage.
The majority leader continues to misstate the facts on the Affordable
Care Act. The latest poll shows that the majority of Americans support
the law, as they should. So I don't know why my friend has to come here
and make up things.
ObamaCare has been an important program for American families in
Nevada and all over America. So I am very disappointed with the state
of nonreality of my friend from Kentucky, who has come here each day
this week to talk about ObamaCare and what is wrong with it. Before
this law came into being, patients and the American people were subject
to premium increases without any notice, cancellations without notice,
denials for preexisting conditions, which I have already mentioned, and
arbitrary limits on how much care insurance companies would cover.
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