[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10255-10256]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, as Senators continue to return from the

[[Page 10256]]

State work period, we return here in the Senate to the topic of 
healthcare, which everyone in America should continue to focus on.
  Even after weeks of work, it seems my friends on the other side are 
no closer to having enough votes to proceed to their bill--which, of 
course, they insisted on doing with no Democratic votes or input.
  The biggest challenge proposed to the legislation during the break 
was an amendment offered by the junior Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, 
which would remove crucial protections for sicker Americans and 
unbalance the marketplace. The Cruz amendment is a hoax. Under the 
guise of lowering premiums, the Cruz amendment would actually make 
healthcare more expensive because deductibles and copayments would be 
so onerous that many Americans would pay more, not less, in out-of-
pocket expenses than they pay today. These lower premium policies will 
have such high deductibles and copays that the policies themselves 
would be virtually worthless. Imagine you have a $2,000 premium and a 
$1,000 deductible in your policy. Imagine now that, under the Cruz 
amendment, an insurance company is allowed to offer a cheaper policy 
because they aren't required to cover very many services. That policy 
might have a premium of $1,000 but a deductible of $10,000. You would 
be paying less monthly, but you would have to put down a huge amount of 
money for your policy to even kick in. In that way, a Cruz insurance 
policy is worse than no policy at all because the vast majority would 
pay a monthly premium and never hit their deductible, so they would be 
getting no health insurance benefit at all. You would pay the premium, 
but the deductible is so high, your insurance never kicks in. What good 
is that? In effect, for many, it is a policy that would have a premium 
but no insurance.
  In addition, Americans with preexisting conditions will almost 
certainly be left without access to affordable and quality healthcare, 
making the Senate bill even meaner than the House bill on this issue. 
Even the Republican Senator from Iowa, Senator Grassley, said that 
about the Cruz amendment. Here is what he said:

       There's a real feeling that [it's] subterfuge to get around 
     pre-existing conditions. . . . If it has the effect of 
     annihilating the pre-existing condition requirement that we 
     have in the existing bill, then obviously I would object to 
     that.

  Those are the words of Senator Grassley.
  Members of both parties agree that the most significant potential 
change to the Republican TrumpCare bill is an amendment that would make 
the legislation even worse. So make no mistake about it--the Cruz 
amendment is a cruel, mean hoax.
  Let's not forget that even without the Cruz amendment, the substance 
of the base Senate Republican bill is devastating. The CBO reports it 
would cause costs to go up, care to go down, and force 22 million 
Americans off their health insurance. It would end Medicaid as we know 
it.
  This weekend, I had the good experience once again to go to the Utica 
Boilermaker, a famous 15K road race in my dad's hometown, the largest 
in the country. People from 45 States participated.
  As usual, I walked through the crowd afterwards, congratulating 
people on a great race. They were sweaty, but they were happy. I came 
upon three men in wheelchairs. Here they are. Just after they crossed 
the finish line, the first thing they said to me was this: ``Senator, 
please protect Medicaid; we'd be lost without it.''
  These were proud men, and they deserved to be proud for finishing a 
difficult race made harder by their disability. They could be forgiven 
for taking a moment to celebrate. Instead, they wheeled up to me to 
talk about how important Medicaid was to them.
  These are not slackers. They wouldn't be in a race like this if they 
were. They needed some help. They are disabled. I don't know how their 
disabilities came about--probably from work. They look like really 
strong guys. Are we going to take away their Medicaid so we can give 
tax breaks to the wealthiest people in America? I hope not.
  These folks know that Medicaid is a lifesaver for Americans with 
disabilities. They want it maintained and strengthened, not dismantled 
so our Republican friends can give another tax break to the very 
wealthy.
  These three should remind everyone that dismantling Medicaid is the 
wrong way to go. It is time to move on from the failing Republicans-
only approach and start over in a bipartisan way in healthcare.
  Republican leadership has been trying to cajole their Members into 
voting for this bill by saying that if Republicans fail to pass this 
bill, they will have to work with Democrats. Republican leadership is 
not telling their Members: Vote for this bill because it is a good 
bill. No, they are saying: Vote for this bill or you will have to work 
with Democrats.
  When you can't defend the substance of the bill at all, it is time to 
move on. When using bipartisanship as a threat is your only argument, 
it is time to move on.
  My Republican friends should not be so afraid of working with 
Democrats that they are bullied into supporting a terrible bill. The 
Senate--we all know this--was intended as a forge for bipartisan 
consensus--a cooling saucer, as the Founding Fathers said. In the 
Senate, bipartisanship should be the first option, not the last resort.
  I repeat: We Democrats are willing to work. We are ready to work with 
our Republican colleagues on healthcare. Today Democratic leadership 
sent a letter to my friend the majority leader again offering to work 
with him on specific legislation to stabilize the marketplaces and 
improve the quality and lower the cost of care.
  The majority leader said over the break that he may be forced to work 
with Democrats to stabilize marketplaces. Democrats say: Let's do it. 
Let's do it now.
  We sent the majority leader four specific proposals, led by Senator 
Shaheen's amendment to guarantee cost-sharing reduction payments--the 
most important thing we can do to stabilize the marketplace and even 
lower premiums for many right now. Whatever your views on healthcare, 
we should agree that we need to stabilize the marketplaces. I look 
forward to a response from the majority leader to our letter.
  When will my Republican friends realize that their partisan approach 
to healthcare is a dead end, that the only way to truly improve our 
Nation's healthcare system is to finally heed Democrats' requests to 
come together and work in a bipartisan way? I hope our Republican 
colleagues realize this sooner, not later.

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