[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 7138]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is really unfortunate that the Republican 
leader comes here often and continues to harp and complain about 
ObamaCare, even though it is continuing to work. More than 9 out of 10 
Americans now have health care. This is the best it has ever been. It 
has never been this way before.
  They say they want to repeal ObamaCare. They have tried scores of 
times. It hasn't worked. So I guess what they are saying is that they 
just want to get rid of this, and have people go back to the way it 
used to be. I remember and people in America remember canceling 
insurance if they were sick. If they had a real serious illness, they 
would cancel because their bills were too high. If they had a 
preexisting disability, forget about it--they couldn't get insurance. 
If they were a college student, they were cut off quickly; they 
couldn't stay on their family's insurance policy. Many men and women 
can stay on the insurance of their parents.
  So we would be much better off with ObamaCare and with helping the 
American people if, rather than complain, as they have for 6 or 7 
years, they worked with us to try to improve the bill. We know it can 
be improved, but we can't do it alone.
  So that is how unfortunate this argument has been. We need everything 
ObamaCare does. We don't have anything better. And we are not going to 
do anything to help the poor. That is a strange way to conduct 
business, but that is the way it has been in the filibuster-laden 
Republican Party since Obama was elected.

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