[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7430]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ACT

  (Mr. RASKIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I also rise in opposition to this suddenly 
undead GOP plan to strip millions of Americans of their health 
insurance and Medicaid coverage and dramatically increase our monthly 
premiums. Just when you thought we had actually slain the zombie, the 
repeal-and-replace plan comes back again with no hearings, no 
witnesses, no budget score, and no policy coherence. It is like the 
bloody hand emerging from the grave in ``Carrie,'' even as the credits 
are rolling and the people in the audience have already left for their 
cars.
  Mr. Speaker, let's return this so-called American Health Care Act to 
its own preexisting legislative condition: dead on arrival.
  What makes anyone think it improves the appeal of this plan to strip 
preexisting coverage from the American people?
  The fact that you have a preexisting condition is why you need 
medical attention. It is not the reason to deny it to someone.
  In the last round, I heard colleagues complain that, under the 
current system, healthy citizens have to pay for other citizens when 
they get sick. Yes, my friends, that is what insurance is. Any Member 
who believes that the currently healthy should not help insure the 
currently sick must believe no one in his or her family will ever get 
sick. That is magical thinking. But in America, as Bruce Springsteen 
says: We take care of our own.

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