[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6241-6242]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           ATTEMPT TO REPEAL AND REPLACE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, this morning, the American public woke 
up to news accounts that the Trump White House and Republican 
leadership in Congress is going to again this week make another attempt 
to try and repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
  Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy gave a speech in Texas a 
few days ago on Saturday where he promised that this is the week that 
the Republicans will repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
  For those of us who were in the Chamber here just a short time ago in 
March when the first attempt was made to butcher the healthcare system 
with the so-called American Health Care Act, what we saw was the 
culmination of a process that was hyperpartisan starting in January in 
which the committees rushed through a piece of legislation without even 
giving the Congressional Budget Office a chance to analyze the cost and 
the impact in terms of the uninsured rate in America.
  And then finally, as the hour approached when a vote was scheduled to 
take place, the facts caught up with the legislation. The Congressional 
Budget Office determined that 24 million Americans would lose their 
health coverage, that the Medicare trust fund would be weakened because 
of the raid on the trust fund by reducing a Medicare tax surcharge for 
millionaires; and it would reduce the solvency of the Medicare trust 
fund by 4 years, a program that is revered and probably the most 
popular insurance program in America in which, again, collection of 
healthcare stakeholders from all across the country, the American 
Hospital Association, the nurses, the doctors, the March of Dimes all 
came out universally opposing this measure.
  And finally, the Quinnipiac poll showed what the American public 
thought of this bill. They came out with a poll that showed only 17 
percent support in the American public for the Republican healthcare 
bill. Again, the Quinnipiac poll comes from my State, the State of 
Connecticut, and was very supportive and friendly in terms of its 
polling data in terms of the Trump campaign last year, so it is 
certainly not a partisan poll.
  So why are we revisiting a measure which was so universally denounced 
and despised? Well, there has been a new amendment that has been 
offered in an attempt, again, within the confines of the Republican 
majority, to try

[[Page 6242]]

and win votes to pass this bill this week.
  Again, they have a majority with roughly 240 seats. They need only 
216, and that is really what has been the focus of the majority leader 
in terms of trying to line up a vote this week.
  The amendment, the so-called MacArthur amendment, again, revisits 
some of the issues, which, again, some of the more conservative members 
of the Freedom Caucus were complaining about, and what it proposes to 
do is basically give States the ability to wipe out essential health 
benefits--in other words, the basic patient protections that were built 
into the health insurance law 8 years ago.

                              {time}  1215

  It does nothing in terms of trying to ameliorate the impact of the 
Medicaid cuts, which is the program for low-income and working 
Americans, which the ACA expanded and has done great work in terms of 
reducing the ranks of the uninsured. That is the measure which we now 
have before us this week.
  Well, once again, the stakeholders who have to live with this have 
weighed in with their thoughts. This is what the American Hospital 
Association said:
  ``The amendment proposed this week would dramatically worsen the 
bill.''
  Again, it is a bill that was so unpopular, poorly drafted, and not 
ready for prime time that the Speaker pulled it from a vote on March 
24.
  The American Hospital Association, which is the largest trade 
association for hospitals in America--they represent thousands of 
hospitals--have said that, in fact, this makes it even worse.
  By weakening the essential health benefits--and I come from 
Connecticut. We know a little bit about insurance in that State. What 
we know is, if insurance companies can redesign healthcare plans, the 
essential health benefits will be the first to go. The ones that will 
be the first to go will be maternity care, behavioral health, and 
emergency coverage because those are the most expensive items that are 
included within the health insurance plan. I would say, well, that is 
true. On the other hand, those are the essential benefits that families 
need.
  Look at what has happened since the Affordable Care Act passed in 
2007 to infant mortality, for example: because of the Medicaid 
coverage, 57 percent of the live births in America are now women--and 
particularly young women--who get the benefit of Medicaid coverage. So 
they get prenatal care. They get the help that they need to make sure 
that a healthy delivery occurs. That is why infant mortality rates have 
been coming down in this country since the Affordable Care Act passed.
  To allow States to eliminate or give insurance companies the ability 
to eliminate maternity care, again, is just going exactly in the 
opposite direction. A goal all Americans support is to reduce infant 
mortality and to promote healthy live births.
  The American Hospital Association was joined by the American Medical 
Association, which is the largest trade group which represents 
physicians all across the country, and came out against the bill.
  America should listen. The people in Congress should listen. We 
should not take up this bill. It is time for a true bipartisan process 
to improve America's healthcare bill.
  Let's not vote on this this week. Let's listen to the American 
people.

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