Repeal of Obamacare Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HINOJOSA. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this legislation that would take away health insurance for over 30 million Americans, force seniors to pay more for their prescription drugs, and add billions to our deficit.

In my great State of Texas, we have the highest uninsured rate in the country, a disgraceful 25 percent. One of those uninsured was a little boy named Houston Tracy from Crowley, Texas. Houston was born with a heart defect just days before the passage of the Affordable Care Act and was deemed uninsurable from birth for a preexisting condition. His case drew national attention, and eventually his private insurance company backed down under pressure. Today, under the Affordable Care Act, no child will suffer the indignity baby Houston met. Insurers can't deny children the coverage over a medical need. These are the protections that Republicans want to take away from us today.

Just yesterday, a Republican Member of Congress said that if she had her way, she would rather spend every day voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act. So rather than working to pass legislation to put Americans back to work or stop the outsourcing and offshoring of American jobs, Republicans would rather spend every day doing nothing but scoring political points by voting to take away health insurance for the millions of Americans while offering no solution for people like little Houston Tracy and the thousands of other children like him who would be left at the mercy of the insurance companies.

This is a cruel bill. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the Republican bill.

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