[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17577]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I want to share with you another letter I 
received from a constituent about the Affordable Care Act. He writes:

       About 9 months ago, my wife was forced to leave her job, in 
     part because they wanted her to travel to Boston twice a week 
     and the responsibilities to care for our daughter who has 
     cerebral palsy made that impossible. Our health insurance was 
     from her employment.
       We went on to COBRA, which cost about $1,400 per month. 
     Waiting to have permanent insurance that did not have a 
     termination date, we contacted Anthem Blue Cross for a quote 
     for private insurance.
       We were told that my wife was uninsurable for 10 years 
     because she had been treated for depression a few years ago 
     when our daughter was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and we 
     were told she would require spinal cord surgery to possibly 
     walk.
       They then said, because of her condition, the cost for only 
     my daughter and I was almost $4,000 per month. The burden for 
     the last 6 months was overwhelming. Insurance brokers 
     informed us that only the Affordable Health Care Act could 
     help us.
       Yesterday my wife signed up for health insurance for all of 
     us. Due to our income, we do not qualify for assistance and 
     we were never looking for any. All we wanted was affordable 
     insurance for my family. The policy we selected will end up 
     costing about what our COBRA payment is, $1,400, depending on 
     how much deductible we end up using, which is all we ever 
     wanted.
       I know the only reason our family is safe is because of the 
     President, who cares more about people like us than the CEO 
     of Anthem Blue Cross or Aetna.

  Mr. Speaker, I receive calls and letters like this all the time. It 
is why I worked so hard to pass the Affordable Care Act in the first 
place.
  This is a transformative piece of legislation, a law that provides 
more security for the middle class and a better, healthy quality of 
life for the entire community. It empowers patients and doctors again 
and puts them, and not insurers, back at the center of care. It makes 
important, long-overdue reforms that most people just take as common 
sense.
  But for 3 years now, this House Republican majority has been trying 
to roll the clock back and bring back the bad old days when insurance 
companies could discriminate against people with preexisting 
conditions, even children with preexisting conditions, once again. They 
want to see women pay more for the same coverage than men, be denied 
coverage because they survived breast cancer, were a victim of domestic 
violence, or had a child by cesarean section. They want to see small 
businesses lose tax credits and seniors' health care and drug costs 
continue to rise at staggering rates.
  But we are not going to go back. The Affordable Care Act is already 
making a profound difference for individuals and families in need. It 
is time to stop with the partisan political games and let it work for 
families who desperately need to have health care coverage and 
insurance that they can't afford.

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