[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 22, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H2293-H2294]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HEALTH CARE CONCERNS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Ruiz) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Speaker, today, I celebrate the birth of my twin 
daughters, Sky and Sage as they turn 2 years old.
  Happy birthday, Sky; happy birthday, Sage. You both have made your 
mom, Monica, and me very, very happy. Because of you both, I am the 
happiest man on Earth. We love you very much, and I miss you very much 
when I am here in the people's House and you are in California in our 
family's house. The best feelings in the world are when I get home 
after a long week here and you two girls run up to me with open arms 
and you run into my arms screaming: Daddy, daddy, daddy. I will never 
forget those moments ever, and I thank you for them.
  Mr. Speaker, my daughters mean the world to me, and my daughters' 
future and their health mean the world to me. And now, more than ever, 
I want to protect health care for Sky and Sage and for the millions of 
Americans across our great Nation.
  I am an emergency physician, and I have spent my career caring for 
patients across the Nation from Boston to Pittsburgh and to the 
Coachella Valley where I grew up and which I now represent. Many of my 
patients, far too many, didn't have health insurance. And I have seen 
firsthand what it means for people when they don't have health coverage 
and can't afford care.

  I know what uninsured patients look like. They are the senior who 
comes in with emphysema and having to be intubated and put on a 
respiratory machine because they didn't have health insurance to see 
their doctor. It is the diabetic who comes in in a diabetic coma and 
spends 2 months in the ICU because they couldn't afford their insulin, 
or they couldn't see their doctor. Or that 60-year-old farmworker who 
had urinary problems and lower back pains, which scares me that he 
might have prostate cancer metastasized to the lumbar spine, and when 
asked when was the last time he saw a doctor, he said 6 years ago 
because that is when he lost his health insurance.
  This Republican plan should be called the pain and suffering act or 
the pay more for less act, because that is what it will do. This bill 
will add 14 million more uninsured people within 1 year and 24 million 
more over the next decade.
  We need to move beyond the Republican hyperpartisan ideology and 
listen to patients and their concerns. My patients in the emergency 
department ask me two of the most common questions, which are: Am I 
going to be okay? How much is this going to cost me?
  I have never cared for an uninsured patient who chose to be 
uninsured. They didn't have health insurance because they couldn't 
afford it. And that includes the young, healthy patient who was in an 
unfortunate car accident and was left paralyzed. I never met a doctor 
who preferred their patients to be uninsured.
  Yet, we know that the Republican bill's age tax--huge cuts to 
Medicaid--will reduce coverage and make millions more uninsured, 
increase costs of uncompensated care, while giving tax breaks to 
millionaires, raising out-of-pocket costs, and raising premiums and 
deductibles.

[[Page H2294]]

  The age tax is astronomical. The CBO said that a senior at the age of 
60, making about $26,000, would have to pay about $14,000 in premiums. 
That is nearly half of their income, leaving very little for food and 
housing and their other needs.
  This bill also will make it harder for doctors and hospitals to care 
for patients, due to the Medicaid block granting and the cuts. That is 
why the American Medical Association, the American Hospital 
Association, the AARP, and many major provider organizations oppose 
this bill, because they also know firsthand the harm it would cause to 
patients. That is why AARP opposes this bill, because they know the 
harm it is going to cause to the elderly in our Nation.
  Now, do Paul Ryan and President Trump really know more about patient 
care and providing care than doctors, nurses, and hospitals? Do they 
know more about taking care of seniors than the AARP? No. We need to 
end this hyperpartisan, ideological charade that puts the cost of 
health care on the shoulders of working families in order to give tax 
breaks to multimillionaires. We need to come together as one body to 
provide true health care, reduce the healthcare costs for millions of 
Americans, and provide the care that is needed.

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