Date: 2014-04-02
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Let me thank the convener of this Special Order and the colleagues I have heard since I have come to the floor. like Congresswoman SANCHEZ. Congressman CASTRO. thank you very much. Coming from similar territorythe State of TexasI just hope that you will allow me. just for a moment. to juxtapose the present pending bill on the floor. I heard you speak of the bill. H.R. 2575. as well. and with all due respect to the proponent of the bill. it is confusing. It is confusing in the backdrop of the number that you have standing alongside of you. 7 million Americans and growing. Because there were many Americans who were in the queuein the line. when March 31 came. and because of President Obama. they will now have extended the opportunity to finish the work. and I was with a lot of navigators and people enrolling over the weekend. They were excited about being able to finish the task. In Texas alone. that was the epicenter of unemployed. I keep saying. "unemployed." Certainly. it has unemployed persons as well. There are 164.000 without unemployment insurance. which really is what baffles me about this effort at repeal and this effort of determining that. with 30 hours of hard work. you cant get health insurance. In the State of Texas. 5.198 million individuals on private insurance have gained coverage for at least one preventative health care service. such as mammograms. birth control. and immunizations. That is for people with private insurance. Also. 10.695 million individuals with preexisting conditions like asthma. cancer. or diabetes. including 1.6 children. will no longer have to be worried about being denied coverage in our own State alone. As well. 5.189 million Texans have gained expanded mental health and substance abuse or use disorder benefits. and 4 millionplus uninsured Texans will have new health insurance options through the idea of going into the marketplace. Also. 233.000 seniors and people with disabilities have saved $866 in prescription medications. and 357.000 young adults have gained health insurance. and 7 million Texans will no longer have to worry about annual limits. That is. of course. those who are uninsured and who can access the new Affordable Care Act insurance. The other point is that. over these last 2 days. we have seen the reality of Americans clamoring for health insurance. with 4 million people accessing the healthcare.gov Web site. And let me make this as breaking newsbecause this is what we were hearing from those opposing it80 to 85 percent of those who have enrolled have paid their first premium. This is not a story of I have enrolled and you never hear from me again. this is a story of serious decisions being made by serious persons. Let me offer. as well. some of the tragedies over the yearsand I am very pleased to have cast that vote for the Affordable Care Act. I have been to any number of townhall meetings to share it with my constituents. some of whom who did not understand or agree. In the course of the hearings. I have heard of so many stories that we dont repeat anymore. like the little girl that had leukemia. Her parents took her over and over again to the insurance company to get the opportunity for her to be covered. She had a preexisting disease. She had no coverage. She ultimately lost her life. I believeI dont want to call up facts that are not accuratethey even took her to the insurance companys office to plead for her to be covered. It was at that point near the end of her life. which she shortly thereafter lost. We have the mother who came to us and said yes. her son had a difficult history. He was a trained lawyer. He was doing pro bono work. He was in Atlanta. Georgia. Frankly. he had gotten hepatitis. Because he had no health care. the only coverage he could get was from going into an emergency room. He had waited too long. He was going into the emergency room. being the only source of health care. If he had had the ability to go to a doctor. in spite of his history of drug abuse at that timea trained lawyerhe would have been able to maintain his life. My last one is the issue of a young resident who took a summer position in Atlanta. Georgia. but his health care was in a 25mile perimeter around Washington. D.C. He fell ill with kidney disease during that summer. His father was a doctor. He was a student. He didnt have the ability to stay on his parents insurance. His insurance was a schoolbased insurance that said it could only be around the school. Congressman. his father had to drive hours to pick him up and put him in his car and pray for his survival and get him back into the perimeter of his health insurance. This is what we lived with before the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and before the President ultimately signed it. and so I am baffled as to why. for the 52nd time. there is an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act with H.R. 2575. Let me just say that the importance of this Special Order is to emphasize whose side Members are on. I am on the side of those who are clamoring for good health care and who have children who need good health care. I am on the side of those who need the expanded Medicaid and ask the State of Texas to do it. As I close. just on this bill. H.R. 2575. I am still trying to understand what it means to tell someone who works full time. 30 hours a week. in a company that has 50 employees. that you cannot get health care. So to the employers out there. frankly. I believe that some people are speaking for you that may not be really speaking for you. Because when you pay your employees and they get health care. they have more cash to buy your goods. More people have income to come back to the grocery store. come back to the restaurant. come to the small clothing store. or to buy flowers. Why would you deny employees health care so that they can get sick. go to the emergency room. and have days off? It doesnt make sense. I think this bill is way before its time. There is no evidence that we need to reduce the hours of working Americans. There is evidence that we should pass unemployment insurance for those who are chronically unemployed. We need to do that. There is evidence to raise the minimum wage. but there is no evidence that this is a problem of catastrophic moment that we are debating it for 4 hours on the floor. So I want to congratulate the gentleman for his leadership on this question.