[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 52 (Tuesday, March 26, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H2803]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             MAKE QUALITY HEALTH INSURANCE MORE AFFORDABLE

  (Ms. UNDERWOOD asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. UNDERWOOD. Madam Speaker, Saturday, March 23, we celebrated the 
ninth anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which has 
expanded health insurance to over 20 million people in the last 5 
years. But quality health insurance remains unaffordable and out of 
reach for far too many Americans.
  Today, I introduced the Health Care Affordability Act to help fix 
that and reduce premiums for Americans who purchase private health 
plans through the marketplace.
  My legislation would cut premiums by hundreds or thousands of dollars 
per year for more than 10 million people. It does this by increasing 
the tax credits people get to make premiums more affordable and 
allowing more people to qualify for tax credits.
  This important improvement would guarantee middle-class consumers 
would pay no more than 8\1/2\ percent of their income on premiums. This 
would be a huge help to families.
  For example, in my district, a typical family of four currently pays 
$1,741 per month for marketplace coverage. With my bill, their monthly 
premiums would drop by nearly half.
  A typical 60-year-old couple in my district making $80,000 currently 
pays over a third of their monthly income for marketplace coverage. My 
legislation would reduce their monthly premiums by over $1,700.
  This legislation moves us forward by making lower cost coverage 
available to at least 9 million uninsured Americans, while reducing 
premiums for an additional 10 million Americans.
  Madam Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to join me in making quality 
health insurance more affordable by cosponsoring this important 
legislation.

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