[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3813-3814]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1920
                 EXPANDED MEDICAID COVERAGE FOR TEXANS

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House

[[Page 3814]]

for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, $5 trillion in surplus was extinguished 
in the last Republican administration. It had been created by President 
Clinton.
  The Affordable Care Act will help provide the health coverage that is 
needed by millions of Americans. I rise today to speak particularly 
about Texas.
  Some 24 percent of the population of Texas is uninsured, and yet our 
State government has refused to accept expanded Medicaid. So today, Mr. 
Speaker, I make a public plea on behalf of the millions of Texans who 
get up and work every day and do not have health insurance, and to have 
a State government that is ignoring their plea, and that is to have 
expanded Medicaid to provide health insurance for working Texans and 
poor Texans, those that work, as well, below the minimum wage.
  It seems selfish that the concerns of those who lead State government 
are all political and not in any way concerned about the mothers, 
fathers, and children who all of the medical professionals from county 
governments to private practice have said that the expanded Medicaid 
coverage, if taken by the State of Texas, like Florida and like Ohio, 
will save lives.
  Do it now.

                          ____________________