Affordable Care Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HARRIS. I want to thank the gentleman from Tennessee for yielding.

The gentleman from Tennessee is absolutely right. In fact, in Maryland, in a front-page article 2 weeks ago, in our leading newspaper on the front page above the fold, there was a story about how Maryland's community colleges are cutting back their adjunct faculty to make sure none of them teach more than 30 hours a week. And it is just like the doctor from Tennessee says--some of these faculty are important. You have got to have them to fill in niches in your curriculum, and now they are constrained by a 30-hour-a-week definition of full-time work.

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that, remember, it is not just that when you hit 30 hours you have to offer insurance. You have to offer the insurance the government says you have to offer.

As I am going to mention, from literally dozens of communications I get now on a weekly basis from people in my district, the insurance under the Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable.

William in Cecil County writes to me--and I am going to read these verbatim:

My wife and me are currently insured with the Maryland Health Insurance Plan.

Mr. Speaker, the Maryland Health Insurance Plan was

our version of covering everyone with a preexisting condition in Maryland. So, Mr. Speaker, in Maryland, every citizen had coverage, whether they had a preexisting condition or not, because they could get it through the Maryland Health Insurance Plan. And, in fact, William writes that he and his wife were currently insured with the Maryland Health Insurance Plan.

We just received a letter stating we can keep our insurance; however, when I questioned them for how long, they said, Until the end of your current policy. So June 30, 2014, we'll be sent to ObamaCare. My wife has multiple serious health issues that our current insurance has kept her alive and able to function pretty normally.

Now, Mr. Speaker, William is worried, and he is justifiably worried because every day we pick up the newspaper and we read about another State where you can't get to your doctor. Your doctor is not going to be on that insurance plan because the only way they can make those premiums less expensive than they already are is to limit who you can go and see when you are sick. Yes, Mr. Speaker, the government telling you who you can go and see when you are sick. And that is what William and his wife were worried about in Cecil County.

But Carl in Queen Anne's County writes to me:

I have to put in my two cents. When ObamaCare first started a couple of years back, my health care started to go up. When we called Blue Cross, they told us, You can thank Mr. Obama. It went up to $1,600 per month. Now my wife does have stage IV cancer. I am a truck driver. I have to pay for our health care. So much for the care cost dropping.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know if you remember, but our President said 19 times that the price of a policy for a family was going to go down $2,500 a year. Mr. Speaker, Carl is going to pay $1,600 a month now. It didn't go down $2,500. It went up thousands of dollars a year.

Tim from Queen Anne's, I guess, writing in tongue-in-cheek:

Thanking you for the new health cares rules that have resulted in our family losing coverage from Giant Food. I'm a general contractor. After 22 years of coverage with my wife, and now faced with a $1,000 a month bill to cover my family.

That is $1,000 a month. Not $2,500 less, like was promised us 19 times, period.

He goes on to say:

I bet you still have your insurance.

Well, Tim, we not only have our insurance, but the President gave Congress, actually, a special deal that you don't get; because you see, Tim, if you got the same deal, your employer could be able to subsidize you on an exchange. That is the deal the President gave Members of Congress and their staff. Sorry, Tim, you didn't get that.

Fran from Worcester County writes:

My CareFirst BlueCross policy has been canceled. I chose my policy. My policy was great. President Obama promised more than two dozen times that, If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

Now this is Fran's opinion and not necessarily mine.

I believe that he knowingly lied. What are you going to do about this?

Fran, I have got to tell you, I think it might be too late to do anything about it. This horse has left the barn. Millions of Americans have gotten their cancelation notices. Millions of more Americans have gone on the exchanges to find out that their plan is not going down $2,500 a year. It is going up an average of, Mr. Speaker, $5,000 a year for the average family--a 41 percent increase on an average premium this year of $12,000.

Andrea from Harford County writes:

I just thought you might like to add my family to the statistics of the government's intervention in my perfectly fine 20-year-old CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield insurance plan. I'm self-insured and, hence, the first to be----

Mr. Speaker, I am not going to say the word here because of decorum on the House floor.

When I am forced to accept the new, not-as-good, higher deductible, limited doctor choices, I will be paying an increase of 197.5 percent.

This is what Andrea writes me.

Mr. Speaker, Andrea is not getting a $2,500 a year cut in her family insurance plan. She is getting a 197.5 percent increase.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HARRIS. Yes, I will.

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Then how do you answer to her that the pundits that we heard all last week and some of our colleagues here on the House floor, including the President, who said these were substandard plans that these individuals' plans were? And I have just heard you say, Dr. Harris, three or four times that people were perfectly satisfied; they met their needs.

Mr. HARRIS. Thank you very much. Reclaiming the time, I will tell you about more.

I am more than happy to share these with the President. If he wants to call up Andrea and explain how a 197.5 percent increase fulfills his promise, more than happy to have him do it.

Andrea goes on to say:

I'm not feeling the love. I believe the Congress and the President should have to live under the same laws, rules, and regulations that they insist I do.

Andrea, I couldn't agree more. I don't know why the President carved out a special exception for Members of Congress and their staff that they actually can get their employer to subsidize their plan on the exchange when no other employer in the United States that employs 15,000 people--because, Mr. Speaker, that is what the Congress employs--get that kind of deal.

Andrea, you are absolutely right. I think they should live under the same rules.

That is why, Mr. Speaker, on September 29 we sent a bill over to the Senate that said no special deals for Congress. The Senate rejected it. The President said he would veto the bill. He wants to keep that special deal--not for Andrea, but for Members of Congress and their staff. He wants to keep that special deal.

Matthew in Queen Anne's County, tongue-in-cheek, writes:

I would appreciate if you could pass on my appreciation to the President for the ObamaCare legislation. Thanks to the new law, my employee-sponsored health plan has increased my premiums by 100 percent for my family plan. So much for looking out for the middle class.

Mr. Speaker, Matthew hit the nail on the head. The President promised if you like your plan, you can keep it, period. You can keep your doctor if you like him, and your family's plan is going to be $2,500 a year less.

Mr. Speaker, Matthew's plan is going up 100 percent. How in the world can someone in the middle class afford that? How in the world can we ask our hardworking middle class men and women, with families, to pay 100 percent more for their health care? We can't. We shouldn't.

It gets worse.

Linda from Cecil County writes:

I have a genetic disorder called Lynch syndrome that predisposes me to a number of cancers.

Yes, Linda was born with a syndrome so that she is actually susceptible to getting cancers:

I have had cancer twice in the past 7 years, and was fortunate enough to be covered by MHIF.

Remember, Mr. Speaker, that that is the plan we already had in Maryland, like over 30 other States, which covered their people who had preexisting conditions. She was fortunate enough to have been covered since she was first diagnosed:

This program was truly a godsend, and I can tell you how grateful I was for it as I did not then, nor do I now, have employer coverage. I was not eligible for Medicaid at the time because my unemployment benefits disqualified me.

She received the cancelation of her policy effective December 31, and was advised that she should purchase insurance through the new exchange, but, Mr. Speaker, she says:

I began trying to obtain insurance as soon as the exchange opened. Although I was able to establish an account and an application, I was informed that I am not eligible for a tax subsidy because I am eligible for Medicaid. While many people might be happy to receive free Medicaid, it creates a nightmare for me.

That is what Linda in Cecil County writes. The President's Affordable Care Act is creating a nightmare for her.

She goes on to say:

There are very few specialists in Cecil County--by the way, that is a rural county in Maryland--so nearly all of my doctors are in Delaware. Since they don't take Maryland Medicaid, I can no longer receive treatment from them.

That is a real benefit that Linda got:

I will have to travel twice the distance to obtain all new doctors if I am forced on to Medicaid.

Mr. Speaker, that is what the Affordable Care Act is doing to Linda. Thank God that there, but for the grace of God, go I that I don't have Lynch syndrome. She does. She worries every day about going to a doctor and being told she has cancer. What the President's Affordable Care Act told her is: You can't go to the doctors you are used to going to who have guided you through those cancers and who have saved your life. We are going to throw you into a whole new plan--Medicaid--and, oh, by the way, you can't go see your doctors anymore.

Mr. Speaker, that is heartless. That is just heartless.

She goes on to say:

MHIF saved my life, and I have had excellent coverage and care for 7 years.

Mr. Speaker, Linda liked her plan, and she doesn't get to keep it. She doesn't get to keep her doctors. She gets to wake up every morning now, worrying about her cancer and whether she is going to find a doctor who can take care of her. She had those doctors. She doesn't have them now. She had doctors close by. Yes, she had to cross State lines, but her health insurance covered it. Her new health insurance doesn't cover it.

That is what this plan is doing. This plan affects each and every American in ways we are only beginning to understand.

As was famously said, you have got to pass this bill before you know what is in it. Mr. Speaker, we are finding out what is in it. America is finding out what is in it. Five million people found out this month what was in it. It is a cancelation notice for the plans they liked. These people had plans they liked. They weren't throw-away plans. They saved Linda from cancer twice. Every single American is going to be affected by this in ways we are just discovering, and America doesn't like it.

Mr. Speaker, very simply, America deserves better.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source