[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 8852-8853]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the majority leader can't seem to let the 
facts as

[[Page 8853]]

they exist get in the way of his ideology. The facts are that the 
Affordable Care Act is working, and 16.5 million people are proof of 
that because they have access to health care, most of whom did not have 
it before.
  In the light of day, it has been shown that private insurance 
companies were taking advantage of the American people. They cannot do 
that now under the Affordable Care Act. Companies that are proposing 
these huge rate increases simply won't get them. Understand that 80 
percent of every dollar that is charged by an insurance company in 
premiums--80 percent of it--has to go toward caring for people. If it 
doesn't, there are rebates, and hundreds of thousands of Americans 
during the last few years have gotten rebates as a result of insurance 
companies not spending 80 percent of the money they are getting in 
premiums for health care.
  The sad commentary is that insurance companies took advantage--took 
advantage by not insuring people who had preexisting disabilities. One 
``disability'' that insurance companies said was preexisting was the 
fact that you are a woman. Some insurance companies charged more for 
the same care if you are a woman and not a man. We have wide-ranging 
evidence that was in existence before and I guess my Republican 
colleagues want back again where insurance companies determine how 
much--they could arbitrarily cut off insurance to someone. They had 
these arbitrary limits. They can't do that anymore. Senior citizens 
have received millions of benefits from the Affordable Care Act. They 
get a wellness check every year for no cost at all. They no longer have 
to worry about the hole in the doughnut, so to speak, as we call it, on 
coverage for their prescriptions.
  There are many things we can talk about. The fact is that the 
Affordable Care Act is working, and we are going to continue to defend 
it as the American people want us to do.

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