Repeal of Obamacare Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARNAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I oppose the Republicans' attempt to repeal the new health care law.

When people in St. Louis go to work, they want fair pay for a day's work. When they buy dinner on the way home, they expect to pay a fair price. They don't expect to get gouged because the chef needs a new set of golf clubs. Yet those are examples of what has happened in the health care industry. Private health insurance premiums are rising faster than Medicare costs in order to provide the same services. Bonuses, advertising, overhead have crowded out dollars for actual health care.

The Affordable Care Act, or the ACA, changes that.

Now, by law, 80 percent of private insurance premiums must be spent on paying for health care. Some companies cannot or will not lower overhead and profits to 20 percent. So this year they will be forced to pay refunds of more than $170, on average, to more than 580,000 residents in my State of Missouri.

So, Mr. Speaker, for those who have stood up for health care today, I stand with them. The Republican idea is to go backward to the broken system of the past. They are trying to end insurance for kids with preexisting conditions; to end the protection from prescription drug costs; to end free mammograms; to end the affordability tax credits for small businesses; to end refunds from insurance companies that don't spend enough on health care.

Let's call this Republican repeal bill what it is. This is a distraction from addressing the jobs agenda of this country. Let's get past this Republican stunt. Let's get back to work on things we can do together to continue to grow this economy.

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