Repealing Mandatory Funding for State Health Insurance Exchanges

Floor Speech

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Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Chair, today I rise to offer an amendment to H.R. 1213, and I rise in opposition to the underlying bill.

My amendment is very simple. It directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit a report to Congress 6 months after the enactment of the bill, a report which examines the possible delays and potential enrollment reductions in the health care exchanges that will result from this bill. Yet, before I dive into my amendment, Mr. Chair, let's review just for a moment.

From the year 2000 to the year 2006, the Republicans controlled the House, the Senate and the White House. They controlled all three of those institutions at a time when Americans were literally going bankrupt because of medical debt. The fact is that the Republicans refused to do anything at all to try to help Americans within our health care system, which was dysfunctional and broken.

They did nothing.

They stood back and watched 60 percent of all bankruptcy filings happen as a result of medical debt. They sat back and watched 47 million uninsured Americans as they faced nothing more than emergency rooms as relief. They sat back and watched small businesses either have to offer no health care insurance at all or have to stomach enormous health care burdens as premiums just galloped along day after day. They sat back and watched while auto companies produced vehicles where as much as $2,100 per car went to nothing but health care costs.

This is the Republican Conference that now seeks to try to take away what the Democratic Caucus and the United States Congress passed the last time. Instead of trying to say ``we're here to do something; we're here to offer some solutions,'' all they want to do is to strip away from Americans that little bit of protection from the vicissitudes of the health care insurance industry that they have been subjected to for so many years. Instead of saying ``we're here to help,'' they're here to help the insurance companies. That's whose side they're on. It is a shame and a disgrace, and I am very, very sad to see this bill on the floor today. So what I'd like to do is to offer an amendment, Mr. Chairman.

I offer an amendment to say, if we're going to do this, if we're going to take away from the American people these exchanges that are going to give them a little bit of relief, let's at least know what we're doing. Let's at least figure out what the effects are going to be on the American people instead of just snatching out of their hands these exchanges that are designed to give them a little bit of relief from the health care insurance companies. Let's find out who is going to be delayed and what potential enrollment reductions are going to exist. Let's figure it out.

This is an important and a meritorious amendment, and I think the least the Republican Conference can do is to say, You know what? If we are going to go back to the bad old days, which was before the Affordable Care Act was passed, at least we ought to know what harm we are going to be doing to the American people.

So I urge support of this amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Chair, why all the attacks on the Secretary of Health and Human Services? I believe our Secretary of Health and Human Services is an honorable person, and there is no basis to attack her integrity on the House floor. That again is a disgrace and a very sad occasion. This Secretary of Health and Human Services was appointed by a duly-elected President, and was confirmed by the Senate. Yet the Secretary has to withstand all of these attacks on her integrity.

The fact is that this is still nothing but a diversion and a distraction. This is an attack on the American people's legislation to fix this health care system. As the gentleman goes on and on about government, look, health insurance companies, which have absolutely no accountability except to their stockholders and their highly paid CEOs, are denying care, denying treatment, denying doctors. This is the tragedy that Americans are living through every single day.

By the way, to the tune of as many as 52 million people, Americans have gone bankrupt, have lost their livelihoods, and have been uninsured. What is the gentleman's answer to that? We've heard nothing about this--only what's wrong, only blaming government. In this democratic Nation, which I am proud of, he attacks our government, the American people's government. This again is an abomination and a sad thing.

Let me just say, if the insurance companies love the bill so much, why have they lobbied against it to the tune of $14 million a day? I remember standing on this House floor, seeing the insurance company lobbyists here every day. They spent as much as $14 million a day to defeat the Affordable Care Act. This is the bill that, according to the gentleman, they love so much. The fact is that that, again, is not accurate. It's untrue.

This is a good amendment. It just adds a little bit of sunshine which will help people get into exchanges to get affordable health care insurance policies. As that is stripped away and snatched out of their hands, Americans will at least know why and the impact of it.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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