[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1616-1617]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, today the House of Representatives held yet 
another vote--I think they are maybe up to 50-some--to repeal the 
Affordable Care Act, showing once again their objective is to dismantle 
the health care law. House Republicans voted to repeal the law. They 
like to say ``repeal and replace,'' but the ``replace'' doesn't ever 
really quite come forward.
  Think what that would be like. It would take us back to the day when 
children with preexisting conditions such as cancer or asthma could be 
turned away from health coverage. Let me illustrate.
  Several months ago a couple came to my coffee, which I hold every 
Thursday when the Senate is in session. It is open to anyone from Ohio 
who wants to stop in. A woman came from Cincinnati. She lives in one of 
the most conservative parts of the State. We talked for a few minutes 
about home schooling and her desire to be able to get some support from 
the Federal Government in a variety of different ways for home 
schooling.
  Then she said: I want to thank you for the Affordable Care Act.
  I said: Certainly. I was proud to support it.
  She said: You see, my son--and she pointed across the room. He was 
about 15. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 7 or 8 years old.
  She hesitated. She said: I counted them, 33 times, we were turned 
down for health insurance because of his preexisting condition. We 
signed up last week for the Affordable Care Act.
  So if the House's effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act had come 
to the Senate and become law, someone would have to explain to her why 
she loses her health care. Again, if this is repealed, insurers could 
place lifetime or annual caps on health coverage. We know that tens of 
thousands of people in this country have gotten sick and their 
insurance has been cancelled because their insurance was so expensive. 
That is prohibited under the Affordable Care Act. That would be back if 
we repealed the Affordable Care Act.
  Seniors were forced to pay huge out-of-pocket costs when they hit the 
gap in prescription drug coverage known as the doughnut hole.
  A decade ago, when I was a Member of the House of Representatives, I 
voted against that Medicare plan in part because it had this huge gap 
in coverage. So if you have an illness or a series of illnesses and buy 
a lot of prescription drugs, between the second thousandth dollar and 
the fifth thousandth dollar, there is a gap in coverage. In other 
words, you continue to pay the premiums for prescription drug coverage 
but get no assistance from the government. Under the Affordable Care 
Act, we have closed that gap. We have already cut it better than half, 
and over the next 3 or 4 years it will be eliminated entirely. We know 
the Affordable Care Act is working.
  In my State, 100,000 young Ohioans, a little older than these pages, 
between the ages of 18 and 26, are on their parents' health insurance 
plans right now. They would be dropped from that coverage if the 
Affordable Care Act were repealed.
  Ohio seniors have saved $65 million in prescription drug costs by the 
closing of the coverage gap, the so-called doughnut hole. Those savings 
would end. Those with preexisting conditions would no longer be covered 
or would be charged higher premiums, and 700,000 Ohioans--people in my 
State--now have health insurance they did not have 5 years ago.
  So if we repeal the Affordable Care Act, somebody has to explain to 
those 700,000 people why they no longer have insurance, why those 
100,000 young people are getting dropped from coverage; those families 
like the woman's who would lose her insurance because her child has a 
preexisting condition, and all the consumer protections the Affordable 
Care Act has been part of.
  Last month I spoke with Charles McClinon, a Cincinnati resident who 
suffered from severe epilepsy and, as a result, was unable to work. 
After Ohio chose to expand Medicaid--and I give Republican Governor 
Kasich credit for that--Mr. McClinon qualified for health care coverage 
and was able to schedule surgery. Thanks to this lifesaving coverage, 
he has returned to work.
  Isn't that what we want? If people are ill, injured, sick, don't we 
want to take care of them so they can return to work? Mr. McClinon 
never wanted to miss work, but he had to. Because of the expansion of 
Medicaid, because of the Affordable Care Act passed by a Democratic 
Senate, signed by a Democratic President, because of a Republican 
Governor in Ohio expanding Medicaid, unlike Republican Governors in 
many States, people such as Charles McClinon can now go back to work 
and live a healthier, more productive life and pay taxes.
  Since its creation in 1965, Medicaid has been a joint Federal and 
State program, providing free or low-cost health

[[Page 1617]]

coverage to qualified individuals. One of the key components of the 
Affordable Care Act expanded both the eligibility and the Federal 
funding for Medicaid. States were given the opportunity to expand 
Medicaid to individuals with incomes of up to 130 percent of the 
Federal poverty level. Many people on Medicaid who are now on the 
expanded Medicaid in Ohio and Kentucky and many other States hold jobs, 
just like the parents of the 130,000 Ohio children who now have 
insurance because of the Children's Health Insurance Program. Their 
parents are working at places such as Walmart and McDonald's, making 
$8, $9, $10 an hour. Those companies generally don't provide health 
insurance and don't pay wages high enough to be able to buy health 
insurance.
  What kind of society do we want to be? Where people are working every 
bit as hard as all of us as U.S. Senators work, with very little 
compensation, without health insurance, generally without pensions?
  Do we want to say: Well, we don't care about you? If you weren't 
smart enough, if you weren't educated enough, if you weren't smart 
enough to get a good-paying job with insurance, then we are going to 
turn our backs on you? Of course we are not that kind of society. That 
is what the Affordable Care Act is about.
  The expansion of Medicaid has saved Ohio about $350 million. It also 
helped Ohioans who already have insurance. When people lack health 
insurance, someone has to pay for their care.
  The Presiding Officer's State of Colorado is not much different, just 
smaller dollar amounts because it is a smaller State. But Ohioans spend 
over $2 billion on care for people who can't pay. It is a hidden tax on 
the insured estimated to be about $1,000 a year per insured family.
  So prior to the Affordable Care Act, somebody who went to a hospital 
in Denver, Cleveland, Dayton or Colorado Springs or Pueblo or 
Youngstown--because those without insurance would go to hospitals and 
get care; that is what we do; we take care of people if they show up in 
an emergency room--because they were not paying, because they were low 
income, they were unemployed, and they had no insurance, the cost of 
their treatment got shifted onto those of us with insurance. Economists 
say pretty much everybody pays about $1,000 additional for their health 
insurance because of the problems of the uninsured. So when we expand 
Medicaid, when we pass the Affordable Care Act, when we get people into 
the health exchanges, it means we are not charging people that $1,000 
hidden tax, so it is a savings to those of us with insurance. 
Ultimately it is better for taxpayers, ultimately it is better for our 
health care system, and ultimately, most importantly, it is better for 
a healthier society.
  We should be helping Ohioans gain health care, not cutting them off. 
That is the importance of expanding Medicaid.
  I urge the Ohio legislature to work with the Governor to include 
Medicaid expansion in the budget. I urge my colleagues here in this 
Chamber to end their grandstanding attacks on a law that is helping 
Americans such as Charles McClinon get the care they need. It helped 
him go back to work. It will help others live more healthy lives. It 
will help all our communities. We should be helping Ohioans gain health 
care, not cutting them off.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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