[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6197]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          AFFORDABLE COVERAGE

  (Mr. GARRETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, over the past days we have heard a great 
deal of rhetoric as it relates to health care and what the best policy 
for the United States is. In fact, as we address the Affordable Care 
Act, which the Democratic Governor of Minnesota referred to as 
unsustainable and former President Clinton referred to as the craziest 
thing, we understand that the words ``Affordable Care Act'' do not, in 
fact, apply.
  The paradigm, Mr. Speaker, needs to be this. It need not be whether 
or not Americans have coverage. In a time when Americans, two-thirds of 
whom cannot afford $1,000 in a time of financial crisis, as we see 
premiums and deductibles soar--$4,000, $6,000, $10,000--the paradigm 
should be: Do they have access to care? Because, in a world where you 
can't pay your deductible, a premium or catastrophe creates an 
unaffordable outcome, and then coverage is a piece of paper that does 
not grant you access to what is truly important, and that is care. That 
should be the paradigm in this debate going forward.

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