[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 200 (Wednesday, December 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7888-S7889]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               HEALTHCARE

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise to speak about some of our 
colleagues who are leaving the Senate. Before I do that, I want to 
address what happened late on the Friday night--I think 9 days before 
Christmas--when a Texas judge basically threw out the Affordable Care 
Act.
  This latest decision comes more than 6 years after the Supreme Court, 
in an opinion written by Justice Roberts, already upheld the law's 
constitutionality. That opinion also found that parts of the law can be 
severed from the rest of the legislation. It comes after the 
administration has stated emphatically that it would not defend the 
law.
  So, basically, instead of going in there and helping out to save 
healthcare for millions of Americans and protect them from being thrown 
off their insurance if they have preexisting conditions--instead of 
going into that burning building--the administration has said to 
basically stand down and throw lighter fluid on the fire. That is 
exactly what has happened. If this ruling takes effect, the 
consequences will be devastating.
  To start, protections for people with preexisting conditions would be 
gone. About half of all Americans have preexisting conditions. This 
isn't just about rare diseases. This is also about asthma and diabetes. 
The ability to keep your kids on your insurance plans until they are 26 
years old will be gone. The work we have done to close the Medicare 
doughnut hole coverage gap, which makes it easier for our seniors to 
afford pharmaceuticals and to lower prescription drug prices, will be 
gone. The provisions that help people to buy insurance on the 
healthcare exchanges will be gone. Minnesotans will see a loss of $364 
million in premium tax credits, and, roughly, 272,000 people in my 
State will lose coverage.
  We can't allow this to happen. The judge must issue a stay 
immediately until the appeals are completed so that these protections 
can stay in place and this decision can be overturned.
  It is time to stop trying to start from scratch. The American people 
spoke in this last election across the country. Do they want 
improvements to the Affordable Care Act, like making pharmaceuticals 
less expensive and doing something about premiums? Yes, they do, but 
they don't want to start from scratch.
  We have already seen what kind of healthcare proposals we get when we 
start from scratch--the ones that my colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle have put forward. The legislation that we saw earlier this 
Congress would have hurt people by kicking millions off of Medicaid, by 
letting insurance companies charge people more when they get sick, and 
by jacking up healthcare costs. Every major group that you trust when 
it comes to your health--the largest groups of doctors, nurses, 
seniors, hospitals, people with cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, and 
diabetes--has said it was the worst repeal bill yet. We cannot spend 
the next 2 years going backward and fighting

[[Page S7889]]

old fights. We need to focus on building on the work we have done and 
strengthening and improving the Affordable Care Act.
  I have always said that the Affordable Care Act was the beginning and 
not an end, and we all have heard from those on the frontlines; 
doctors, patients, seniors, and those working to combat the opioid 
epidemic say that repeal is not the way forward. We should now be 
governing from opportunity and not from chaos.
  It means passing reinsurance programs, like the bipartisan 
legislation, which I am proud to cosponsor, that Senator Alexander and 
Senator Murray put forth, and using ideas that have worked in Minnesota 
and taking them out on a national basis.
  It means doing something about skyrocketing pharmaceutical prices and 
passing my bill that has over 30 cosponsors to allow Medicare to 
negotiate for less expensive drugs under their Medicare part D--
literally lifting the ban that says that the 41 million seniors of this 
country shouldn't be allowed to get a better deal.
  It means passing my bill with Senator Grassley, which we just 
improved upon today, to limit anti-competitive pay-for-delay deals, 
which delay more affordable generic drugs from getting out on the 
market.
  It means allowing less expensive, safe drugs to come in from other 
countries so that we can have true competition. We could even put it to 
a trigger so that if there were not competition, then you could allow 
the safe drugs to be purchased from other countries, and I think that 
it would create a major incentive for drug prices to go down.
  What we need to do is work together on the many bipartisan proposals 
that have been put forward to actually improve the Affordable Care Act, 
not throw it out and not throw people who have preexisting conditions 
off their insurance.

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