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[Page H2835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HEALTHCARE FOR ALL
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this moment to go down a
very tough, and for many families, humiliating journey down memory
lane.
Memories full of sick mothers and fathers, sick children, and maybe
even those who lost their life because they could not get affordable
healthcare.
Apparently, this administration doesn't understand; for those of us
who were here before the Affordable Care Act, the years and years of
work, the thousands of pages of testimony, the many different
committees--even my committee, the Committee on the Judiciary--we heard
the pain and cries of those who did not have health insurance.
Maybe he doesn't know--the administration--the story of the 8-year-
old girl whose family actually took her to the office of the insurance
company--she had leukemia--to beg for coverage. And they denied her,
and she died.
Maybe they did not hear the story of the mother whose son had
hepatitis because he had not been able to overcome his drug addiction,
even though he was a lawyer, and his only basis of healthcare was the
emergency room in a city hospital;
Or maybe the doctor who drove to another city hundreds of miles away
to get his intern son, put him in the backseat of his car and drive him
all the way back so that he could be inside the jurisdiction in which
his healthcare covered.
Maybe the administration and the President do not know about junk
insurance policies, that when you get to the hospital, as they look
over you in the emergency room and say, There is no room at the inn for
you because your insurance doesn't cover hospitalization.
Or the tap on the door of your hospital room while you are in the
bed, and although you are still ill, you are evicted because your
insurance has capped.
All of that was eliminated with the Affordable Care Act.
What a disaster for this administration to proudly and arrogantly
stand up to take a stand to destroy the Affordable Care Act in my
State, in Texas v. Azar, and how sad it is that State officials from
the moment they got elected in my State, Republicans, every day have
been fighting to destroy the Affordable Care Act.
And my own county health department is begging for relief; begging
for the expanded Medicaid; begging to serve the many thousands upon
thousands that are in need who are working poor, but my State refused
to accept the expanded Medicaid. And now, with great hubris,
pompousness, this Government--it is supposed to be for the people, of
which we are--has decided to take a stand to destroy the Affordable
Care Act.
Rather than do what we are attempting to do as Democrats and
protecting preexisting conditions and to expand and improve on
healthcare, we are looking to lower health insurance premiums,
strengthen protections for people with pre-existing conditions, stop
insurance companies from selling junk health insurance plans, and
reverse the administration's healthcare, sabotaging needlessly driven-
up premiums and uninsured rates and empower States to innovate and
invest in enrolling more people.
Outreach. I have been engaged in outreach and education, and the
families are excited when they are eligible for insurance.
All of the people that I mentioned, and some who died, had
preexisting conditions. Over 50 percent of the American people--maybe
upwards of 65 percent--have preexisting conditions.
In 2012, there were 45 million uninsured persons, but the Affordable
Care Act was making its way so much so that we have reduced the amount
of uninsured persons, as the numbers show in 2018, down to about 28
million, and we were making steady progress.
What kind of caring attitude do you have?
Where is your humanity, that you would take insurance away from sick
children, families, and the elderly, and that you would allow their
prescription drugs to shoot through the roof, which is what will happen
when you destroy and implode the Affordable Care Act.
It is not an overnight success. 50 years America was trying to work
on a system that would work, beyond the Medicare system, and Medicaid.
We are supporting--many of us--a way to provide healthcare for all,
like Medicare for all. I am supporting this legislation, but what is
happening in the administration is nothing but an implosion of a
lifeline for the American people.
We need to stop that now.
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