Affordable Care Act

Floor Speech

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, in the days after the election this year, I heard a number of my colleagues--many from my State--in the House of Representatives and in the Senate talk with great exuberance about repealing the Affordable Care Act. They call it ObamaCare; others call it the Affordable Care Act. I am not sure where they were over the last month or so, but I remember hearing Pope Francis I exhort his parish priests to go out and smell like the flock. Abraham Lincoln used to talk about it. He would say he needs to go outside of the White House and get his public opinion baths.

I cite Pope Francis and President Lincoln because I think if my colleagues had been out talking to real people and not going to fundraisers, not meeting with rich people at country clubs, and not going to the political rallies, but out talking to real people, they would have seen what the Affordable Care Act has done.

In a moment, I wish to talk about a couple of numbers, but more importantly, I want to share some stories. More than 500,000 people in Ohio--and I think New Mexico, the Presiding Officer's State, is proportionately no different--have health insurance today who did not have it 14 months--did not have it 1 year ago. An additional 97,000 young Ohioans--people who are just a bit older than the pages sitting here; 18, 20, 25--are on their parents' health plans. Thousands of Ohioans have been protected as patients, as people who are insured. When they would get sick and their coverage was expensive, they would be dropped by insurance companies because they were too costly. Now they have the consumer protections and they can't be dropped from coverage. One million Ohio seniors now have gotten--with no copay and no deductible--free preventive care for osteoporosis and physician screenings. One million Ohio seniors were able to get their screenings at no cost.

I have to tell a quick story. Every Thursday anybody from Ohio can come to a coffee we have in our office at 8:30 a.m. when the Senate is in session. A family came by on one of those Thursdays. They were pretty conservative. I assume they were not really voters for me, but it didn't matter. We were talking about a bunch of different issues.

The mother said: Thank you for the Affordable Care Act. See my son over there? He is 15 years old.

I said: Yes.

He was across the room. She said that when he was 7, he was diagnosed with diabetes.

She said: I have counted, since he was diagnosed, 34 times that he was turned down for insurance.

My family was turned down for insurance. Last week she told me I got insurance because of the Affordable Care Act, because we don't allow under Federal law now that that be done.

Let me share for a moment, if I could, a handful of letters I have received from people who have written me because of the Affordable Care Act.

Rachel from Hamilton County writes that since 2008 she and her husband insured themselves through individual insurance. It had been difficult, and at times, we had to go without insurance because of the incredibly high cost. I had also been denied insurance due to a preexisting condition. All of that changed since we were able to sign up via the healthcare.gov site. But imagine my surprise when I heard the D.C. Circuit Court struck down subsidies people like myself receive. I receive a subsidy because health insurance has become so expensive that it is unaffordable for so many of us. I fear we will not be able to afford insurance if we lose our subsidy.

Linda from Madison County, west of Columbus, writes: My husband and I have personally benefited from the portion of the bill that did away with lifetime maximum payments. I suspect it may have saved our retirement and kept us off welfare rolls. My colleague benefited from the portion of the bill that allowed her son, who suffers from a potentially fatal illness, to stay on her insurance through age 26, at which time he graduated with a master's degree and got a job.

So this is exactly what this was written for--a 23-24-year-old graduating from college, going on to get more school, getting a master's degree, preparing himself or herself for something better in life. That young man could stay on his parents' health insurance plan until he got a job at 27, with insurance.

Chandra in Summit County writes that she recently commented to some friends about the surprising benefits she was receiving under the Affordable Care Act, and one of her friends suggested she share her story with her elected officials. She says: Because of the ACA, we were able to switch to my husband's insurance without worrying that I would not be covered due to my pregnancy being a preexisting medical condition. The ACA had a very real financial impact on my family.

The question is, Why do some Members of this Congress, all of whom, I believe--almost all of whom--are receiving government-sponsored health insurance benefits from a good government insurance plan--why do they want to deny it to people such as Chandra and people such as Rachel and others.

Chandra says: I am not the type of individual who one would first think of when thinking of beneficiaries of the ACA. I have a master's degree, my husband and I both work full-time, and our employers also offer a full range of medical, prenatal, and optical benefits.

A few years ago, my husband and I decided to begin growing our family. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, there were no copays for my prenatal care, suggested immunizations or potential well visits. When our son was born, I immediately saw the true impact of the Affordable Care Act. Babies have many well visits and the cost of copays and immunizations have been a burden to some of my friends. Thanks to the ACA, we didn't have that financial burden. Thanks to a combination of good insurance and the Affordable Care Act, I was the recipient of a very nice, double electric breast pump. I also became the first employee at my job to utilize the provisions of the ACA for nursing mothers. A few years later, 2 months before our second child was due, I had the opportunity to take a better job.

She goes on.

The question again is, Why do they want--why do a bunch of politicians who have good insurance, paid for by taxpayers--why do they want to take these benefits away from the 25-year-old man who now has insurance on his parents' plan before he finishes school and goes out in the workplace? Why do they want to take away the preventive care families now have so when their daughter has an earache they can actually go to a family doctor because of the insurance rather than go to the emergency room? All of those things just beg the question, Why the politics of repealing ObamaCare and repealing the Affordable Care Act and taking these benefits away from so many Americans?

Five hundred thousand Ohioans have insurance, 100,000 more young people, a million Ohio seniors getting benefits with no copays and no deductibles, preventive care that helps them live longer, healthier lives. That is really the question.

I yield the floor.

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