[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 41 (Thursday, March 9, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H1952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REPUBLICAN ACA REPEAL BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Washington (Ms. Jayapal) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to TrumpCare, 
the Republican plan to privatize Medicare, penalize working families, 
and prioritize the wealthy.
  The Republican majority is in denial about the tremendous gains of 
the Affordable Care Act in covering tens of millions of people across 
this Nation.
  In my home State of Washington, Mr. Speaker, because of the 
Affordable Care Act, the average annual premium increases have dropped 
from 18.5 percent, before the passage of the ACA, to 6.7 percent in 
2017. The growth of individual enrollment reached nearly 320,000 people 
in 2015; and with Medicaid expansion in Washington State, the decline 
in the uninsured plummeted to 7 percent in 2015, from over 13 percent 
in 2009. 605,000 Washingtonians also gained coverage through Medicaid 
expansion.
  All of these gains, Mr. Speaker, are in jeopardy as TrumpCare 
threatens to strip 20 million people, many of whom voted for Mr. Trump, 
of their health care. Across the Nation, older Americans will be forced 
to pay premiums five times higher than what others will pay for health 
care.
  Four hundred of the wealthiest families in America will be handed a 
tax break worth $7 million a year, all on the backs of working 
families. According to the Tax Policy Center, under TrumpCare, the top 
0.1 percent of earners would receive an average tax cut of $197,000, 
while older Americans would face increases of almost $7,000 each.
  Under TrumpCare, many employers will stop providing coverage, letting 
their employees fend for themselves with a tax credit. Compared to the 
subsidies that Americans have today, the tax credits will end up being 
a tax hike.
  Not only does TrumpCare impose radical new restrictions on a woman's 
right to comprehensive health coverage, it defunds Planned Parenthood, 
robbing women with nowhere else to turn of essential preventative care 
and affordable contraceptives.
  Mr. Speaker, these are sad, sad facts. But the stories from hundreds 
of my constituents are even more heartbreaking. Lynn told me:

       If I were to get a bad illness, it would kill me 
     financially. And the stress alone from having my health 
     insurance taken is causing me health problems already.

  Luke wrote to tell me that when his wife needed emergency gall 
bladder surgery while he was a student, the bills would have been 
crushing. He said:

       Without the ACA, we would have been saddled with nearly 
     $40,000 in hospital bills, ER, one surgery, and one overnight 
     stay.

  Kristy shared:

       Without contraceptive care that is covered in the ACA, I 
     would never be able to afford my IUD. I might have an 
     unwanted pregnancy, and I wouldn't be able to afford another 
     child. This means so much to me as a woman, a mother, and as 
     a human. I am able to have power to make decisions about my 
     family, and this means the world to me.

  The lessons and stories like this, Mr. Speaker, are what we should be 
incorporating into our legislative deliberations, not cynical attempts 
to penalize people for wanting to have basic health insurance coverage 
for themselves and their families.
  What is worse, the Republican majority seems intent on obscuring the 
real cost of this misguided proposal. Mr. Speaker, the majority 
deserves this President. They are cut from the same cloth and relying 
on the power of obfuscating the truth.

  Since President Trump is not being forced to be transparent about his 
taxes or his financial entanglements with foreign interests like 
Russia, the Republican majority doesn't think that they need to ask the 
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to offer the true picture of 
how many people will be hurt by their bill and how much it will cost 
the American people. This is simply no way to govern.
  At the most fundamental level, health care is a human right and not a 
luxury, as our Republican colleagues would have us believe; a healthy 
population is a healthy workforce; a healthy workforce is a healthy 
economy; and a healthy economy is a healthy nation.
  TrumpCare puts all Americans at risk. Let's work together to protect 
and expand our health care and put this mess behind us.

                          ____________________