[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 53 (Wednesday, March 27, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H2835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTHCARE FOR ALL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this moment to go down a 
very tough, and for many families, humiliating journey down memory 
lane.
  Memories full of sick mothers and fathers, sick children, and maybe 
even those who lost their life because they could not get affordable 
healthcare.
  Apparently, this administration doesn't understand; for those of us 
who were here before the Affordable Care Act, the years and years of 
work, the thousands of pages of testimony, the many different 
committees--even my committee, the Committee on the Judiciary--we heard 
the pain and cries of those who did not have health insurance.
  Maybe he doesn't know--the administration--the story of the 8-year-
old girl whose family actually took her to the office of the insurance 
company--she had leukemia--to beg for coverage. And they denied her, 
and she died.
  Maybe they did not hear the story of the mother whose son had 
hepatitis because he had not been able to overcome his drug addiction, 
even though he was a lawyer, and his only basis of healthcare was the 
emergency room in a city hospital;
  Or maybe the doctor who drove to another city hundreds of miles away 
to get his intern son, put him in the backseat of his car and drive him 
all the way back so that he could be inside the jurisdiction in which 
his healthcare covered.
  Maybe the administration and the President do not know about junk 
insurance policies, that when you get to the hospital, as they look 
over you in the emergency room and say, There is no room at the inn for 
you because your insurance doesn't cover hospitalization.
  Or the tap on the door of your hospital room while you are in the 
bed, and although you are still ill, you are evicted because your 
insurance has capped.
  All of that was eliminated with the Affordable Care Act.
  What a disaster for this administration to proudly and arrogantly 
stand up to take a stand to destroy the Affordable Care Act in my 
State, in Texas v. Azar, and how sad it is that State officials from 
the moment they got elected in my State, Republicans, every day have 
been fighting to destroy the Affordable Care Act.
  And my own county health department is begging for relief; begging 
for the expanded Medicaid; begging to serve the many thousands upon 
thousands that are in need who are working poor, but my State refused 
to accept the expanded Medicaid. And now, with great hubris, 
pompousness, this Government--it is supposed to be for the people, of 
which we are--has decided to take a stand to destroy the Affordable 
Care Act.
  Rather than do what we are attempting to do as Democrats and 
protecting preexisting conditions and to expand and improve on 
healthcare, we are looking to lower health insurance premiums, 
strengthen protections for people with pre-existing conditions, stop 
insurance companies from selling junk health insurance plans, and 
reverse the administration's healthcare, sabotaging needlessly driven-
up premiums and uninsured rates and empower States to innovate and 
invest in enrolling more people.
  Outreach. I have been engaged in outreach and education, and the 
families are excited when they are eligible for insurance.
  All of the people that I mentioned, and some who died, had 
preexisting conditions. Over 50 percent of the American people--maybe 
upwards of 65 percent--have preexisting conditions.
  In 2012, there were 45 million uninsured persons, but the Affordable 
Care Act was making its way so much so that we have reduced the amount 
of uninsured persons, as the numbers show in 2018, down to about 28 
million, and we were making steady progress.
  What kind of caring attitude do you have?
  Where is your humanity, that you would take insurance away from sick 
children, families, and the elderly, and that you would allow their 
prescription drugs to shoot through the roof, which is what will happen 
when you destroy and implode the Affordable Care Act.
  It is not an overnight success. 50 years America was trying to work 
on a system that would work, beyond the Medicare system, and Medicaid.
  We are supporting--many of us--a way to provide healthcare for all, 
like Medicare for all. I am supporting this legislation, but what is 
happening in the administration is nothing but an implosion of a 
lifeline for the American people.
  We need to stop that now.

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