[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 7, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H1539-H1540]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, 7 years ago, in March of 2010, the 
Affordable Care Act was signed into law after a 2-year process of 
hundreds of committee meetings, exhaustive markups--which I personally 
participated in--floor debate that went on for days, and, again, back-
and-forth between the House and the Senate.
  Since that date, despite the, again, bitter criticism by the 
Republican majority when that law went into effect, there have been 60 
votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act; and up until this morning, the 
majority has always begged the question about: What is your 
replacement? Again, just last week, we heard rumors that there was a 
replacement, that the Speaker actually had drafted a bill.
  Well, with scenes that looked like it was out of ``The Blair Witch 
Project,'' we had Members of Congress going around the Capitol opening 
doors with cameras doing live streams and live coverage, again, to 
empty rooms and denials that there actually was a bill that anyone 
could actually take a look at.
  Well, as I said, this morning, we now have been told that there 
actually is a bill that has been filed, which tomorrow will be marked 
up and voted out of committee with not one single public hearing and, 
incredibly, with no analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, which 
any bill that has any impact on budget, whether it is a tax bill or a 
spending bill, has, as a matter of course, for decades, always been the 
case. There is no measure which contains more significance in terms of 
a Congressional Budget analysis than reforming the healthcare system of 
America, which constitutes about 15 to 20 percent of the American 
economy and affects the lives of tens of millions of Americans.
  Well, from what we have seen so far, it appears there is a good 
reason that the folks wanted to keep the bill a secret. Again, the 
basic fundamentals of the Affordable Care Act is built on two pillars. 
There was an expansion of Medicaid, and there were subsidies based on 
income for Americans to be able to buy insurance through the 
marketplace.
  In the State of Connecticut, where I come from, we have cut the 
uninsured rate down to 3.6 percent from approximately 9 percent when 
the bill was signed into law 7 years ago.
  What this bill does is, again, it just basically decapitates the 
Medicaid expansion. So about 11 million Americans are going to have 
their healthcare coverage threatened. And those are not just, you know, 
people on entitlement programs. We are talking about working Americans.
  I know a farmer in my district who almost lost his foot from a chain 
saw accident, who thanked me the other day that he had Medicaid to 
cover the costs of his hospital coverage.
  Again, the subsidies which allowed people to buy plans on the 
insurance marketplace, well, they basically, as I said, decapitate 
Medicaid. And they also convert the subsidies from an income-based 
system to an age-rated one, which means that, basically, a well-to-do 
person gets the same tax credit that a poor person or a single parent 
has.
  A conservative economist, Avik Roy, just a few minutes ago, issued a 
statement, saying:

       Expanding subsidies for high earners while cutting health 
     coverage for the working poor sounds like a caricature of 
     mustache-twirling, top-hatted Republican fat cats.

  Again, you cannot imagine a more Robin Hood in reverse than a plan 
that does what this tax credit change encompasses.
  And, again, the list goes on and on in terms of some of the really 
just outrageous proposals that this new measure contains.
  For seniors, again, the Affordable Care Act contracted the age rating 
from 3 to 1 from what existed before; it was about 6 to 7 to 1. In 
other words, a senior, an older person, could be charged seven times 
the same rate as a 20-year-old. Again, the Affordable Care Act reduced 
that span to 3 to 1.
  This bill expands the span again to 5 to 1, which the American ARP 
has already issued a statement, saying:

       It is nothing more than an age tax. It is charging people 
     based on their age, which is nothing that any human being can 
     control.


[[Page H1540]]


  It also, again, rolls back tax increases, slight tax increases, for 
high income earners, as Mr. Roy's comment indicates, and worsens the 
fiscal solvency of the Medicare trust fund, reduces its solvency by 4 
years.
  Again, the Catholic Health Association has come out today criticizing 
this proposal. Again, just an incredible array of stakeholder groups 
all across the country are already speaking out.
  The fact that this measure is going forward in committee tomorrow 
morning, less than, really, 24 hours for the American people to have 
even a glimpse in terms of what is being proposed without an analysis 
in terms of a budget score, again, is just an abuse of the legislative 
and democratic process.
  Mr. Speaker, again, we have seen an outpouring of Americans over the 
last 2 months at townhall meetings--I have had four of them--people 
telling heartfelt stories about how the ACA helped them. Yes, we can 
improve the law. There are many ideas that we can work together on. 
That is what we should be focused on, not butchering the law, which 
this proposal seeks to do.

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