[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14651-14652]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               HEALTHCARE

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I thank the majority leader for 
yielding me this time before we close business today, as the last 
speaker of the day.
  Let me first of all say how deeply we feel about folks who have been 
affected by these mammoth storms in the gulf coast, in Florida, and in 
the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, as well as others elsewhere. Our 
hearts and prayers are with them.
  I am here today to talk about another potential disaster to our 
country, although it is of a completely different kind and not a 
physical disaster made by nature but a disaster potentially of our own 
making--one that can be prevented and avoided. I am horrified that I am 
here again, fighting back again, against a proposal that would 
devastate the health and finances of so many families in Connecticut 
and around the country.
  This proposal--the so-called Graham-Cassidy bill--is cruel beyond 
measure. It is undoubtedly the most extreme proposal we have seen from 
my Republican colleagues in their political crusade to destroy the 
successes of the Affordable Care Act. How illogical and irresponsible 
to pretend, as my Republican colleagues continue to do, that any 
proposal that cuts billions of dollars from Medicaid and decimates 
important Affordable Care Act provisions protecting people with 
preexisting conditions and high medical costs will somehow result in a 
better healthcare system. In fact, it will vastly diminish and in some 
respects destroy that system.
  The Republican obsession with repealing the Affordable Care Act and 
gutting Medicaid really has to end, and it has to end today.
  My constituents in Connecticut made themselves heard loud and clear 
in saying that past proposals were sickening attempts to ruin the gains 
we have made in providing better healthcare to many people. Those folks 
who came to town meetings and emergency field hearings, who wrote, who 
phoned, who made their views known, were the catalyst in defeating 
these ill-advised efforts before. I can assure you that, once again, 
they will be heard. They will make themselves heard. They will, once 
again, guarantee its defeat.
  Under this lethal proposal, hundreds of billions of dollars will be 
cut from Medicaid. Those severe cuts will cause Connecticut more than 
$2 billion by 2026. In 2027 alone, without the reauthorization of 
funds, Connecticut would lose $4 billion. In 2027 alone, $4 billion 
would be lost to Connecticut without reauthorization. Those are not 
just dollars, those are lives. They are hundreds of thousands of lives.
  This bill would end the patient protection that countless Americans 
have come to rely on in their oftentimes lifesaving care. States would 
allow insurance companies to reimpose annual caps and lifetime limits; 
insurers could decide to drop essential health benefits, like maternity 
care or mental health services; and those with preexisting conditions 
could see their premiums skyrocket, leaving them with no affordable 
options and nowhere to

[[Page 14652]]

turn. It would be a humanitarian catastrophe. This is not hyperbole. It 
is not exaggeration. It is reality.
  In a recent report on this legislation, there was a finding that a 
person with metastatic cancer would see a $142,650 premium surcharge; a 
pregnancy would mean a $17,320 premium surcharge; and, during a deadly 
and unrelenting opioid epidemic, people struggling with substance abuse 
disorder could expect to see a $20,450 premium surcharge. These effects 
are immoral and incomprehensible. They will lead to many Americans 
needlessly losing their health insurance and very likely their lives.
  When I see the true effects of this bill and what they are likely to 
be, I can't help but think of a little boy in Connecticut whom I 
mentioned on the floor before. He is 7-year-old Conner Curran. Conner 
has Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It is a chronic and terminal condition 
that will slowly erode his motor functions unless there is a cure, and 
none exists now. This disease will eventually take his life. He is a 
young man of extraordinary courage and strength and so is his family.
  His parents have told me that although he appears healthy, he will 
slowly lose his ability to run, walk, or even hug them goodnight. In 
fact, earlier this summer, just days before the last Republican effort 
to gut Medicaid and repeal the Affordable Care Act--which failed in the 
Senate, fortunately--Conner's family had two lifts installed in their 
home so he could move up and down the stairs more easily. The video 
shows Conner's infectious smile as he tries out the new lift, not fully 
understanding the disease that necessitates it but enjoying his 
newfound freedom. He is just a little kid.
  His mom wrote that this experience shows just how important Medicaid 
is to their family. As Conner gets older, he will only need more and 
more help, more medical services and equipment, and more financial 
support for his family to enable that kind of care. He will need a 
loving and compassionate healthcare system that will protect and care 
for him when he is at his most vulnerable. That is the only way he will 
have a fair chance at life. This bill, to put it mildly, deprives him 
of that fair chance.
  So I question whether my Republican colleagues can look Conner or his 
family in the eye and explain to them why protections for children with 
preexisting conditions should be weakened, diminished, eviscerated. I 
question whether they can look at Conner's smile and tell him why 
Medicaid will be eliminated. This is the program that one day will make 
sure he has everything he needs to live. It is a program that should be 
enhanced, not cut by hundreds of billions of dollars.
  Tell his parents why the insufficient or temporary funds my 
colleagues have proposed to replace Medicaid will run out in 10 years, 
as a shadow of Medicaid that you have left behind goes dark. See 
whether Conner's family cares about your legislation. See if your empty 
promises leave them reassured.
  I can tell you, Conner's parents are two of the kindest, most 
wonderful people you will ever meet. They are also among the hardest 
working. They worry about countless things every single day. They worry 
about Conner's slowing body and medical research that could save him 
before that pernicious disease takes his life. They worry about his 
independence. They worry about his two brothers and the toll this awful 
disease will have on them. They worry about those stairs--the ones that 
will have a lift. I promise you, Conner's parents worry nonstop. All of 
us worry about our children. They worry about Conner unceasingly.
  I will say it again. I am ready to work with all my colleagues on 
solutions to the healthcare problems our country faces. They are urgent 
and important--critically important--to address. I refuse to stand 
silently and let this cruel proposal give Conner's family even more 
reason to worry.
  We as a country are better than these reprehensible proposals--first, 
repeal and replace; now, Graham-Cassidy. They are all different 
versions of TrumpCare that is a catastrophe which will lead to a 
humanitarian crisis. This heartless proposal should be put behind us. 
We should work together as our colleagues Senators Alexander and Murray 
are doing and, at least for the moment, give Conner some assurance that 
we are making things better for him, not worse, and the parents who 
worry about their little boy know that at least we are moving in the 
right direction, not rolling back the progress we have made.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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