[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6059]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               TRUMPCARE

  (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose the latest 
version of TrumpCare. Once again, House Republicans have confirmed 
their approach to fixing health care requires gutting key provisions 
for people with preexisting conditions, increasing costs, and offering 
fewer protections. Letting the States cherry-pick the essential health 
benefits--the 10 basic medical care categories covered, like emergency 
care, mental health, addiction treatment, or lab tests--is just crazy.
  The obvious problem with eliminating the Affordable Care Act's 
essential health benefits is that it will leave people without access 
to reasonable quality health insurance. The consumer should know what 
their health insurance covers.
  Without some minimum requirements, insurance companies can offer 
plans that are insurance in name only. Anyone who is actually sick and 
needs care will be left out in the cold.
  The essential health benefits make the marketplace viable because 
they help pool the risk among the whole population instead of just 
attracting sick people who need these services.
  If Republicans thought TrumpCare was so great, why would they exempt 
Members of Congress and our staff?
  I urge my colleagues to scrap this political game and work with us to 
strengthen health care for all Americans.

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