[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 233-234]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          HEALTH CARE ACT--SIGNED WITH BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I was there when the President of 
the United States of America signed into law the health care act that 
is sought to be repealed. I was within 20 feet or so of the President; 
and at the time he signed it, there was a feeling of great jubilation, 
but also there was a feeling of great consternation because, as he 
signed it, in ink, I knew that it was written in tears, written in the 
tears of the many parents who saw their children with preexisting 
conditions and could not get insurance for the illness that their 
children had; signed in ink, written in tears, but it was also written 
in sweat, the sweat of the many persons who toiled for more than 50 
years to get health care for all Americans; signed in ink, written in 
sweat, tears and in blood, written in the blood of the millions of 
people who suffered because they couldn't get health care, and also of 
the many who died because they could not get the insurance that would 
afford them health care.
  I was there. I knew what the circumstances were. At the time the bill 
was signed, we were spending $2.5 trillion per year on health care; 
$2.5 trillion is $79,000 a second on health care. That was 
approximately 17.6 percent of our GDP. And by 2018 it would have become 
$4.4 trillion per year, which would have been more than 20 percent of 
GDP and $139,000 a second. Signed in ink, written in blood, sweat and 
tears.
  I knew where we were at the time it was signed. In my State, we had 6 
million uninsured, 1.1 million in Harris County, and 20 percent of the 
children in Texas uninsured when that bill was signed. Still in America 
we have millions that are not getting the proper attention that they 
need, but there is the potential to get it because of this bill.
  At the time it was signed, we had more than 40 million people 
uninsured. The bill covered some 30-plus million people. We had 21 
million people who were working full-time and did not have insurance; 
45,000 people per year were dying because they didn't have insurance. 
That's one person every 12 minutes. Twenty-one million people were 
working full-time and did not have insurance. That bill brought people 
under the umbrella of health care and health insurance.
  The greatness of America is not going to be measured by how many 
great buildings we build and how many people we can cut out of health 
care. It's not going to be measured by the people that we can put in 
the streets of life. The greatness of America will be measured by how 
we treat people in the streets of life. This bill addresses people in 
the streets of life, real people who can die because they don't get the 
health care that the richest country in the world can provide.

                              {time}  1220

  I respect those who vote however they choose. But as for me, I am 
going

[[Page 234]]

to stand with those people who need health care and who are going to 
get it under this bill because preexisting conditions no longer exist.
  And for edification purposes, for those who do not know, pregnancy 
was a preexisting condition at the time the bill was signed. For those 
who do not know, children under the age of 26, many of them required to 
get health care because they couldn't stay on their parents' policies, 
they can now stay with their parents. The doughnut hole for seniors is 
being closed with this bill. The doughnut hole, for edification 
purposes, is that point in time when a senior has to pay for all of the 
pharmaceuticals that a senior might receive and need. And these 
pharmaceuticals are expensive. This bill addresses these things.
  This bill is a lifeline for many persons in this country. I will 
support it and I will say more about it in the future. I stand with the 
American people who need health care.

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