[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 118 (Thursday, July 13, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3975-S3976]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 1462
Mr. President, in the interest of trying to immediately help to
stabilize the insurance markets, I ask unanimous consent that the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from
further consideration of S. 1462; that the Senate proceed to its
immediate consideration; that the bill be considered read a third time
and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid
upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I reserve the right to object.
I wonder if the Senator from New Hampshire would allow me to pose a
question about her request?
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Absolutely.
Mr. CORNYN. Is it true that under the so-called Marketplace Certainty
Act, this would appropriate billions of additional dollars to insurance
companies?
Mrs. SHAHEEN. What is true about the Marketplace Certainty Act is
that it would guarantee the payments that were promised under the
Affordable Care Act--not to insurance companies but to families who
need help affording health insurance. That is one of the goals as we
think about what our challenge is to address the healthcare needs of
the people of this country, and that, in fact, is what the Marketplace
Certainty Act would do.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I appreciate the response from the Senator
from New Hampshire. I think I want to explore that a little more. I
don't think the cost-sharing subsidies go directly to beneficiaries
but, rather, to insurance companies.
Nevertheless, this is exactly the kind of proposal that the Senate
can vote on next week when we proceed to the healthcare bill. As we
know, unlike traditional legislation, there is an open and unlimited
amendment process, and
[[Page S3976]]
Members on both sides will have a chance to offer amendments and have
the Senate vote on them. So I would encourage all of our colleagues who
have ideas about how to shape the healthcare policy to vote to get on
the bill and then to offer amendments.
It has been 7 years since ObamaCare was passed. It is in meltdown
mode. We are glad to have our colleagues across the aisle offer
suggestions on how to improve the current terrible situation for so
many millions of people, but I must object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mrs. SHAHEEN. I want to be clear that what we need to do is to
provide certainty in the marketplace right now. What is happening
because of the effort by our Republican colleagues to repeal the
Affordable Care Act--which is providing coverage for literally tens of
millions of people--what is happening because of this administration's
refusal to guarantee those payments that would help people with the
cost of their health insurance is that we are seeing instability in the
marketplace. But the answer is not the proposal that was released this
morning, the second or maybe it is the third draft of healthcare
legislation that was done behind closed doors by our colleagues.
Earlier today, I had the opportunity to meet with two children from
New Hampshire: Parker, who is 8, and Sadie, who is 10. These kids were
here advocating for the children's hospitals that have meant that they
can continue to live. They are kids who were born with serious health
challenges. They continue to have those serious health challenges, but
thanks to Children's Hospital at Dartmouth and Boston Children's
Hospital, Parker and Sadie are alive today. They are smart, they are
beautiful, and they are the delight of their families. They have been
able to get the healthcare they need through CHaD and through Boston
Children's because they are able to get covered for their healthcare
under Medicaid. What our colleagues' healthcare legislation would do is
dramatically cut the Medicaid funding that Parker and Sadie and so many
children and old people and disabled in this country depend on in order
to stay alive.
That is a mean-spirited bill. That is not the answer to the serious
healthcare challenges we have in this country, and that is not what we
should be doing to fix what needs to be fixed in the Affordable Care
Act. What we need to do is work together.
I am disappointed that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
continue to work behind closed doors instead of having an open process.
If this legislation that was introduced this morning is such a great
piece of legislation, then let's go through regular order. Let's have a
hearing. Let's let the people of this country weigh in and then see
whether this is a healthcare bill we should pass.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, I would like to associate myself with
the comments from the former Governor and now Senator from the great
State of New Hampshire.
It is not enough to say the system is failing. It is not enough to
come here and say: We can fix it if you just agree to vote the way we
are voting. If you just agree, you can present any amendments you want.
You can do whatever you want.
We don't even have a CBO score on this legislation. We don't know
what is in this legislation. There have been no hearings so that people
on both sides of the aisle can ask questions and say: What does this
mean for a family on traditional Medicaid who has to rely on this to
keep custody of their kids? And by the way, what does it mean if, as a
result of losing their Medicaid coverage, those children are no longer
able to stay at home and they become foster children because it is the
only way they can get healthcare? What does it mean for those families
about whom we all think we ought to have a real discussion, young
people, young families who have excellent health, how they might have
been disadvantaged on the exchange? What do we need to do for them?
Maybe they were doing better economically than a lot of folks until
they hit the cliff.
That is why I want to see my bill debated, because it can, in fact,
offer opportunity. Every time we talk about this, what we hear about is
how much it would cost. Well, the bottom line is that if all you do is
shift the burden of these costs without any discussions with Governors,
with private payers, with corporate America that is self-insured--if
all we are doing is shifting costs and saying ``It is now your
problem,'' we are not doing our job.
If you look at the Rand Corporation study, 12 percent of the
population of this country has five or more chronic diseases. As a
result of those unmanaged--typically unmanaged chronic diseases, what
you will see is they incur 40 percent of the cost. Is that a problem?
The answer is yes, that is a problem. We need to figure out how we can
better manage chronic disease.
A great friend of mine, a guy named Richie Carmona, who once was the
Surgeon General of this country, used to say--and I think it is true--
70 percent of all healthcare costs are related to chronic disease, most
of which is preventible. Where in any of these bills are we talking
about prevention? Where are we talking about wellness? Where are we
talking about bending the healthcare curve? We are only dumping and
running with these bills. We are not doing our job, and as a result, we
are frightening people in this country. We are frightening the elderly.
We are frightening people who say: Right now, I can afford my health
insurance; I am on an exchange. But when we change the ratio from 1-to-
3 to 1-to-5 and reduce the amount of subsidies, then 30, 40, 50 percent
of their disposable income will be used to pay for health insurance.
That is the thing you are not hearing here.
So we have to come together. We have to come together with the
fundamental questions of what is wrong with not just the Affordable
Care Act but what is wrong with healthcare and how we fix it and how we
change outcomes. We can't do that if we don't work together. This is a
body that is divided 48 to 52. How do you come together if you don't
come to the middle, if you don't come to the middle to compromise? You
don't.
At the end of the day, we have not met our deepest obligation, which
is to speak for those who are the least fortunate among us. We have not
met our obligation to govern this country in a way that would make our
Founding Fathers proud, to make our citizens proud, and that can
advance this idea that the U.S. Congress can get something done in the
United States of America--instead of partisan rancor.
We hold out the hope that we will at one point be able to debate
these ideas that we presented. We hold out the hope that we will, in
fact, meet somewhere to arrive at a better plan for the delivery of
healthcare in this country.
I just want to close with one thought. There is not one organized
healthcare group or advocacy group in my State that supports the
Republican healthcare plan, so as we are looking at judgment on that
plan, don't take my word for it. Take the medical associations' word
for it, take the hospital associations' word for it, take AARP's word
for it, take the consortium of large hospitals in my State, which urged
a ``no'' vote on this legislation, take the disabled children's
advocacy groups' word for it. This is not a path forward, but we are
big enough people and good enough leaders that we can forge a path
forward if we just find the will to do it.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.