Affordable Care Act

Floor Speech

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, the chaplain of the day asked God to look over this Congress. I ask God and think the preacher should have asked for direction a little bit further, to look over the Supreme Court, because the Supreme Court has in its hands the Affordable Care Act.

A report was just issued yesterday that said in my home city of Memphis, African American women are twice as likely to die of breast cancer than Caucasian women. That's unacceptable.

Part of that is because they don't get the health care they need. The Affordable Care Act will see to it that everybody gets access to affordable health care, that there won't be a disparity of twice as much for the cost of insurance for women than men, and that mammograms will be offered to people, ladies, without a co-pay.

If the Affordable Care Act passes, that disparity in health between white women and black women in my city and in America will end. That is wrong.

Part of what's happened in my city is a vestige of Jim Crow, and even though those laws have been repealed, we still suffer from them, and there is a lot in the Affordable Care Act that will end those. I hope the Supreme Court rules on the side of life.

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