[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 384-387]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS AND THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. 
Christensen) is recognized for 30 minutes.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, it's an honor for me to join my 
colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus for this half hour or so 
to talk to the American people about the importance of the provisions 
of the Affordable Care Act. For African Americans and other people of 
color, as well as rural Americans, who make up more than half of the 
uninsured, we cannot allow the law and the consumer protections to be 
repealed. Not when we have just gotten one foot in the health care 
door, some of us for the very first time.
  For African Americans, who have higher death rates from all causes 
than any other population group, the preventive services, the 
strengthening of the public health force, the diversifying of an 
expanded health workforce, the community health workers, the community 
health centers, the Offices of Minority Health, those equity provisions 
cannot be repealed. It's a matter of life and death for us.
  I know that the Republicans and their leadership who are calling for 
repeal won't ever say that they want to take away those benefits of the 
law that make sure sick children can be ensured, that allow families to 
keep their children who can't get jobs right away on their insurance 
until they are 26, or make sure that your insurance will be there for 
you when you need it most, when you get sick. They won't tell you that 
they want to take those away, but that's exactly what would happen if 
they are allowed to unravel this very carefully put together law.
  Moreover, it should cause concern to every freedom-loving and 
justice-seeking person in this country that two of the very first acts 
of this 112th Congress have been to take away rights, privileges, or 
benefits from United States citizens. They took away the vote in the 
Committee of the Whole from Representatives elected and sent here by 
over 5 million Americans.
  And now the leadership is trying to take away services and benefits 
that in effect would take away the right that everyone should have to 
health care. Whatever the leadership tries to take away next, good 
people must stand and speak and act to prevent them from doing so, as 
we must not let them repeal the job-creating health care reform law 
now.

                              {time}  2130

  Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who we remembered yesterday, spoke 
about the appalling silence of good people.
  So, my fellow Americans, what I am saying to you is we cannot be 
silent. I know it must be difficult for you, our constituents, you, our 
employers, to know what the Affordable Care Act does and what it 
doesn't do, because there is so much distortion of the facts. So to 
help explain what the bill, what the law does, and how devastating the 
repeal would be, I want to now yield to my colleagues.
  I will begin by yielding to the gentleman Georgia (Mr. Johnson).
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I thank my colleague for yielding to me.

[[Page 385]]

  I must admit that I feel somewhat, gosh, it seems like only yesterday 
that the Republicans were accusing us of not taking care of what was 
the business at hand, which was job creation and what they call 
reckless spending. They accused us of wasting our time in the 111th 
Congress where we should have been dealing with jobs and spending, and 
they are doing the same thing.
  They are wasting their time. The first month of the 112th Congress, 
they are wasting their time trying to repeal health care for Americans, 
the Affordable Care Act. It's mind-boggling to me that after the 
Democrats' first month in office we dealt with the recovery package, 
jobs, and thereafter we went through a long process of putting in place 
a measure that will create 4 million new jobs in this economy that they 
ran into the ground.
  We pulled the car out of the ditch, got the car running, ready to 
create 4 million new jobs, health care, 4 million new jobs to 
accommodate the 32 million more Americans who would have access to the 
health care system in this country as a result of our passage of that 
act. And the Republicans, the first thing they do is want to kill a 
job-creating act that will enable their constituents and mine to have 
affordable health care.
  It boggles the mind that we would want to turn the clock back, that 
we would want to start walking in the opposite direction, taking away 
benefits that have already gone into effect under the health care act 
that we passed. They want to hurt small businesses which are able to 
receive a 35 percent tax credit when they spend money insuring their 
employees.
  I saw a report earlier today indicating that hundreds of thousands of 
new policies have been issued by insurance companies based on these 
small businesses of less than 50 people that are choosing to offer 
health care insurance to their employees. That is significant.
  The health insurance industry is making a profit by offering fair 
coverage to Americans. Preexisting conditions were something that young 
people, children, were denied insurance for under the old regime of 
insurance regulation. Under our act that the Democrats passed, no more 
can you ban children from getting insurance based on preexisting 
conditions, and that is something that's good.
  My colleague from Iowa was just talking about a young child in his 
district who would be denied coverage for a preexisting condition if 
his parents had to go back into the market to purchase insurance due to 
loss of a job or whatever, move, whatever the case might be. So this is 
quite significant. We don't want to take that health care coverage away 
from the children who have received it even though they have 
preexisting conditions.
  The $250 rebate for seniors who had reached the dreaded doughnut 
hole, seniors got a $250 check in the mail in 2010 to help them with 
that. In 2011, they will get a 50 percent discount on all brand name 
and generic drugs, 50 percent. That is going to help so many Americans 
with their drug bills. This is what they want to repeal. They want to 
cost you, as a consumer, more money for prescription drugs.
  And I am happy to stand on the side of those who say ``no'' to a 
repeal of the health care legislation that we passed.
  They want to be able to repeal provisions in the law that prevent and 
prohibit insurance companies from canceling your insurance when you get 
sick. That's a commonsense regulation to protect American consumers. My 
friends on the other side of the aisle would, at the behest of those in 
the insurance industry who spent about $100 million to defeat health 
care legislation--and that was unsuccessful, so they went out and spent 
hundreds of millions of dollars more to defeat the Democrats who voted 
for it. And so now we are at the point where they want to reciprocate 
to those who elected them at the expense of the very American people 
who voted for them. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, Mr. 
Speaker, it really does not.
  Lifetime caps on coverage already in effect, they would repeal that. 
They would allow the sale of insurance policies that would have a cap 
on them, a lifetime cap. So you would pay ever-increasing premiums with 
an ever-lessening amount of lifetime insurance coverage.
  Well, we have taken that cap off. We have taken the unfairness out of 
that equation by mandating that those clauses in insurance contracts 
are void and unenforceable. So no more lifetime caps on insurance. 
These are some of the things that enabled the insurance companies and 
their corporate bosses, offices, shareholders and the like to obtain 
millions and millions and billions and billions of dollars of profits 
every year, going up every year.
  Your premiums going up also, just reckless; no regulatory impact, no 
care about what that's doing to America. It's actually costing the 
taxpayers a lot of money, Mr. Speaker, because if people don't have 
insurance, that does not immunize them from getting sick.

                              {time}  2140

  We're all going to get sick one day. We're all going to need medical 
care. We're all going to, at some point, need the care of a doctor or a 
nurse. And it costs money. And if we don't have insurance, it can't be 
paid for. So people without insurance don't get access to the health 
care system until they get so ill that they have to go to the emergency 
room. And at that point, taxpayers have to subsidize that cost. And so 
it stands to reason that with 17 percent of our gross domestic product 
being spent for medical care in this country, and the fact that that 
has an impact on our interstate commerce, it means that the Federal 
Government certainly has a role to play in regulating the health 
insurance industry. And that's exactly what we did.
  I want to now recognize, or flip it, if you will, back to my good 
friend from the Virgin Islands.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I want to thank you, Mr. Johnson, for helping to 
clarify some of the important areas that are provided for in the 
Affordable Care Act. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but 
not everyone is entitled to creating their own facts. And I think what 
we're hearing tonight are the facts.
  I would like to yield now 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas, 
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I thank the gentlelady. It is a pleasure to 
be able to join my colleagues on the floor, including Congressman 
Gregory Meeks of New York, who we'll have the opportunity to hear from, 
and I thank Dr. Christensen for your continued leadership, and my 
colleague on Judiciary Committee, we had the opportunity to contribute 
to the debate today.
  The Judiciary Committee has as its jurisdiction the Constitution, and 
our friends on the other side of the aisle keep talking about that this 
is unconstitutional. It baffles me and almost frustrates me because I'm 
trying to grab hold to what the argument is, particularly since we have 
had Medicare by the Federal Government since 1965, and it has withstood 
any constitutional challenge, and that was implemented under the 
Commerce Act.
  But frankly, if we have an argument to make on the Constitution, I 
will share with you why this is clearly a constitutional bill, because 
we are actually denying people both due process and equal protection 
under the law under the present system because we have a nation that is 
divided between the haves and have-nots. Forty million-plus, 44 
million, now I hear 32 million persons were uninsured. That's what 
grabbed our attention. Those people did not have access to health care.
  Clearly, if you look at the Constitution that says that the 14th 
Amendment says equal protection under the law, all people treated 
equally, and the Fifth Amendment says can't deprive someone of life or 
liberty without due process. Well, I can tell you over the time that we 
debated this bill we saw the numbers of people who actually died 
because they could not get access to health care. We are reminded of 
our good colleague, Congressman Cummings, who told the story over and 
over again of a young teenager, 12- or 13-year-old boy, African 
American boy,

[[Page 386]]

who had an abscess, a tooth abscess, and clearly could have been saved, 
his life was before him. But he died because his mother did not have 
insurance or really did not have access to go anywhere to have this 
particular health matter taken care of. It became a crisis, and he 
died.
  So I want to say to my friends, these are the basic points that I 
want to raise today while I discuss this question of the 14th Amendment 
and the Fifth Amendment. First of all, you hear the question of how 
offended people are, I don't want to be told to buy insurance. Why 
should I have to be forced to buy insurance? Well, as everyone knows, 
there is a 10th Amendment that says what is not left to the Federal 
Government is given to the States. States require you to have auto 
insurance. If you do not have it, you are fined. You get a ticket. 
Because they have calculated that the burden of not having health 
insurance is too great to bear. And so when we think of people not 
having health insurance because they don't have access, we have 
determined that the burden is too great to bear, $143 billion if this 
bill is repealed right away, and $1 trillion over 20 years that we will 
lose, or the deficit will be built. And I would imagine it might be 
more if you determine the people that will be uninsured who will go on 
to the county system.
  Does everybody know in these districts around the Nation who are 
complaining about this bill that your hospitals, your county hospitals 
that are burdening your local taxpayers will be actually compensated 
for uncompensated care? I don't know about anyone here, but I can tell 
you my hospitals are jumping for joy.
  And so I just want to point this out. Children with preexisting 
conditions are denied coverage, that is the sickle cell child, that is 
the individual with heart disease. We determined in our Democratic 
Policy and Steering Committee that children are the greatest that have 
the possibility of dying because of lack of coverage. And so all of 
these children, asthma, parents who have children with asthma, they are 
born, and there are babies with asthma. Do you realize they cannot or 
could not get insurance even on their parents' insurance? Asthma. How 
many children have died with asthma? Particularly in the minority 
community, where we have been subjected to poor quality living 
conditions. Maybe the air quality, because of where we live, industrial 
waste, or maybe it is because of the quality of the house that you are 
in, asbestos, other ailments that create conditions that cause 
respiratory illnesses in children, those are respiratory illnesses, 
young people age 26. A young man by the name of Andrew today said he's 
been working very hard, he graduated from college, but unfortunately 
the job that he had offered to him has been pushed back because of the 
economy. He is working to get more experience as an intern with no 
compensation. His family cannot afford to keep him on to pay for 
independent insurance at this point. But yet he is being constructive, 
and he can be constructive because he can be on his parents' insurance. 
Pregnant women and breast and prostate cancer patients, in particular, 
African American women and minority women have a devastating form of 
breast cancer. My father had prostate cancer, and at the age he was and 
the atmosphere that we were in and the medical access he had at that 
time, one, he didn't tell the family, two, we were uninformed about 
this thing called prostate cancer, and we didn't find out about it 
until it had metastasized. My father actually had lung cancer and brain 
cancer.
  There is a statistic: An African American male over 65 that did not 
have the proper access to health care to be able to catch his prostate 
cancer. Now this bill will provide for preventive care so that members, 
no matter what economic station you are in or status you are in, you 
have the ability to access health care, meaning you can go to a 
community health clinic or the community health centers, excuse me, or 
you may be able to buy your own health insurance at the rate in the 
amount you can.
  There is a complaint here, as I said, about lacking the ability or 
not wanting to buy health insurance. Well, I would argue to that 
person, the argument I made about the 10th Amendment and automobile 
insurance, but I also argue, would you rather have these individuals 
die or burden the massive public health system? Or would you rather 
have them have access to be healthy as opposed to being sick?
  Then something has been said, job-killing bill. And one of the points 
that the Republicans make is 650,000 jobs lost. They are not telling 
the accurate story. The 650,000 jobs lost are people deciding not to 
work or to work less because they now have the ability to get their own 
insurance that is not tied to a job through the exchange. That is the 
accuracy of it. It's voluntary, voluntary separation from a job because 
I am independent now to be able to go into business, to be a sole 
entrepreneur, a sole proprietor, and still have my insurance. And so 
these people would immediately be thrown off because a pregnant woman 
would be considered a preexisting disease; breast cancer, obviously one 
of the more devastating diseases; prostate cancer. And do you know what 
else? Heart disease which kills or has 43 million women today living 
with heart disease, some of whom do not know it because they do not 
have preventive care.
  And then, our seniors have been frightened by death panels. Seniors, 
let me simply say to you, there will be living panels because you will 
get a 50 percent discount on your doughnut hole process and brand name 
prescription drugs. But more importantly, you'll be able to have a 
primary care doctor, you'll have community health clinics you can go 
to, you'll have what we call a medical home so you won't have to be 
worrying about, who is my doctor? You will have a consistent doctor, 
maybe even electronic records.
  Particularly hard-hit are minority seniors or seniors in rural areas 
where hospitals are not even. But if they can go to a community health 
clinic that can diagnose them so they don't have to go to an emergency 
room or be helicoptered to a major city because they reached a crisis, 
seniors, this is a living bill for you.

                              {time}  2150

  And then, of course, this whole question of the deficit, I've already 
mentioned, but this idea of small businesses, let me tell you that 
small businesses are jumping for joy. Dr. Odette Cohen today said to us 
that she is glad that her pediatric practice will be able to get tax 
credits for her employees to provide health care and that she will be 
able to add another nurse practitioner just because this bill provides 
for small businesses.
  So I can only say that this whole question of job loss is shaky, the 
whole question of the Constitution is shakier, and I conclude by saying 
this, and I will be on the floor again tomorrow: The Constitution has 
been misused in this debate. I beg of people to get the Constitution. 
It is quite the opposite. H.R. 2 is unconstitutional, because it 
creates an unequal system in America, a system of unequalness as 
relates to health care. We've lived that way but we have not been able 
to get those who have been most deprived to take this case up all the 
way to the Supreme Court. Why did I not have health insurance? Why does 
my neighbor have it and I don't have it? Well, we are now equalizing. 
With the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, we're giving you 
the protection of the Constitution to the 14th Amendment and the Fifth 
Amendment of due process and equal protection. I can't imagine a better 
way to value America than to say that all of us deserve the dignity of 
our flag and our Constitution.
  I thank the gentlelady, Dr. Christensen, for her leadership.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Jackson Lee, and thank you 
for tying in to the constitutional issues, because we're going to be 
asked to provide constitutional references for every legislation that 
we introduce and the constitutional issue has been raised over and over 
again and I thank you for addressing that in your remarks.
  I would now like to yield to the gentleman from New York, Congressman 
Meeks.

[[Page 387]]


  Mr. MEEKS. I want to thank the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands. I 
also want to thank the gentlelady from Houston, Texas, Sheila Jackson 
Lee, for that excellent statement on the Constitution and the 14th and 
the Fifth Amendments.
  I am so serious about this issue that on this night when I don't have 
much of a voice, it is important to talk about what is really going on 
here. When you think about the Constitution, the first thing that we 
were doing when we came back in the 112th was the reading of the 
Constitution. The Constitution was really put in place to help and 
protect Americans. It's one thing to read the Constitution. It's 
another thing to live the Constitution. I think the gentlelady put out 
the facts clearly down to the 14th and the Fifth Amendments, this is 
constitutional. I think it is also clearly what the Constitution, what 
the individuals who wrote in 1787, it was a committee of the Federal 
Convention, that it should remind us that the sacred text employs and 
empowers us to provide for and protect the American people.
  What is the most precious thing that one has? Is it money? What is 
the most precious thing? It's called life. Without life, what do we 
have? And what is the most important thing in living a good life? It's 
health. So wouldn't it seem that what would be the most appropriate 
thing to do is that we provide health care for Americans? It is without 
question I think that we can agree, whether we're Democrat or 
Republican, we believe that we have the best country on the planet, in 
the history of the planet. But look at the blemish that history will 
record on our great Nation if we do not provide or give access to 
health care for all Americans. This is a struggle that we have had for 
debate after debate after debate, from President before President 
before President. And finally this Congress did come together in the 
111th Congress and said, we're going to provide health care to 95 
percent of all Americans. No, we're not perfect. The fact of the matter 
is I don't know any bill that has ever been passed in any legislative 
body that is perfect. We've got to work, and in fact we talk about our 
union, to make it a more better union. The health care reform bill 
clearly does that.
  Now the logic to come and to repeal the whole bill confuses me. For 
even the Constitution of the United States of America was not a perfect 
document. Clearly for those of us who happen to be African Americans, 
when the Founding Fathers wrote it, they said we were only three-fifths 
of a human being. Clearly the Constitution didn't give women the right 
to vote. The document itself as it was initially written was flawed. 
But we as a Nation didn't say come and strike the entire Constitution; 
repeal the Constitution. That's not what was done. What we did was we 
said, Let's fix it. Let's look and see where we can agree upon to amend 
it. In fact, there was a small debate on the floor right here which 
Constitution would be read. Would it be the amended version? And that's 
what we talked about, the amended version of the Constitution. That's 
what was read here.
  So where is the logic now where we clearly have the law of the land 
to come and say, get rid of it all? You've clearly heard from the 
gentleman from Georgia and the others that have spoken this evening 
about making sure that there is no individual who's denied health care 
because of a preexisting condition. This bill assures us of that. If 
you have a child under 26 years of age, not working, they can stay on 
their parents' health care. Seniors and the doughnut hole, we fixed 
that.
  So if you've got a serious problem that you want to negotiate and 
talk about that's within this bill that's a problem, that's a flaw, 
that needs to be amended, then I think that as a body we can sit down 
and work together to get that done.
  And so I say when I look at where we are, or ask my staff, for 
example, in my little district in New York, the Sixth Congressional 
District.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman from the Virgin 
Islands has expired.
  Mr. MEEKS. Let me just end by saying this.
  Let's make sure that health care is not a privilege for a few but a 
right for the many. Let us make sure that we do not destroy this great 
health care reform bill that's now law.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, let me thank our CBC 
Chair, Emanuel Cleaver and the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands, 
Congresswoman Christensen for anchoring this Special Order in order to 
pursue a very important discussion on the leadership of the 
Congressional Black Caucus and the Health Care Reform.
  We remain committed to our diligent work to be the conscience of the 
Congress, but also to provide dedicated and focused service to the 
citizens and Congressional Districts that have elected us. I hope that 
this discussion will highlight the impact of how the repeal of the 
Affordable Act would impact the American people; particularly, within 
the minority community.
  We know that not all Americans have equal access to health care.
  It is all too unfortunate that persons of low-income, or of diverse 
racial and ethnic backgrounds, and other underserved populations have 
higher rates of disease.
  This same population frequently experience fewer treatment options, 
and reduced access to the care they need.
  Worst of all, minority populations are also less likely to have 
health insurance than the population as a whole.
  But now, because of the Affordable Care Act, minorities can benefit 
from:
  Preventative Care that includes regular screenings, annual wellness 
check-ups, cancer screenings, and immunizations--all at no additional 
cost.
  Care that is coordinated to help patients manage their chronic 
diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, high-blood pressure, cancer, 
and many other ailments that require multiple health teams.
  Training to increase diversity within the health professions so that 
patients have more choice of providers who are racially and ethnically 
diverse. Also, health plans will be required to use language services 
and community outreach in underserved communities.
  Expansion of the health care workforce with increased funding for 
community health centers, which provide comprehensive health care for 
everyone no matter how much they are able to pay.
  Banning insurance companies from discriminating against those 
patients who have been sick. No longer will sick patients be excluded 
from coverage or charged higher premiums. Neither will women have to 
pay higher premiums simply because of their gender.
  I am confident that if we repeal Affordable Care Act, we present a 
grave, unhealthy danger to the lives of our most vulnerable populations 
who need health care most by playing politics.
  I urge my Republican colleagues to revisit the thought of repealing 
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by working with eager 
Democrats to continue building a bridge to a healthier America--for 
all.

                          ____________________