[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10873-10877]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS HOUR

  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 60 minutes as the designee of the 
minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 
legislative days to revise and extend their remarks in accordance with 
the subject of the Special Order this evening.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I want to, again, begin by thanking the Democratic 
leader for giving the Congressional Black Caucus this time to focus on 
health care reform specifically, especially as the House is preparing 
to continue their attempts to repeal what we know is a good bill and a 
needed bill in this country.
  Before I begin to yield time, I just want to recognize the 103rd 
anniversary of the NAACP. They have long been premier champions of 
health care and fought for health care as a right. They are committed 
to eliminating the racial and ethnic disparities in our health care 
system that plague people of color in the United States. Their 880 
Campaign is based on the fact that over the past decade, because we 
have not eliminated health disparities, over 880,000 African Americans 
and other people of color have died premature deaths from preventable 
causes. That does not need to happen. So we continue that fight in 
health care reform. We have made great strides in it. And we look 
forward to implementing that law, despite the attempts to repeal today.
  I want to congratulate the NAACP on their 103rd anniversary this 
evening, and I would like to yield such time as she may consume to the 
gentlelady from Texas, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Thank you very much.
  Two weeks ago, the United States Supreme Court justly and commendably 
upheld the Affordable Care Act, ensuring that millions of Americans 
will continue to have access to quality, affordable health care. 
Despite this monumental victory for our country, for the 31st time 
since its enactment, Republicans are attempting to repeal the health 
care law, treating it as if this is just some kind of political game 
played between the two parties.
  While the Affordable Care Act will expand coverage for millions of 
Americans, many Texans will be denied access by their Governor. And I'm 
a Texan. Just today, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his decision 
not to expand Medicaid or implement a State health exchange under the 
Affordable Care Act--nothing more than politics. However, during his 
announcement, Governor Perry failed to provide an alternative plan to 
address the growing numbers of uninsured Texans. Texas has the highest 
percentage of adults without health care insurance, and rejecting 
Federal Medicaid funds would only worsen this predicament for Texans. 
Without the Affordable Care Act, millions of uninsured Americans will 
continue to seek primary care in our Nation's overcrowded emergency 
rooms, leaving taxpayers to pay the tab, if they own property. As a 
non-practicing registered nurse, I am all too familiar with this 
scenario, which has placed a huge burden on our Nation's hospital 
systems.
  Mr. Speaker, this week's GOP messaging vote to repeal is nothing more 
than political warfare in an election year. Instead of bringing job-
creating bills to the floor, Republican leadership insists on wasting 
taxpayer dollars by debating a law which has been firmly upheld by the 
Nation's highest court. While the Republicans have introduced numerous 
measures to undermine and repeal the Affordable Care Act, they have 
repeatedly failed to introduce one piece of legislation which could 
serve as a viable alternative to the health care law.
  I urge my colleagues to reject this effort to take away patient 
protections for Americans. Instead, for once, let partisan politics 
come in second and let the American people win this one.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congressman Johnson. Thank you for 
beginning to lay out the issue before us this evening, as we know that 
we've done landmark legislation in passing the Affordable Care Act. It 
is now settled law and the Supreme Court has ruled and we have a lot of 
other work that the American people need us to do.
  At this time I would like to yield such time as she may consume to 
the gentlelady from Florida, Congresswoman Corrine Brown.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Thank you very much for leading this discussion 
on health care.
  You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool 
all of the people all of the time. And as we begin to discuss repealing 
the health care law tomorrow, I would like to discuss just how exactly 
the Affordable Care Act benefits all Americans. Although not a perfect 
bill--and I've been elected in Congress for 20 years and I've never 
seen a perfect bill, but a perfect beginning. And the reason why it's 
not perfect is because you make compromises throughout the process. 
This is a perfect start. Attempting to obtain universal health care has 
been a primary goal of every single President and Congress since the 
days of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who fought for quality 
access to health care and health care insurance reform for all 
Americans. And now, 75 years later after the Supreme Court ruling just 
over a week ago, our Nation has finally attained that goal. After 75 
years, every single President has tried to implement some form of 
universal health care.

                              {time}  1930

  In fact, millions of Americans have already come to rely on the wide-
ranging and lifesaving benefits of the Affordable Care Act. And let me 
say that as far as Obama health care is concerned, let me clear 
something up. It's President Barack Obama. And let me be clear, he does 
care. Let me say again, President Barack Obama does care. He cares 
deeply about the health and well-being of every American.
  Before Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, nearly one in five 
citizens in the wealthiest country on Earth had little or no hope of 
affordable insurance or getting access to regular health care. And when 
fully implemented, the Affordable Care Act will cover an additional 30 
million Americans and 3.8 million African Americans who otherwise would 
remain uninsured.
  Already under the Affordable Care Act, 17 million children with 
preexisting conditions can no longer be denied coverage, 105 million 
Americans no longer have a lifetime limit on their coverage, 32 million 
seniors received free preventive care in 2011, 54 million Americans in 
private plans have received free preventive services, 6.6 million young 
adults up to the age of 26 have attained insurance through their 
parents' plan, 5.2 million seniors and disabled people saved an average 
of $704 each on prescription drugs, 360,000 small businesses received 
tax credits to help them afford coverage for 2 million workers, and 13 
million families received insurance premium rebates averaging $151 in 
2012.
  In my congressional district of Florida, 6,900 young adults in the 
district will receive health care insurance, 6,200 seniors received 
prescription drug discounts worth $3.6 million, and the average savings 
is $600 per senior. And 20,000 children and 80,000 adults now have 
health care insurance that covers preventive services without co-pay, 
co-insurance, or deductibles.

[[Page 10874]]

  Every American who has benefited from this needs to let their local 
Representatives, their Senator and their Governor know. We all have a 
dog in this fight.
  The Republican Party is constantly complaining about a tax and how 
this law will raise taxes. But I'd like to reply to them the American 
taxpayers are already paying a hidden tax right now. Every single time 
one of the millions of our citizens who lacks health care insurance 
receives emergency care, that cost is passed on to paying customers 
through higher fees and premiums.
  So the question is, how can we begin to bring our country's health 
care costs down? And this law is the first step in achieving this.
  In closing, as I always say, you can fool some of the people some of 
the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I thank you, and I thank you for pointing out some 
of the benefits and the numbers of Americans who are enjoying those 
benefits already over these last 2 years. And those benefits, as you 
said, extend to all Americans, whether they live in Democratic 
districts or Republican districts. We want to make sure that people 
continue to be able to insure their children with preexisting disease, 
their young people up to age 26, to have our seniors and disabled and 
anyone who is insured be able to get that important preventive care 
without a co-pay, and begin to continue to strengthen the Medicare 
program as we have in the Affordable Care Act.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. I have one question before I leave. The 
question of tax penalty is a very debatable question. But my concern is 
anyone that has insurance is not affected, veterans are not affected.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Absolutely.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. And you will not pay that penalty unless you do 
not--if you can afford it and you don't have it, then you're going to 
pay some minimum amount?
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Exactly.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Can you explain that to people who are 
watching? Because, basically, it is just for those small, less than 1 
percent, who do not try to get coverage.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. That's correct. And as you said, there is a 
hardship provision so that if people just cannot afford it and fall in 
the cracks between the Medicaid expansion and the exchange, they will 
not have to pay. And it will be a very small percentage, one or two 
percent, that CBO has said would actually end up paying the penalty, 
and it's a very small penalty. Yes, for administrative purposes, it's 
collected through the IRS; but it's a penalty. And very few people 
would have to pay it.
  As you said also in your statement, we pay anyway. And we pay more on 
the other end for not having everyone insured.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. The question is if you go to the hospital--and 
I was on the plane with one of the business persons and he was talking 
about it, and I said, you know, you are already paying. If someone on 
this plane passes out, they're going to the hospital, they're going to 
service them, and it is called, what, cost shifting? So you are already 
paying the cost of the most expensive way to provide health care. And 
many people do it. They wait until Friday, 5 o'clock and they go to the 
emergency room, which is the most expensive way to provide it.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. People who are not insured, or even people who are 
underinsured or who have a high co-pay, they have not gone for 
preventive care. Now they can get it without a co-pay. And without that 
preventive care, they end up in the emergency rooms in the hospital 
when the illness has worsened and the cost is more. We can prevent that 
by having everyone insured and having everyone have preventive care.
  I know people are saying that we are not reducing costs. You can't 
reduce costs in the first couple of years. But if you look out that 10-
year period and even in the 10 years past that, you will see in many 
ways that the cost will be reduced.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Last question. These Governors, Texas you 
mentioned, Florida, these Governors are saying, we are not going to 
take advantage of the expansion. As a private citizen, what can I do? 
Because the President, just like the Governors, they can only propose. 
But the legislators are the ones that dispose. The President brought 
his proposal to Congress, but we had the ultimate decision as to what 
the final bill would look like. And that is as true in the State houses 
also.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. That is correct. And we will be working with our 
State legislatures to make sure that they understand what is at stake. 
And I'm sure that the voters in their districts who are already 
enjoying those benefits and who are looking forward to finally having 
insurance that they can afford for the first time will be talking to 
them about what they feel is important.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Where are the health care providers and the 
people that provide the additional services? How should they weigh in?
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I'm going to read some statements from some of the 
primary care physicians at the end of this Special Order, but they're 
beginning to weigh in. And based on what I was reading today, they are 
weighing in pretty favorably. And they will benefit as well. It is 
change, and change is difficult no matter what. But they will benefit 
as well, and they are beginning to speak up.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. I want to thank you again for your leadership 
on this matter. You've worked throughout the process in keeping us 
informed. I think you're the only physician----
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I'm the first female physician. I'm the only 
physician in the CBC, but there are other physicians in Congress.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. I understand. But you are the only female 
physician in Congress.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I was the first. We have one other elected in this 
Congress.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Well, you are certainly mine, and I thank you 
for your leadership.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Physicians and other providers, the thing that we 
don't talk about a lot is the jobs that will be created through this 
Affordable Care Act. We did finally pass a transportation bill, and 
thank God that will begin to create some jobs and save some jobs, but 
the health care reform bill is also a job-creating bill. It's projected 
it will create about 4 million jobs of all kinds over the 10-year 
period. So we've been creating jobs as well in the Affordable Care Act.
  I would like to yield such time as she might consume to the 
gentlelady from Ohio, Congresswoman Fudge.
  Ms. FUDGE. Thank you so much. I thank you for yielding, and I thank 
the gentlelady for all of her work on the Affordable Care Act.
  People seem to believe that this was something done in haste. They 
don't understand that for almost a year or more, people like you, 
people like members of the CBC worked very, very hard to make sure that 
we could come up with legislation that would be not only a good piece 
of legislation for the people of this country, but that would be 
something that would befit this Congress.

                              {time}  1940

  So I thank you for your work. You know that you have been our leader, 
especially with the CBC, but as well as in this House. You have been 
our leader on this, and I thank you for that.
  Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues to express my strong support of 
affordable health care for all Americans. The Supreme Court has spoken, 
upholding landmark legislation that ensures all Americans have access 
to affordable, quality health care.
  Millions of Americans across the country are already realizing the 
benefits of the Affordable Care Act, and the numbers are impressive:
  Eighty-six million Americans have received free preventive 
screenings, free physical exams, mammograms, and other cancer 
screenings;
  Seventeen million children with preexisting conditions can no longer 
be denied coverage, and 6.6 million young adults now remain under their 
parents' insurance plan until the age of 26;

[[Page 10875]]

  Seventy thousand previously uninsured Americans with preexisting 
conditions now have the security of coverage through the Pre-Existing 
Condition Insurance program.
  The act pays for actual care--this is something that people don't 
understand. The act pays for actual care, not the overinflated salaries 
of CEOs and executives. As a result, 12.8 million Americans will 
receive more than $1.1 billion in rebates because their insurance 
companies spent too much of their premium dollars on administrative 
costs or CEO bonuses.
  Let me repeat that in another way.
  They are required to spend the bulk of your money--at least 80 
percent--on actual care. If they don't spend it on actual care, then 
you are reimbursed, and that is what is happening. So now we are going 
to be rebated more than $1 billion.
  Further, the law makes enormous headway toward closing the gap on 
health disparities--of which my colleague knows so much. It includes 
increased funding for community health centers, which are so often a 
critical part of the health safety net in underserved communities.
  We should be focusing on creating jobs rather than voting to repeal a 
law that is estimated to provide health care coverage to up to 32 
million Americans. The highest court in the land has ruled, and the 
American people won. Let's stop this foolishness and focus on jobs.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you.
  Congresswoman Fudge, you're right. This is not a win for Democrats. 
It's not a win for the President. This is a win for the American 
people.
  Thank you for bringing up the rebates, the $1.1 billion in rebates. 
In addition to the rebates--because some insurance companies have spent 
over their 80 percent that has to be provided in service--the Secretary 
has been able, in at least 12 States already, to keep the increases in 
premiums at 10 percent or less. That's another function of the 
Affordable Care Act. And you know our constituents have been crying out 
over the increases in premiums that they've been experiencing every 
year, and now the Affordable Care Act gives the Secretary the authority 
to keep those premiums within not more than a 10 percent increase.
  Ms. FUDGE. Thank you, and I thank you again for your service.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you.
  So as my colleagues have all said, the Supreme Court has upheld the 
law. It is settled law. It's time for us to move on.
  This is landmark legislation, landmark legislation like Social 
Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP. We have a lot more work that 
the American people need us to do:
  We need to continue the middle-income tax cuts.
  We need to pass the American Jobs Act.
  We need to continue to address the issue of the mortgages that are 
causing people to lose their homes. I was reading today in one of the 
papers that African Americans are expected to bear the burden of the 
mortgage fallout for many years to come, longer than everyone else.
  And then we also have to implement the Affordable Care Act. We have 
the exchanges. I know there is a lot of talk about the exchanges and 
whether we'll be able to provide the subsidies, but what we ought to be 
doing is working together to make sure that that very important part of 
this law can be fully implemented.
  We're talking about the working poor, people who are doing the right 
thing, being responsible, working and trying to take care of their 
families. It would be so unfair to them, now that they see within their 
reach affordable health care, to take that away. We're going to pay for 
it either now or we're going to pay for it later, as Congresswoman 
Brown was saying. It's less to pay on this side and ensure that 
everyone has access to the services that they need to keep them healthy 
and to keep them from developing those catastrophic illnesses.
  I want to talk a little bit about what the Congressional Black 
Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Asian 
American Caucus have done in crafting this health care bill.
  Congresswoman Fudge is right. We didn't start just before the bill 
was passed. We actually started before the debate began in the 
Congress. We developed benchmarks.
  We call ourselves the Tri-Caucus.
  We decided very early that insurance would never be enough for our 
communities that have been left out of the health care mainstream for 
so long and that health equity had to be a goal of any bill that we 
passed, so the Tri-Caucus worked together. We worked very hard. We met 
with House and Senate leadership. We met with the White House several 
times to ensure that the benchmarks that we set for our communities 
were going to be met, so that, really, this bill would provide access 
to quality health care for all Americans--not just a few, but for all 
Americans.
  We hear a lot about the consumer protections:
  The fact that children cannot be denied insurance if they have a 
preexisting disease, which is important to us;
  The fact that our young people can stay on our insurance until 26 
years old;
  The fact that there are no lifetime and annual limits, and all of 
those important provisions that we hear about all of the time.
  But I want to talk a little bit about some of the health equity 
provisions, because this bill prevents discrimination. It defines what 
a health disparity is and a health disparity population, and it makes 
sure that all of the research in the bill, all of the task forces, all 
of the institutes, the comparative effectiveness research, all of those 
include monitoring and having a goal of eliminating health disparities 
in their mandate. There are incentive payments to providers if they can 
demonstrate that they have eliminated health disparities.
  Health disparities actually cost this Nation. In a study done by the 
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, they've shown where, 
just over a 3-year period, $1.24 trillion was lost in direct and 
indirect costs just because of health disparities.
  We expanded, of course, the coverage in the consumer protections--
Medicaid expansion, which we really urge all of the States to provide 
for their citizens who are at 133 percent or under the Federal poverty 
level.
  The territories, despite the vote to repeal our funding, that funding 
still stands. My territory is enjoying a great increase in funding. We 
have not lifted the cap. We are not getting State-like treatment, but 
for the very first time, many of the territories may be able to cover 
at least up to 100 percent of the Federal poverty level with the 
substantial increases that the Affordable Care Act provided.
  We also have limited funding to set up exchanges, and the consumer 
protections and capacity building grants applied to the territories, 
which really need them.
  We included the Indian Health Improvement Act.
  We expanded community health centers and school-based health centers 
within the bill.
  We provide for community health worker grants. In communities that 
have not had the benefit of robust health care services, it's important 
that people that they trust in the community can help them understand 
this law and help to make that connection to the health services that 
will be provided. That's what the community health worker grants would 
do.
  They have community transformation grants.
  We tried to include a program that we've been working on called 
Health Empowerment Zones. We didn't quite get that, but we have funding 
for communities where those health services have not been available, to 
be able to prepare that community and to begin to build some 
infrastructure so that every community can have the benefits of this 
bill.

                              {time}  1950

  We mandated that not-for-profit hospitals create a community health 
needs assessment every 3 years, and we created a Community Preventive 
Services Task Force.

[[Page 10876]]

  Having community-focused, community-developed, community-driven, 
community-implemented programs is where we're going to see the biggest 
improvement in health care, especially in communities of color and 
communities that are poor and our rural communities in our territory.
  The bill ensures that Federal health care programs collect and report 
data on race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, and disability status. 
We address health care disparities in Medicaid and SCHIP by 
standardizing data collection requirements.
  Again, in comparative effectiveness, we were able to make sure that 
that research will include racial and ethnic subgroups, women and 
people with co-morbidities. We establish a National Health Care 
Workforce Commission that requires reporting. For the very first time 
in this country, we have a national strategy at prevention, and we have 
a national strategy to eliminate health disparities, for the very first 
time, all from the Affordable Care Act.
  We increase the National Health Service Corps and loan repayment 
programs, expanded Centers of Excellence, and we made sure to invest in 
Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving 
Institutions.
  We're going to have to greatly expand our health care workforce on 
all levels to take care of the 30-plus million new people who will be 
coming into the system, and we want to make sure that that workforce 
reflects the diversity of our country, and that the now 
underrepresented minorities have a chance to get some of those jobs and 
be able to provide some of those services for the communities that they 
come from.
  We provide support for cultural competence training for health care 
professionals, grants to the health care workforce, to provide 
culturally and linguistically appropriate services. We require the 
dissemination of information adapted to a variety of cultural, 
linguistic, and educational backgrounds so that everyone can understand 
what it is we're trying to do and be able to access the services.
  Mental health and substance abuse parity was included. We included 
dental services in the basic package for children. We would have wished 
that it could be in the basic package for all people, but we were able 
to get it in children.
  We establish a prevention and public health fund, and I know the 
Republican leadership has been trying to repeal that fund, to deplete 
that fund, but this is an attempt to change the paradigm of how we deal 
with health care in this country, not to just be dealing with the 
acute, expensive, long-term care, but to focus on prevention. An ounce 
of prevention is still worth a pound of cure.
  We strengthened and expanded the Office of Women's Health. We 
elevated the Office of Minority Health to the Office of the Secretary. 
We've created new Offices of Minority Health in the Food and Drug 
Administration, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service, SAMHSA, and 
other agencies where it's really critical that we have that input that 
really zeros in on the health care of the minorities who are the people 
who are really underserved and create some of the costs that we're 
trying to reduce. If we can take care of all of the people in this 
country, the costs will go down.
  We elevated the Center on Minority and Health Disparities to a 
national institute at NIH, and they're doing great work with all of our 
universities across the country.
  What we've come to understand is that when you're dealing with 
health, especially when you're looking from a community level, you 
can't just focus on disease. You have to look at the environment that 
people live in. And for the very first time we have a National 
Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council headed by our 
Surgeon General.
  That council brings about 17 agencies of government together to plan 
and to look at the impact of their programs, policies, initiatives that 
help, and to really plan how we can create an environment in our 
communities and in our country that supports wellness and supports 
prevention and supports good health, so that people can walk in their 
neighborhoods, so that they could have fresh fruit and vegetables in 
their neighborhoods and other things like that so we can deal with the 
obesity problem, so we can deal with smoking cessation, and all the 
things that contribute to poor health and really increase the costs. 
When we look at communities and focus on community prevention, that's 
where we're going to reduce the cost of health care.
  So, I wanted to just say a word about Medicare because I am so tired 
of hearing about $500 billion taken out of--cut from Medicare. Now, 
that's a misinterpretation of what really happened. That $500 billion 
comes from cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in part.
  I was reading in an article in the paper just today that Medicare 
could probably save $70 billion just in 1 year, in 2010, by really 
zeroing in on waste, fraud, and abuse and implementing some of the 
recommendations of the General Accountability Office--they could save 
$70 billion in 1 year. Multiply that by ten, I think it comes up to 
$700 billion, which is more than the $500 billion that the Republicans 
keep saying we took out of Medicare.
  We didn't. We made payments fairer, remember, by making the payments 
more equitable across the board. So we may have lowered some of the 
reimbursement rates for Medicare Advantage, but we were able to still 
keep some of the better, more effective Medicare Advantage programs in 
place.
  We began to close the doughnut hole. We took some of that money to 
close the doughnut hole so that over the 10-year period there will be 
no time that a senior or a person with disability will have to pay the 
full cost of their medication.
  We are providing preventive care with no copayments and an annual 
physical exam with no copayment. And in addition to all of that, with 
that $500 billion, we extended the life of Medicare by 8 years.
  So I just want to clear that up. We did not take $500 billion out of 
Medicare. We used it to reinvest into Medicare, to make it stronger, to 
provide more services and more benefits for the beneficiaries.
  Of course, health care reform will take an investment, but it will 
reduce costs over time. We'll reduce disparities, we'll have better 
end-of-life care with planning by individuals and their families, we'll 
have that community-based prevention, obesity prevention, smoking 
cessation and health policy and every policy that I talked about. And 
all of that will reduce the cost of health care.
  I just want to close by just reading a few statements from some 
physicians. I'm a primary care physician, a family physician myself. 
And Medscape today published an article from a primary care round 
table. And I know the doctors who spoke here said many, many things. I 
just want to quote a sentence or two from several of them.
  Charles P. Vega, M.D. At the end of his statement he says:

       The Supreme Court decision breathes life into the health 
     care reform movement at a critical time, and we need to take 
     advantage of this fortune, not only to implement the most 
     important parts of the Affordable Care Act, but also to start 
     building towards the next logical steps in health care 
     reform, beginning with an efficient public option that 
     emphasizes smart, quality care.

  And Dr. Robert W. Morrow says:

       And now we're in a regulatory space where the health of the 
     public could take precedence over the profits of the 
     commercial health plans. And why not?

  Dr. Roy M. Poses, M.D., says of the Supreme Court ruling:

       The news is not bad. We're probably, on balance, somewhat 
     better off with some health care insurance reform than none. 
     However, we're still a long way from meaningfully addressing 
     concentration and abuse of power in health care. There will 
     be no rest for the weary bloggers of the Health Care Renewal.

  Another doctor, Dr. Li, says:

       My take is that the plan is not as good as what's being 
     touted by the left, but it's far better than what's being 
     said by the right.

  And Dr. Robert M. Centor says:

       Clearly, upholding the individual mandate allows the U.S. 
     to approach universal health care. Universal health care is 
     such a worthy goal that we must applaud this victory.


[[Page 10877]]


  Dr. Mark Williams says:

       For me the Supreme Court ruling on the ACA implies at least 
     a period of relative clarity and less uncertainty, despite 
     much political rhetoric. In short, we now have some time for 
     planning and innovation.

  And he also says:

       Healthcare is too precious to be considered a business or a 
     marketplace commodity. Whatever system we choose must commit 
     itself to the needs of the population and the global 
     community, not simply to our own personal needs. It must be 
     based on needs and not simply on service expansion.

  And lastly, from my own American Academy of Family Practice, they 
say:

       Having the mandate upheld is consistent with what has been 
     AAFP policy for over 20 years. We have advocated for health 
     care coverage for everyone and access to at least basic 
     health services, including good primary care with prevention 
     and chronic illness care. You can argue whether the mandate 
     is the only means to get there, but at least in the analyses 
     that I've seen, it was one of the best identified ways to get 
     everyone covered.

  And so, the American people, when you ask them about the different 
provisions of the law, an overwhelming majority really supports the 
provisions that we've been able to provide for them in health care 
reform.

                              {time}  2000

  Many physicians are touting the Supreme Court decision and the law. I 
think, if we can all forget about the political rhetoric of repeal and 
just work together to make sure that it's implemented in the best way 
possible, we will really be doing what the American people have sent us 
here to do.
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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