[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 91 (Thursday, May 25, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3162-S3163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Healthcare Legislation

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would like to address the comments that 
were made by the Republican majority leader about the issue of 
healthcare. What he said today I have never heard him say before. He 
said it was the fault of the Democrats for refusing to work with the 
Republicans to change the Affordable Care Act. I had not heard that 
before.
  I find it an interesting suggestion because what happened after the 
House of Representatives passed a measure 3 weeks ago to change the 
healthcare system in America, the issue then came to the Senate but did 
not go through the regular order of business.
  It is my understanding--and has been reported widely in the press--
that Senator McConnell, the Republican leader, assembled a group of 13 
Republican Senators who have been meeting in private over the last 3 
weeks to discuss an alternative to the healthcare bill that passed in 
the House of Representatives. There are no Democrats in that room. None 
have been invited. Incidentally, there are no women in that room from 
the Republican side--13 male Senators meeting in private.
  So to hear this suggestion from the Republican leader that the real 
problem they are running into is that the Democrats are not helping, we 
were not invited to this party. They are meeting privately to come up 
with something, and I don't know what it might be, but I have an idea 
of how we can achieve a bipartisan real effort when it comes to 
healthcare in America.
  I would suggest we create a committee in the Senate. I have a name 
for it, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. I suggest 
we have 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats on that committee. I suggest 
they sit down, take the bill sent by the House, and improve it, make it 
better. Now, this suggestion is such a good one that the committee 
already exists.
  It is under the chairmanship of Lamar Alexander--whom I respect 
personally very much--and the ranking member, Patty Murray of the State 
of Washington, a Democrat. I know, having spoken to Senator Murray, she 
is ready to roll up her sleeves and go to work to write a revision to 
the healthcare bill, the healthcare system in America.
  There have been no hearings, none, on the measure passed by the House 
of Representatives. So when the Republican leader says he wishes the 
Democrats would join in the effort, this committee is ready and willing 
to work. I am sure, if he picked up the phone and called Senator 
Alexander and Senator Murray, they could get to work on doing a much 
better job than what the House of Representatives did.
  Why am I so critical of the House of Representatives? Not because of 
the traditional rivalry between the Chambers, but because yesterday the 
Congressional Budget Office took a look at the bill that passed the 
U.S. House of Representatives 3 weeks ago by two votes. It was all 
Republicans voting for it. It passed by two. A number of Republicans 
refused to support it. It had no support from the Democratic side.
  It was an unusual bill because it went out of the regular order of 
business. The regular order of business suggests that when you are 
going to do something that might have an impact--a large impact--on 
America, you should go to an agency that is a nonpartisan, expert in 
the field, that will analyze your bill and tell you what impact it will 
have. Most of us think we have pretty good ideas for making America a 
better place to live and good ideas for legislation.
  Luckily, we have something called the Congressional Budget Office, 
which sometimes brings us back down to Earth and says: It might not 
work exactly as you thought it would work. Traditionally, bills--
significant bills that affect a lot of Americans and families and 
things important like healthcare--they are submitted to the

[[Page S3163]]

Congressional Budget Office so they can analyze them and decide the 
impact they will have.
  Well, 3 weeks ago, Speaker Paul Ryan and Republicans in the House 
said something I had not heard before in my service in Congress. They 
said: We are not going to wait for this analysis. We are going to vote 
on this bill even before the Congressional Budget Office has a chance 
to analyze its impact. Remember, we are talking about changing the 
healthcare system in America, and that literally impacts every single 
American. It is one-sixth of our Nation's economy. You would think, 
before anyone was bold enough to suggest they wanted to change the 
system, they would at least send their proposal to the Congressional 
Budget Office for an analysis. The Republicans in the House failed to 
do so, refused to do so, passed the measure by two votes, and sent it 
to the Senate.
  So, yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office completed its 
analysis. Now that we have an analysis of what is known as TrumpCare or 
the Republican healthcare approach, it is pretty clear why they did not 
want the Congressional Budget Office to take a look at it. This is what 
the Congressional Budget Office reported publicly last night: Next 
year, under the Republican proposal for healthcare reform, 14 million 
Americans will lose their health insurance. Over the next 10 years, 23 
million Americans will lose their health insurance.
  Do you remember when we started this conversation? The goal was to 
make sure we changed the laws in America so more Americans would have 
the protection of health insurance. Just the opposite occurs if the 
Republican plan goes forward. The second thing we were looking for is a 
goal in healthcare reform to reduce the growth, the rate of growth, in 
health insurance premiums.
  Every one of us knows what that is all about. Health insurance 
premiums have been going up way too high for way too long. The 
Republicans have been critical of the current system, saying the cost 
of health insurance is going up too fast. So they put in their reform 
proposal which passed the House of Representatives.
  Here is what the Congressional Budget Office had to say about the 
Republican approach: Next year, premiums for health insurance will 
increase by 20 percent in the individual market. That is the market 
where we have seen this dramatic growth in costs already, and the 
Republican plan makes it worse.
  The third thing we find is this argument by the Republicans that 
somehow the current healthcare system in America, the Affordable Care 
Act, is in a death spiral. Listen to what the Congressional Budget 
Office said about the health insurance market in America today. The CBO 
affirms that under current law, marketplaces--health insurance 
marketplaces--are stable.
  However, under the Republican repeal bill, one out of every six 
Americans will be living in parts of this country where the individual 
market would become unstable as a result of the Republican bill. So 
instead of stabilizing the market and ending the so-called death 
spiral, the Republican bill makes it worse.
  It turns out that when you take a close look at this so-called death 
spiral, you find the Republicans have their hands around the throats of 
the healthcare system of America choking it and claiming this patient 
is not looking good, Doctor. If they would stop their efforts to 
sabotage the current system and work to improve it and make it 
stronger, then we could save health insurance for a lot of Americans 
and bring stability to the system.

  The Republican bill at its heart is not about a healthcare bill, 
though, it is about tax cuts. The Republican proposal for healthcare 
reform starts with eliminating almost $900 billion in taxes paid by the 
wealthiest people in America. By taking $900 billion out of the 
healthcare system, they are unable to keep health insurance alive for 
so many Americans. The Republican approach eliminates $834 billion in 
the Federal Medicaid Program. What is the Federal Medicaid Program? Let 
me give you three examples of what it is.
  In Illinois today, half of the babies who are born are paid for--
their medical care is paid for by the Medicaid system: prenatal care 
for mom so the baby is healthy, the delivery of the baby, and postnatal 
care afterward. These are lower income individuals. Half of them are 
paid for by Medicaid today, but that is not the most expensive part of 
Medicaid.
  The most expensive part of Medicaid is for your mom and dad and your 
grandmother and grandfather who are in a nursing home and have no 
savings left. All they have is Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. 
That is the most expensive part of Medicaid. Those who are disabled 
living in my State, in Alabama, in New York, and other States--disabled 
people and low-income people need medical care and they rely on 
Medicaid.
  So when the Republican healthcare reform and repeal cuts $800 
billion-plus out of Medicaid, it is at the expense of the groups I just 
mentioned: babies and moms, elderly people in nursing homes, and the 
disabled. Those are the ones who will see a cutback in medical services 
so we can give a $900 billion tax cut to the wealthiest people in 
America.
  I know the Democratic leader is here. I want to yield the floor when 
he arrives, but I want to close by telling a story. Yesterday, I had 
three moms and a dad who brought their children to a press conference. 
It was a great press conference, if I may say so. These kids stole the 
show, as they should. Each one of them--each one of them had a 
compelling story about having survived a terrible illness. Many of them 
were cancer victims.
  Moms told stories. One mom said: I was changing my little girl, and I 
noticed a lump in her abdomen. It turned out to be a neuroblastoma 
cancer tumor. It was removed. My little girl spent weeks, months in the 
hospital, and she is still going back.
  Each one of them told a story. As you looked at these kids, smiling 
and happy and bouncing around, you thought to yourself: Thank goodness. 
Thank goodness for America, with its great medical care, and thank 
goodness these families had health insurance--because they were there 
concerned about what the Republicans are doing when it comes to 
preexisting conditions.
  Because these kids have survived cancer, they are risky from an 
insurance viewpoint. We decided 6 years ago to put an end to that worry 
for these families. You cannot discriminate against a person or a 
family in America based on a preexisting condition--thank goodness--
because one out of three of us have a preexisting condition. The 
Republican approach takes away that protection and says Governors can 
ask for a waiver so health insurance in their State can discriminate 
against people with preexisting conditions.
  So three moms and a dad came yesterday and said: Please stop this 
Republican plan. What will our families do? Our kids have preexisting 
conditions. We cannot afford to see our premiums go through the roof 
because the Republicans withdraw this protection.
  That is the real-life consequence of this debate. This is not just 
about a lot of politicians on Capitol Hill blowing hot air. It is about 
families--real families with real kids and real challenges and whether 
they are going to have real protection when they need it.
  The Congressional Budget Office yesterday came out with a report and 
said the measure that passed the House, the Republican measure, is a 
disaster for families across America. We have to stop it. We have to do 
everything in our power to do it. I might say to my friend from New 
York, the Democratic leader, that when the Republican leader came to 
the floor this morning and said: Why won't the Democrats join us in 
repairing the Affordable Care Act? I say to the Republican leader: Open 
the door of that room where you have 13 male Republican Senators 
sitting down and debating the future of healthcare. Open the door, open 
the windows, and let's have an honest, open, bipartisan conversation 
not about repealing our healthcare system but making it stronger, 
protecting the very families who showed up yesterday at a press 
conference and whom I am going to remember for a long time.
  I yield the floor.