[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6818-6819]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the great Albert Einstein defined insanity 
as follows: ``doing the same thing over and over again and expecting 
different results.'' That is what Albert Einstein said. If his 
definition is true--and I am not going to argue with Einstein--the 
House Republicans have truly lost their minds. This week the House of 
Representatives will vote for the 37th time--the 37th time--on exactly 
the same thing. What are they voting on? They are voting to repeal the 
landmark constitutional health care reform bill known now as 
ObamaCare--and I say that proudly.
  After last year's election, Speaker Boehner conceded that ObamaCare 
is here to stay. Here is what he said:

       It's pretty clear that the president was re-elected. 
     Obamacare is the law of the land.

  I think that is a pretty fair statement. Again, the Speaker said it 
is pretty clear President Obama was reelected and ObamaCare is the law 
of the land. So no matter what he said then, this is now, and he has 
changed his mind. The House will waste yet another week on another 
dead-end repeal vote. Perhaps Republicans think the 37th time is the 
charm, but 37 times on the exact same thing?
  Tea party extremists bullied the Speaker into holding yet another 
vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act and roll back benefits for tens 
of millions of Americans.
  This is what the Speaker said last week:

       We've got 70 new Members who have not had an opportunity to 
     vote on the President's health care law. . . . Frankly, 
     they've been asking for an opportunity to vote on it.

  This political kabuki has tied up the floor of the House of 
Representatives for weeks and cost the American taxpayers $52.4 million 
and counting. These are figures compiled by CBS News of the time wasted 
on those 37 votes--all the House staff and all other personnel who have 
responsibilities for making sure that place runs as well as it does. 
That money--$52.4 million--is enough to restore funding for 19 million 
meals for homebound seniors or 6,900 children dropped from the Head 
Start Program.
  But while the vote may be political theater, it does have one 
benefit: The American people will know where the freshman class of 
House Republicans stands. I think we know, but we will get another 
opportunity to see this. Do they stand with millions of Americans who 
are already benefiting from ObamaCare--we know that answer--or do they 
stand with insurance companies? We know that answer.
  The insurance companies would like nothing better than to have things 
the way they used to be and to once again deny coverage to sick 
children, impose lifetime caps on care, and discriminate against those 
with preexisting conditions. Since President Obama signed the 
Affordable Care Act into law, insurance companies can no longer put 
profits ahead of people.

[[Page 6819]]

  One of the provisions in this bill says that, of premiums paid to 
insurance companies for health care, 80 percent of those premiums must 
go to patients. No longer, as once happened, will 50 percent of the 
premiums go for salaries and bonuses and other perks for insurance 
executives--no longer. Insurance companies can no longer discriminate 
against children with preexisting conditions. They can no longer raise 
rates for no reason. They can no longer drop coverage if someone gets 
sick. But that is what happened. Yet this week, for the 37th time, 
House Republicans will try to change all that.
  Here are a few of the other benefits already in effect that House 
Republicans would eliminate. In Nevada alone--and we are not a heavily 
populated State such as Massachusetts or California or New York, but we 
are getting bigger, we have about 3 million people--tens of thousands 
of seniors have saved tens of millions of dollars on medicines because 
the Affordable Care Act closed the gap on prescription drugs. That 
means millions of seniors across this country have more money in their 
pockets for food, gas, and electric bills.
  More than 3 million young people, because of ObamaCare, including 
33,000 young Nevadans, have benefited from a provision in the law that 
allows children to stay on their parents' health plans until they are 
26 years old. That means no person will have to worry about getting 
sick while looking for a job that offers insurance or while they go to 
college.
  In my little town of Searchlight, NV, a boy made a decision. Was he 
going to join the military--he was from a patriotic family--or was he 
going to go to college? He made the decision that he was going to go to 
college. His family was not one of means. His mom worked part time in a 
post office, and his dad worked at a powerplant about 40 miles from 
Searchlight. They were so happy that this boy was going to go to 
college. He was the first person in their family to go to college, and 
he did extremely well.
  He finished his first year, and he was in his second year when he 
started feeling some discomfort. He had testicular cancer. At the time 
ObamaCare passed, he was 23 years old and no longer could he be on his 
parents' insurance. So they had no insurance to cover this cancer their 
son had--their youngest boy. They begged and borrowed and literally--
well, I shouldn't say ``begged.'' They didn't do that. They had a very 
difficult time of it. He needed two surgeries.
  Now I guess the Republicans in the House want to go back to that. 
Maybe the Republicans here--they love voting against ObamaCare 
provisions--want to go back to a time when that boy, Jeff, would no 
longer have insurance. That is what they want for these young men and 
women who are trying to go to college, to get a job--they want to go 
back to that time. He has 3 extra years now. That means a lot.
  Under ObamaCare, hundreds of thousands of businesses that already 
offer their employees health insurance are getting tax credits for 
doing the right thing. That means small business owners can spend their 
capital on growing their firms instead of growing insurance premiums.
  Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies can no longer 
set arbitrary lifetime caps on benefits, as they once did. What does 
that mean? It means there was a provision hidden in that policy they 
sold you that stated that when your benefits reach $50,000, coverage 
stops. It didn't matter if you had been hurt in an automobile accident 
or you had cancer or some other dread disease; it used to stop. Not 
anymore. Because of the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans are 
no longer one car accident or a heart attack away from bankruptcy.
  Today, children can no longer be denied coverage because they are 
born with a disease or a disability--a protection that will soon be 
extended to all Americans. Soon, being a woman will no longer be a 
preexisting condition. I said that right, Mr. President. No longer will 
being a woman be a preexisting condition. My daughter has a preexisting 
condition. What is it? She is a woman. But no longer. In a few months, 
129 million Americans with preexisting conditions, such as high blood 
pressure or epilepsy, can rest assured they will have access to 
affordable insurance and lifesaving care regardless of how much money 
they make or don't make. And soon 25 million more Americans who can't 
afford health insurance will have access to reasonably priced insurance 
and quality care. But if Republicans get their way, these benefits and 
more will disappear. There is going to be a vote in the House of 
Representatives to repeal everything I have talked about--not change it 
but repeal it.
  President Obama led the charge here, and we were able to pass the 
Affordable Care Act--the most significant change in our health care 
delivery system since Medicare all those many, many years ago. It 
ensures access to quality affordable health care for every American. 
But Republicans would erase these gains and force millions of American 
families to once again rely on expensive emergency room care or go 
without care at all.
  Fortunately, the Republicans' latest exercise in insanity, as 
described by Albert Einstein--that is, their latest repeal effort--is 
doomed to fail just as it did the previous 36 times.

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