[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 10461]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, hopefully, we can move on. After a 
Presidential election, two Supreme Court cases, 60-plus votes to repeal 
the Affordable Care Act in the House of Representatives, and endless 
debates here in the Senate, maybe now is the moment where Republicans 
will choose to close the books on trying to strip away from millions of 
Americans the benefits they have received from the Affordable Care Act. 
This is an important day for over 10 million Americans who have health 
care right now because of the Affordable Care Act. I would argue it is 
an important day as well for the separation of powers and the 
recognition that it is the legislative body that sets the policy for 
this country.
  I just wanted to come down to the floor for a few minutes to express 
my hope and my desire that proponents of the Affordable Care Act--such 
as myself, Senator Stabenow, and Senator Baldwin--who have come down to 
the floor over and over during the course of the last 3 years don't 
have to do it anymore. I would love to come down to the floor and talk 
about the need to fix our transportation system or the need for mental 
health reform. I would love to talk about tax reform. I have come down 
to the floor over and over to defend the Affordable Care Act simply 
because it has been perpetually under attack despite the fact that its 
successes are now unparalleled.
  Justice Roberts, in the decision today--I won't quote from it at 
length--said: ``Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve 
health
insurance markets, not to destroy them.'' That is essentially the 
operative phrase in today's decision. We passed the Affordable Care Act 
to improve health insurance marketplaces, not to destroy them, and that 
is what it has done. It has improved marketplaces all across the 
country. Why? Because people have voted with their feet. The 10 to 11 
million people who signed up for either expanded Medicare, Medicaid 
coverage or these exchanges have shown us that the law works as 
intended because they didn't stay out or deem it to be unaffordable. 
They stepped in and bought coverage.
  We should now be in the business of perfecting this law. None of us, 
frankly, think that this law is perfect. Many of us are open to 
conversations about how to make it better and how to perfect it. Now 
that the Supreme Court has completely shut the door to a judicial 
repeal of the act, and after having debate after debate, hopefully it 
is clear that there are not the votes--nor the support, obviously, in 
the executive branch--to repeal the act, and we can move on to 
something else.
  This is an old chart of mine that I have in the Chamber. I brought 
this down to the floor several months ago when a colleague of ours 
suggested that the administration shouldn't be celebrating the 
successes of the Affordable Care Act, as if people receiving health 
insurance for the first time in their life wasn't something to 
celebrate, as if 17 million children with preexisting conditions who 
will never have their health care taken away from them wasn't something 
to celebrate, and as if 9.4 million senior citizens who are saving $15 
billion on drugs isn't something to celebrate. I get excited when I 
talk about the Affordable Care Act not only because it is a really 
sober and important topic but because when I talk to my constituents 
back home, they are excited. They are bubbling over with enthusiasm. 
Those of them who never had the chance to get health coverage before 
the Affordable Care Act and those who worried every single night, sick 
that their child wouldn't be able to live a normal life because their 
existence would be obsessed with whether they were able to cover their 
complicated illness with insurance, are bubbling over with enthusiasm.
  There are millions of people who are celebrating this decision today, 
and it is a sober day because, hopefully, we will be able to have a 
conversation about how we can move on to another topic. But it is a day 
to celebrate, not only for the 6.4 million Americans, first and 
foremost, who would have had their insurance taken away by an adverse 
decision, but for all Americans who would have been caught up in an 
insurance death spiral had the decision gone the other way.
  I hope we can limit our discussions about the Affordable Care Act to 
ways in which we can make it work better.
  So I hope we can now spend more time talking about other topics that 
matter to this country. I hope the House of Representatives decides to 
give up this obsession with repealing the Affordable Care Act, which is 
something that is simply not going to happen. And for its opponents out 
in the field, the Supreme Court has shut the doors to a judicial repeal 
of the Affordable Care Act today.
  I think of a lot of stories when I think about what the Affordable 
Care Act has meant to the people of Connecticut. We have cut our 
uninsurance rates in half in Connecticut. We have one of the best 
running exchanges in the country. But one of the simplest stories is 
the only one I will convey as I wrap up this morning.
  I was at the community pool that my family goes to in Cheshire, CT, 
and I was in the pool with my then 2-year-old just shortly after 
passage of the Affordable Care Act.
  A young man about my age came up to me, and he said: Listen, I am 
sorry, Mr. Murphy, to disturb you; I know you are here with your son, 
but I have a little boy, too, and he has a congenital heart problem. 
Every single day since he has been born, I have worried that he 
wouldn't get to live out his dreams because his life decisions would be 
dictated by whether or not he could get insurance to cover all of the 
complicated health care needs he is going to have and that would be 
determinative of his path in life, not his dreams, his desires for 
himself.
  He said: I get it that this is going to help a lot of people in very 
practical and economic ways, but I just want to thank you because now I 
sleep better at night knowing that my son is going to be able to get 
covered, that my son is going to be able to lead a relatively normal 
life, and that he can be whatever he wants to be.
  That is the benefit the Affordable Care Act brings people. It is not 
just practical. It is not just economic. It is not just the battle over 
whether somebody has health insurance. It is psychological. It is peace 
of mind.
  The Supreme Court protected 6.4 million people from losing their 
health insurance today, but they also protected tens of millions of 
patients and parents and sons and daughters and grandparents from 
losing that peace of mind that comes with the protections from an 
Affordable Care Act that is working.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gardner). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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