[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11584]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                        THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

  (Ms. MENG asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. MENG. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this 
38th attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
  Our country needs affordable care. My constituents in Queens, New 
York, need affordable health care. Right now, only 17,000 New Yorkers 
buy their own health insurance because the insurance premium rates are 
too high, and 2.6 million New Yorkers do not have health insurance. 
Nationwide, 13 million people are uninsured.
  The most exciting part is that ObamaCare is already working. As of 
this morning, the new, approved health care premiums available in the 
New York State health care exchanges for 2014 are, on average, 50 
percent lower than this year's insurance premiums. That is not even 
taking into account individuals who can take advantage of other Federal 
subsidies and that everyone with a health insurance plan will be able 
to gain access to basic, free preventative health care services.
  I want to thank New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State 
Legislature for their leadership on this issue.
  With all the partisan sniping across the aisle about health care, we 
cannot lose sight of why our country needs ObamaCare. Better access to 
affordable, preventative health care is essential to reining in health 
care costs; and more importantly, it's essential for a healthy America.

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