[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4516-4517]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         REPUBLICANS PUSH THROUGH THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, this week we will consider the most important 
bill that this House will consider in this Congress.
  Every day we are hearing from more and more Republican Members of 
this House and of the Senate who oppose--who oppose--who oppose--the 
dangerous healthcare bill on the floor this week.
  Just yesterday, conservative Republican Representative Justin Amash 
tweeted the following--a very conservative Republican from the mid-part 
of our country said this: ``While I've been in Congress, I can't recall 
a more universally detested piece of legislation than this GOP 
healthcare bill.'' Or health no care bill.
  This is just the most recent in a long list of statements by 
Republicans on the demerits--demerits--of the bill to repeal the 
Affordable Care Act.
  It is interesting that they have named it the American Health Care 
Act. The only thing they struck from our title was ``affordable.'' It 
should tell you something about the bill. They replace it with a system 
that requires Americans to pay more and get less.
  This bill has been rushed through the committees without a single 
public hearing--not one, no testimony or expert view. And when the 
committees marked it up, it did not have what we call a CBO score.

[[Page 4517]]

  That is simply Washington-speak for the agency that is nonpartisan, 
bipartisan, with the Director appointed by the Republicans to give us 
the advice of the consequences of the enactment of such legislation.
  They came back and told us that there would be 24 million less 
Americans insured by 2026. That would total 58 million uninsured 
Americans as a result of this bill just 9 years from now.
  Republicans are rushing it to the floor for two reasons. First, they 
know that if the American people see what this bill would do and what 
it would cost, it wouldn't pass.
  As a matter of fact, we have some information on that already 
because, at town meeting after town meeting after town meeting that 
Republicans have held and Democrats have held on this bill, the 
overwhelming number of people that came to those town meetings said: 
This is a bad bill. It will hurt us. It will hurt our health care. It 
will hurt our families. It will hurt our children.
  We are rushing this bill that was introduced just some 2\1/2\ weeks 
ago. It was introduced on a Monday night, late at night. It was marked 
up less than 36 hours later in both committees. And they were so intent 
on getting it marked up and speeding it along that they held a hearing 
for 26 hours straight. Excuse me. It was not a hearing. No witnesses. 
They just held a markup for 26 hours straight.
  Now, I am sure, Mr. Speaker, that millions of Americans were awake at 
4 a.m. in the morning to see what the committee was doing. Obviously, I 
am not sure of that at all. Perhaps that was the strategy.
  Now that the CBO score which I just related to you has been released, 
we know the harm that this bill will bring. As I said, 24 million 
Americans kicked off their insurance, including 7 million Americans who 
are currently covered under plans provided by their employers, premiums 
for individual policyholders rising 24 to 29 percent.
  This is not my view. This is the Congressional Budget Office, whose 
Director was appointed by this Republican Congress. His predecessor, 
Dr. Elmendorf, testified in a hearing that we held, because Republicans 
refused to hold a hearing on this bill, and he agreed with the 
Republican-appointed Director and Congressional Budget Office.
  So you have a bipartisan agreement that this bill will harm 
Americans--and not just those 24 million Americans. It will harm all 
Americans because their premiums and copays and deductibles will go up. 
States will be forced to drop 14 million Americans from Medicaid--and I 
understand there is a manager's amendment that is going to make it 
worse--while cutting benefits and provider payments.
  A less fiscally sustainable future for Medicare, they shorten the 
life of Medicare's fiscal sustainability by 3 years, from 2028 down to 
2025.
  The list goes on, Mr. Speaker, of the reasons why this bill would be 
a disaster for families in our country.
  The second reason they pushed the bill through so quickly is because 
they wanted to bring it to the floor this week--not next week, not the 
week after, not after thorough consideration, not after hearings, not 
after listening to the American people, but this week.
  Why this week? Because this week marks the seventh anniversary of the 
enactment of the law they are seeking to repeal, in other words, 
optics, spin, propaganda, message. That is what their timeline and 
their bill are all about: messaging--not results, not reform, political 
messaging.
  This is the fulfillment of a campaign pledge based on a premise that 
is no longer sustainable. Seven years after the law's enactment the 
facts are clear. It has expanded coverage, improved benefits, banned 
discrimination against women and people with preexisting conditions and 
disabilities, and prohibited annual and lifetime limits on coverage.
  Now, they keep some of those things in their bill because they were 
so popular they thought they couldn't get rid of them. But they have 
voted 65 times to repeal all those benefits.
  Is the Affordable Care Act perfect? Of course not. In the areas where 
it has fallen short, let's fix it--together.
  But this bill--this bill repealing the law and making Americans pay 
more for less--will throw our healthcare system into turmoil and put 
millions of families and small businesses at risk. That is why doctors 
oppose it. That is why hospitals oppose it. That is why senior 
organizations like AARP oppose it. There are literally 1,000 
organizations, plus, that have opposed this legislation.
  We are now hearing reports, Mr. Speaker, that Republican leaders are 
making secret backroom deals with individual Members in order to win 
their support, the kind of desperate maneuvering that shows how 
unpopular this bill is.
  Republicans, Mr. Speaker, must remember that, as the governing 
majority, they will be responsible for what happens to our healthcare 
system under their watch. And I do not just mean this bill. I mean the 
lack of certainty and the turmoil that they have been creating for the 
Affordable Care Act market since not only Trump was elected, but since 
they started attacking this bill some years ago.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my Republican friends, for the sake of their 
constituents, for the sake of the children of this country, for the 
sake of those who are at risk because of health challenges that 
confront them, I urge my Republican friends to abandon this dangerous 
bill and instead work with us to strengthen our healthcare system for 
all of our citizens.

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