[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 111 (Wednesday, June 28, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H5240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE HEALTHCARE DEBATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Ryan) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the 
healthcare debate that we are having here in the United States.
  We had a bill come out of the House of Representatives. We have a 
working bill that has just come out of the back room in the United 
States Senate. I think it is important for us, Mr. Speaker, to get some 
clarity on where each party stands on this issue.
  When the Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act, we had some clear 
goals. We had some clear objectives, back in 2008, 2009, 2010. Our goal 
and goals as a party were simple: we wanted to expand access to 
healthcare. We wanted to make sure, in the wealthiest country that God 
has ever created, that every citizen, wherever you lived, urban, rural, 
suburban, you would have access to affordable healthcare.
  We wanted to make sure that the insurance companies wouldn't knock 
you off the rolls or charge you a lot of money to get a plan, that when 
you got sick and you went in to cash in the plan and get some coverage, 
they said: Oh, we don't cover that. We wanted to make sure that didn't 
happen.
  We wanted to make sure that if your kid had cancer or if you had 
cancer and the healthcare bills started ratcheting up pretty quickly, 
that the insurance company couldn't come in and say: Sorry. This is a 
tragic situation for you and your family, but you just hit your 
lifetime cap, so we can't cover anything else. You have to go to the 
Ronald McDonald House, and you have got to go do a fish fry at the 
local union hall to try to get enough money together to try to pay your 
healthcare bills, in the wealthiest country God has ever created. That 
is unacceptable here in the United States.
  We were trying to cover more people. You know what? We paid the 
political price for it, but sign me up. I think of my friends John 
Boccieri and Steve Driehaus, former Members of Congress. They gave up 
their seats in this Chamber to make sure that American citizens had 
healthcare. The Democrats went into the minority since 2010, primarily 
because the Republican Party used this issue to bludgeon the Democrats. 
They demagogued the issue. Repeal and replace. Seven years, no plan. 
Nothing.
  And now we have got two bills--one from the House, one from the 
Senate. Both bills, neutral analysts, the Congressional Budget Office 
says 22 million Americans will lose their healthcare. Fifteen million 
will lose it in the next year. If you are between 50 and 64 years old, 
you are probably going to lose your insurance. If you are a 60-year-old 
person in Ohio, you are going to pay $4,000 more a year.

  We get off this recent Presidential campaign where we heard a 
candidate: We are going to expand Medicare. We are going to expand 
Medicaid. It is going to be beautiful. Everyone is going to be able to 
afford insurance. I am not inhumane, is what one person said, one 
candidate said.
  But the realities, Mr. Speaker, are much different, because in the 
wealthiest country God has ever created, we have a political party that 
is trying to throw 22 million people off of their healthcare. We need 
to get some clarity. We are trying to cover people. I am not trying to 
be judgmental, but I am just saying the Congressional Budget Office is 
saying, in both bills, 22 million people are going to lose their 
healthcare.
  Democrats, in order to implement our bill, we asked the wealthiest in 
the country to pay a little bit more. With that revenue, we expanded 
the Medicaid program for people who were working. If you made less than 
$90,000 a year, they got a little bit of that money to help them pay 
for health insurance so they had more money in their pocket so they 
could go out and not only take care of their families, but be able to 
spend and help boost the economy. That is what we wanted to do. That is 
what we did.
  Republicans cut taxes for the wealthy and cut the program by $700 
billion. Clear differences, Mr. Speaker. We need to knock down both of 
these bills and start all over. We need to fix the Affordable Care Act, 
not repeal it.

                          ____________________