[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4621-4622]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1045
            LET'S COME TOGETHER TO MAKE MEANINGFUL PROGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Lawson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LAWSON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the Republican plan to repeal and 
replace the Affordable Care Act is an exercise in smoke and mirrors.
  This proposal would give tax breaks to wealthy Americans by burdening 
hardworking families with higher healthcare costs.
  The Republican plan allows for soaring new healthcare costs for our 
seniors and shortens the life of the Medicare trust fund, endangering 
seniors and disabled Americans who depend on Medicare coverage.
  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that if the 
Republican proposal became the law of the land, some 14 million people 
will be without healthcare insurance in 2018, and up to 24 million 
could lose their healthcare coverage by the year 2026. The CBO also 
found that average premiums for people buying insurance on their own 
would be 15 to 20 percent higher in 2018 and 2019 than they would under 
current law.
  In my home district, the uninsured rate has gone from 18.7 percent to 
14.9 percent since the Affordable Care Act was implemented, and 34,000 
people have purchased coverage thanks to the ACA. Those people are now 
at risk of losing their healthcare coverage if the Republican plan 
becomes law. This is completely unacceptable to Floridians.
  We know that the Affordable Care Act is not a perfect law, and there 
is a lot of room for improvement. That is what we should focus on in 
Congress right now: coming together to figure out ways to bring down 
healthcare costs, stabilize the market, and help ensure that more 
people can have access to the affordable health care they need and 
deserve.
  We need to put aside the partisan bickering, roll up our sleeves, and 
get to work. It is a sad day in America when Members of Congress are 
unable to come together to do what is right for the American people. I 
will continue to fight to ensure that Floridians with preexisting 
conditions don't have to worry about losing their healthcare costs, and 
that young adults can stay on their family's insurance until they reach 
age 26.
  I urge my colleagues to remember that no roads or bridges were ever 
built by Democrats or Republicans. No war was ever won by Democrats or 
Republicans. From Social Security to Medicare, to putting a man on the 
Moon

[[Page 4622]]

and tearing down the Berlin wall, none of these milestones in our 
history was accomplished by one particular political party. They are a 
result of public servants coming together to solve the great challenges 
of our time.
  This is the challenge that lies before us: we must find a way to come 
together to make meaningful progress for the American people.

                          ____________________