[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 583-584]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          ACA REPEAL AND DELAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Speier) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, the Republicans' plan to repeal the 
Affordable Care Act should be entitled repeal and collapse, because it 
will generate, in this country, a financial and healthcare meltdown for 
tens of millions of people.
  In fact, if we repeal the ACA, 30 million Americans will lose their 
health insurance. States and hospitals will be

[[Page 584]]

on the hook for $1.1 trillion in uncompensated care, and rural 
hospitals will close.
  It will cost the country 3 million jobs. All of this is to give the 
top one half of 1 percent an almost $200,000 tax break and costs middle 
class families as much as $6,000 more a year. Once again, the 
Republicans are taking care of the richest while imposing tax hikes on 
hardworking Americans.
  As this chart shows, the ACA has caused dramatic reductions in every 
age group across the entire marketplace in terms of uninsurance, a 50 
percent reduction in uninsured in America.
  So what does this mean to the average American? For my constituent, 
Penny Floor, it could return her to a time when she lived with no 
health insurance whatsoever.
  Here is a picture of Penny. She works for the San Mateo Community 
College District and is one of the 27 percent of Americans under the 
age of 65 who have a preexisting condition. She is now at risk, thanks 
to the GOP's reckless ideological agenda, to lose her health insurance.
  This is Penny's story in her words:

       I tried to buy health insurance in my thirties and in my 
     forties, and both times I was turned down and was told I was 
     ineligible. Basically, I didn't lie on the portion of the 
     form that asked if I had ever been hospitalized for mental 
     illness. I said I was treated for depression when I was 17, 
     and for that I was denied the ability to purchase health 
     insurance.
       For a long period of my adult life, I had no health 
     insurance. I worked for a nonprofit childcare center and had 
     no coverage. I got married in my forties, and both my husband 
     and I went to graduate school and were covered then. But when 
     we received our degrees, the coverage ended. My husband was 
     working as a freelance computer programmer. He ended up 
     taking a corporate job that wasn't his dream job so we could 
     be insured.
       He is still there today. He is 62, and I am 60, and we live 
     in fear he will be laid off. I am holding my breath that 
     there will be some coverage through Medicaid if that happens, 
     or if we make it to retirement.
       When I was younger, I was lucky enough to have incredible 
     health. I didn't go to the doctor or the dentist for 10 
     years. I was constantly terrified that I would be in a car 
     accident and would be sued. And I was afraid my family would 
     be bankrupt trying to take care of me.
       Thank God for Planned Parenthood and access to birth 
     control. It is the only medical attention I received during 
     that time because their sliding pay scale was the only thing 
     I could afford.
       Now I am 60, though, and I do have health issues. I was 
     hospitalized earlier this year for blood clots in my legs and 
     lungs. It was scary and expensive, but we had good coverage.
       But if the ACA is repealed and Medicaid is affected, I 
     don't know what we will do. We are educated, not poor, very 
     productive members of society, and we are scared.

  These are the words of a real American, my constituent, Penny Floor.

                          ____________________