[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8498-8499]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION

  Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Whitehouse for his 
important words and all the Senators who have come to the floor this 
afternoon to talk about the Republican plans to dismantle our 
healthcare system.
  As we speak, Republicans in the Senate are busy behind closed doors 
working overtime to come up with a secret health plan to ram through 
the Senate. I guess they are afraid of how the public would react if we 
could see the full scope of their plans, but in the last 24 hours, we 
have seen new details about what they want to do. The formula is as 
clear as it is cruel: destroy healthcare for tens of millions of 
Americans, including people struggling under the weight of our national 
opioid crisis. Why? In order to give tax cuts to rich people.
  These plans are simply unforgivable, and I say ``unforgivable'' 
because I cannot find any justification that makes it OK to take away 
health insurance from 23 million Americans. I cannot come up with a 
single sliver of an argument that says it makes sense to rip away more 
than $800 billion from kids with complex medical needs, seniors in 
nursing homes, and one of the largest sources of help for people and 
families struggling with substance abuse disorder, all to produce tax 
breaks for a handful of millionaires and billionaires.
  The Republican agenda is destroying healthcare in this country, and 
it has never been clearer. President Trump released his budget proposal 
this week. If the healthcare bill is a punch to the gut, his budget is 
a knife in the ribs. The Trump budget is about the future, and for the 
future, Trump says there is too much medical research. He wants to cut 
more than $5 billion from the NIH budget. That is the place where 
research is ongoing about treatments for Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, 
ALS. That is America's future that President Trump wants to cut by more 
than $5 billion.
  Then there is the Republican effort to blow up our existing 
healthcare system. The Republican bill would open the door to 
discriminating against people with preexisting conditions, and there is 
more. Insurance companies could drop coverage for mental health and 
substance abuse disorders. Insurance companies could decide not to 
cover pregnancy or maternity care. They can drop coverage for 
prescription drugs. Insurance companies could, once again, impose 
lifetime limits on diseases like cancer and heart conditions, even for 
people on employer plans in States like Massachusetts that want nothing 
to do with the waivers the Republican bill allows.
  The CBO says that out-of-pocket costs for these services that are no 
longer covered would rise ``thousands of dollars a year,'' but cutting 
out cancer patients and mamas and newborn babies and people with 
preexisting conditions just wasn't enough for the Republicans. 
President Trump used his new budget to cut hundreds of millions of 
dollars from the Federal agency leading the fight against opioids. Tens 
of thousands of people are dying, and the Trump budget cuts money 
needed in the fight against opioids. It gets even worse.
  Together, the Republican healthcare bill and the President's budget 
rip well over a trillion dollars out of the Medicaid Program, which 
provides health insurance to one in five people in this country. 
Medicaid funds more than half the people in nursing homes. When a

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new baby is born in this country, Medicaid pays for about half of those 
births. Seniors in nursing homes and new babies are just targets for 
the Republican cuts.
  Then, like extra chocolate sauce drizzled over this misery sundae, 
the budget also cuts the Children's Health Insurance Program by 20 
percent over the next decade. Children's health insurance is the 
program that works together with Medicaid to provide health insurance 
for one out of every three kids in this country. Trump and the 
Republicans say: Let them go sick.
  What does that mean? Don't repair a hole in their hearts or fix their 
broken arms? Don't treat them when they get ear infections or does it 
just leave someone else to pay? If that is the answer, then tell us 
who? Who exactly is going to pay for the healthcare for these children?
  I just don't get what the Republicans in Congress are thinking. I 
know they have people back in their home States who are begging them to 
keep healthcare coverage. Disease, accidents, old age, substance abuse, 
these misfortunes don't ask whether you are a Democrat or a Republican 
before they come knocking at your door. I just don't get how 
Republicans can turn their backs on people who will be hurt, but I 
understand whom the Republicans are helping.
  The CBO score lays it out in black and white. The budget lets you go 
line by line to see just whom the Republicans do care about. The 
Republican healthcare bill burns down healthcare access for millions of 
people in this country in order to hand out tax breaks to a tiny 
handful of millionaires and billionaires.
  The Republican budget rips away coverage for people with disabilities 
so that giant corporations can keep more of their giant profits. The 
Republican budget tosses seniors out of nursing homes and puts the 
brakes on Alzheimer's research so the richest people in this country 
can rake in millions in tax cuts. That is not puzzling; that is 
unforgivable.
  Let's be clear about what is at stake here. A couple of weeks ago, I 
was at Malden Care Center, which is part of the Cambridge Health 
Alliance. Health providers like these in Massachusetts are on the 
frontlines, and they are fighting back against the opioid epidemic.
  The folks at Cambridge Health Alliance told me that before the ACA, 
they were lucky if one out of every three people walking through their 
doors had health insurance. Today, after years of hard work in 
Massachusetts to pass bipartisan health reform and then to implement 
the ACA, more than 97 percent of the people in our State have 
healthcare. More than 9 out of 10 people coming into Cambridge Health 
Alliance clinics now have coverage. Because of that coverage, CHA could 
offer a wide range of services, including treatment for opioids. They 
are making headway: More lives saved, more success stories, more 
healthy babies.
  I am not going to tell the seniors and the mamas and the people on 
the frontlines of the opioid crisis they have to give up those gains to 
pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest people in this country. If Senate 
Republicans want to defend this indefensible budget and unforgivable 
healthcare bill, then they can start by coming out from behind closed 
doors where they are conducting secret negotiations over healthcare. 
They can look the American people in the eye and admit they care more 
about the wealthy few in this country than they do about hard-working 
families and people who need our help. They can be straight up, and the 
American people--Democrats, Republicans, and Independents--can hold 
them accountable for what they are trying to do to our families and to 
our country.
  I yield the floor to my colleague from Maryland.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The Senator from Maryland.

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