Date: 2013-07-17
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I rise in opposition to this latest Republican attempt to sabotage our Nations health reform law. If these bills pass today. fortunately. they will not become law. It is just another waste of this bodys time. and Americans are sick of it. The 38th time will not be the charmthe 38th time that weve redundantly voted to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Rather. these votes underscore the lengths the Republicans and other opponents will go to take away the basic health insurance protections of the American people. For 3 years. many of the opponents of ObamaCare have invested heavily in its failure. Theyve tried to deny funding to agencies to do their jobs as instructed by Congress. Theyve spread outright lies and misinformation to purposely confuse the American people. Theyve obstructed education efforts to make sure that their constituents dont understand the new rights and benefits under the law. But investing in failure is dangerous. Its dangerous for Americas families. its dangerous for the Nations businesses. its dangerous for the Nations economy. The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. and it is here to stay. Early evidence suggests that the health care law is already having a positive impact on the lives of millions of Americans. Millions of young adults are getting health insurance through their parents policies when. before. they were kicked off arbitrarily by insurance companies. and now. with the individual mandate. millions of individual Americans will be able to afford the health insurance that they cant afford today without this legislationwithout the law of the land. the Affordable Care Act. Children with preexisting conditions can no longer be denied health coverage or lifesaving treatment. Billions more of taxpayer dollars are being recovered through Medicare fraud. National health costs have dramatically slowed over the last several years. Health premiums as part of the State insurance exchanges are coming in lower than anyone predictedmost recently reported in New York Statefor individuals. who will get their insurance because of the individual mandate. and for the first time. it will be affordable to those individuals since theyve been required to have it. And. in January. the preexisting conditions that determine health coverage or costs will be banned. No longer will you be able to rule people out because of their preexisting health conditions. This is all good news. and it stands in stark contrast to the claims that weve been hearing from the other side for 3 years. Why on Earth would any responsible elected official try to hide the rights and benefits from the American people? My friends on the other side of the aisle are preoccupied with dismantling government when it protects the vulnerable or the average American. but they will move heaven and Earth to protect the most powerful or to try to score some fleeting political point. Its wrong and its irresponsible. Mr. Speaker. playing politics with the Affordable Care Act has become something of an Olympic sport for the majority. These votes are nothing new. They are about sabotaging the law of the land in order to satisfy a narrow. radical element of the majoritys party. Now is not the time to reverse course. Now is not the time to go back to the days when insurance companies were in chargewhen people were thrown off their policies. when policies were taken away in the middle of treatment. when their children were not allowed to participate. and when individuals could not afford the policies at that time. Today. they will be able to.