[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12718-12719]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           MEDICAID EXPANSION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Pennsylvania (Ms. Schwartz) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SCHWARTZ. Madam Speaker, let me begin by commending my fellow 
Congressmen, Hank Johnson and Congressman Butterfield, for their 
initiative and their advocacy in fighting for and speaking up for 
Medicaid expansion in each of our States that have not taken it.
  More than 5 million people in this country now have health coverage 
using Federal dollars available to every State to expand Medicaid 
eligibility to hardworking Americans and their families, but not in my 
home State of Pennsylvania. Instead, hundreds of thousands of people in 
Pennsylvania are left out. Madam Speaker, 305,000 people in 
Pennsylvania could have health coverage today but for the decision of 
our Governor. This is morally unconscionable and economically 
shortsighted.
  Months have gone by, people are sicker, hospital bills go unpaid, and 
health providers struggle to stay at the forefront of innovation. 
Health care, whether it is to detect an illness or to treat a chronic 
condition or to save a life, is not optional. Consider the working 
mother who earns just enough to cover her basic expenses but not enough 
to get that mammogram so her breast cancer is detected early, and once 
it is, it is well advanced and life threatening.
  Or the 9-year-old girl whose parents work full time at minimum wage 
and neither can afford to lose a day's pay to visit a pediatrician, so 
her need for glasses, something simple and correctable, or the early 
detection of diabetes, something more serious, is delayed or missed, 
with serious consequences not only for her health but her success in 
school.
  Or the 52-year-old man who knows he should get that test that his 
doctor recommended, but simply does not have the $2,000 it costs. So he 
puts it off, thinking he will get it one of these days, and never gets 
that simple prescription, that medication that can well save his life. 
These are hardworking men, women, and children across this country and 
in Pennsylvania who could have health coverage today but do not.
  With $8.2 billion available to Pennsylvanians, these are Federal 
dollars, dollars that Pennsylvanians have paid that are not coming back 
to Pennsylvania but would be available to us, are available to us. Over 
the next 3 years, we should use these funds to get health care to our 
people, to hire tens of thousands of health care workers to contain

[[Page 12719]]

costs, to improve the health status of the people of our State, and 
yes, to save lives.
  There is no more time to waste. Pennsylvania should seize this 
opportunity. So should the other States that have Federal dollars 
available to them to do the same thing for the people of their State. 
We should use these Federal resources to expand lifesaving health 
coverage, to help our kids succeed, and to help us be healthy, to 
create jobs, and to ensure our economic growth. Let's do the right 
thing in Pennsylvania and across this country. These States should take 
Medicaid expansion and do right for the economy of our States, for the 
people of our States, and for the Nation.

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