[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14854]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           CELEBRATING THE OPENING OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, well, today is a historic day in our 
country. Despite a Republican-led government shutdown that was 
completely unnecessary, we are celebrating the opening of the 
Affordable Care Act or, as I affectionately call it, ObamaCare.
  You know, after almost 100 years of fighting to expand universal 
access to health insurance coverage in the United States of America, in 
2010, Congress finally passed, the President signed, and the Supreme 
Court upheld ObamaCare as the law of the land. And starting today, 
Americans will be able to learn about the health plan choices and the 
financial assistance that is going to be available to them. An army of 
in-person assisters have been trained and stand ready to help Americans 
understand their options and enroll in coverage that best meets their 
needs.
  Americans can go to healthcare.gov, or in Illinois, where I'm from, 
getcoveredillinois.gov is up and running.
  Now I have heard from colleagues on the other side, all these scare 
things about how terrible ObamaCare is going to be for the country and 
for individuals. Let me read to you some constituent letters that I 
have received.
  This is from Gayle Weiss. She says:

       I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 1997 and have 
     consistently been denied affordable insurance since that 
     time.
       I am so excited that our President has taken steps to help 
     all Americans with access to health care. It's so fitting 
     that tomorrow is my 59th birthday, and what a fantastic 
     birthday gift. Finally, I won't have to worry about losing 
     everything I've worked so hard for if, God forbid, I suffer a 
     catastrophic health issue. No one should have to risk their 
     future for something they have no control over, like illness.

  I heard from David Zoltan. He is 34 years old. This is what he 
writes:

       One week before Lehman Brothers went under, I was laid off 
     from my job at the time and spent the next 2 years without 
     health insurance. As a diabetic, the scariest thing in the 
     world is to go without health insurance. Insulin averages 
     around $100 to $120 per bottle, and I need approximately 
     three bottles each of two kinds of insulin every month to 
     live. I had to rely on my doctors to help me apply for any 
     charity care program we could find or beg for the very 
     medicines I needed to survive on a daily basis. Even so, I 
     had to visit the hospital emergency room several times just 
     to get insulin when my doctors couldn't get me free 
     medication.
       ObamaCare gave me the preexisting condition plan pools as a 
     lifeline until better solutions were available.
       ObamaCare has done so much for me, and I'm proud today to 
     see the beginning of the largest expansion of health care in 
     my lifetime. There will be problems to fix, but we are 
     America. We will fix these problems. We will give the 
     precious necessity of health security to our citizens. We 
     will prevail.

  And then I also heard from Eva Strobeck. She said:

       I used to get insurance from my husband, who retires in 
     January. I am one of those people for whom it is impossible 
     to get insurance independently. I have three illnesses. 
     ObamaCare makes it possible to get insurance at an affordable 
     rate, which I cannot do without. My psychological medications 
     alone cost about $5,000 per month. I can't survive without 
     ObamaCare. It must be funded by Congress.

  So I want to say that this effort to defund something that will bring 
lifesaving health care to millions of Americans, about 30 million 
Americans who either have to go bankrupt, who have to pay exorbitant 
prices, or simply have to do without health insurance, who would be 
against that? Are there going to be glitches in the program? Of course 
there are.
  Medicare part D had news article after news article talking about the 
problems of this health benefit for the elderly. Let's get on with it 
and provide health care for all Americans starting today.

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