[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 122 (Thursday, July 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S5082]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               HEALTHCARE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, finally, on healthcare, ever since 
Republicans have been handed the keys to both Houses of Congress and 
the White House after the 2016 election, they have engaged in a 
protracted campaign of sabotage against our healthcare system. Premiums 
are going up, coverage is going down, and it is all falling in the laps 
of our Republican colleagues in the House and Senate.
  President Trump and congressional Republicans proposed legislation 
that would have gutted Medicaid and allowed insurers to charge more and 
deny coverage just because a person had gotten sick. The legislation 
would have excluded critical benefits and imposed lifetime or annual 
limits on care.
  Under cover of night, the Republicans dismantled the healthcare law's 
coverage requirement without putting anything in its place.
  The Trump administration canceled the Federal program that helped 
low-income customers afford insurance and expanded the availability of 
junk insurance plans that sucker Americans in with low premiums but 
that hardly cover anything. When people have these plans, they ask: Why 
did I even buy insurance? They were duped.
  Now, worse yet, the administration has directed the Justice 
Department to stop defending the constitutionality of protections for 
Americans with preexisting medical conditions--turning its back on the 
most popular and humane advancement in our healthcare system over the 
last decade.
  I would say to my Republican friends: Go to your constituents. Ask if 
people have someone who is sick in their families. You will get a lot 
of hands. Then ask them if they should be excluded from gaining health 
insurance to help that sick member and see how many support these 
ideas.
  If they try to do this in the dark of night, it is not going to work. 
In August, we Democrats are going to be talking about this over and 
over again. Believe me--this will probably be the most important factor 
in the 2018 election as the American people will rebel from the taking 
away of healthcare.
  Imagine going back to the days when a mother with a child who has 
cancer can no longer find affordable healthcare for her daughter. When 
hard-working Americans who fall on hard times are made to suffer by 
being denied healthcare coverage precisely because they need it, how 
wrong, how backward, how immoral. That is where President Trump wants 
to take us, and that is where all of our Republican colleagues seem to 
be following.
  Later this morning--actually, right now--a group of Democrats is 
announcing how we plan to fight back against this lawsuit and preserve 
the protections for up to 130 million nonelderly Americans who have 
preexisting conditions. The elderly, fortunately, are protected since 
we still have Medicare, despite some efforts by some on the other side 
to cut it back.
  As millions of Americans watch their healthcare costs go up, as they 
read the news about the latest Republican effort to undo healthcare 
protections, they fear for the future and wonder who in Washington will 
be fighting for them. In November, they will have the chance to vote 
for a party that will check the President's dangerous healthcare 
sabotage, that will work to bring down costs and improve quality, that 
will never undermine the protections of Americans with preexisting 
conditions.
  I look forward to the response to my colleagues' announcement.
  I yield the floor.

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