Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2279, Reducing Excessive Deadline Obligations Act of 2013; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3362, Exchange Information Disclosure Act; and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3811, Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act of 2014
Floor Speech
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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, it is a new year. We come down and begin this week, and I have made a commitment, as I think many of us do, as resolutions on what are we going to do for the new year and you always try to learn something new, and today has been a busy day with meetings and other things. I have learned a lot, but I have actually come to the floor today to learn something that was amazing to me, and it was not only that a bill that we are talking about under this rule would actually be designed to make, that was accused of making the ObamaCare Web site worse. I didn't know that was possible. And undoubtedly, it can be, but I think it actually helps when we look at what we are doing for the country and what we are doing as we move forward protecting the interests of the people.
So it is with that I rise in strong support of the rule and the underlying pieces of legislation, and in particular, H.R. 3811, the Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act of 2014.
Even before ObamaCare was signed into law, pundits and politicians alike have speculated on the impact it would have on American families. Skyrocketing premiums, loss of coverage, and poor quality of care were all correctly predicted by many on this side of the aisle.
We come here today, however, because Americans aren't just faced with unaffordable health care and broken Presidential promises--the security and privacy of our personal information is at great risk due to ObamaCare.
One of the things that I think is mentioned here and should be noted, that protecting the information that is being forced to be given should be of our utmost importance and it is not something that should be just said is we should be doing other bills. Believe me, I would want to be talking about other things too, but this is something important that is protecting Americans' interests, and we need to continue to do so.
I believe that the best health care system is one that is patient centered and as far removed from the flawed policies enshrined in ObamaCare as possible. Over the upcoming months, I look forward to debating the merits of ObamaCare versus true health care reform with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. But today is not that day. Today we come to the floor simply to say that American families should know about breaches of personally identifiable information in the ObamaCare exchanges.
Regardless of the letter of your political affiliation, wouldn't you like to be notified if the security of your personal information has been compromised? If we get outside the politics of Washington and ask our constituents, I firmly believe that answer would be yes. It would actually be a resounding yes.
So as I come to speak in support of this rule, and speaking also with the underlying bills and especially when I believe something such as protecting the security of our personal information is so important, I believe it is also important for us to remember as we start a new year that when we come here, people listen, people are concerned about their lives, they are concerned about what has gone on.
And over the past few months, especially when it comes to health care, you can go to teachers in Georgia right now who have had their health care changed because of the ACA. That has just been an interesting mark everywhere I go in listening to people in what is now a health care system that they used to have their own insurance is now lost into something that they are struggling with; or whether it is the identifiable nature of the issues of their information on the Web site that possibly could be compromised, to just simply saying that we need regulations for our businesses and making sure our environmental projects are the ones that are prioritized and not just simply at the whim of a certain administration priority.
What we have got to do here is to continue to look forward to doing the people's business and, in doing so, in such a way that matters to everyday Americans.
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