State Health Care Premium Reduction Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes.
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act.
As we continue to confront the worst public health emergency in recent history, our first priority must be to protect the health and safety of the American people. But during this pandemic, millions of people have lost their jobs and, regrettably, in America when you lose your job you frequently lose your health insurance.
Based on the job losses in March and April alone, experts estimate that over 26 million people across the country have lost their job- based health insurance.
With so many workers looking to turn to the Affordable Care Act marketplaces for healthcare, we must be building on the progress we have made to expand access to affordable coverage. This is exactly what this bill does.
For example, as my colleagues have noted, under this proposal, no person would pay more than 8.5 percent of income on benchmark silver plans through the marketplace. Moreover, we fix the so-called family glitch, a technical problem that prohibits families from getting affordable coverage, and we make that affordable coverage available for millions of working families.
The legislation will also provide incentives to expand Medicaid so that low-income families across the country will have coverage regardless of where they live.
It builds on existing patient protections by reversing the Trump administration's expansion of short-term so-called junk health plans, which discriminate against patients with preexisting conditions and are not required to cover essential health benefits.
These plans raise costs for everybody not in a plan and then abandon the patients when they get sick and actually need coverage.
Finally, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act would save money for workers and employees by cutting the cost of prescription drugs and bringing them in line with the cost people in other countries pay.
And when they talk about the loss in investments and research, listen very carefully because they are saying that reducing the cost of prescription drugs is a bad thing. And second, they are talking about a previous version of the bill.
In this version of the bill we have an amendment in here that puts more money into research and NIH, so that those investments will continue to get made.
In contrast, the Trump administration has continued to aggressively pursue the Texas v. United States lawsuit. Just last week, the Department of Justice filed briefs urging that the Supreme Court overturn the Affordable Care Act.
If that suit is successful, all of the benefits of the ACA will be lost. Tens of millions of people will lose insurance. People with preexisting conditions will lose their protections. Affordability credits will evaporate. Consumer protections will be lost. This will happen in the middle of a public health emergency.
And for all those on the other side that say that the Affordable Care Act has problems, and they have a replacement, remember what the CBO said.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself an additional 1 minute.
Remember what the CBO said about the bill that the Republicans passed when they had the majority a few years ago. They said the costs would go up 20 percent the first year, 20 something million fewer people would have insurance, people with preexisting conditions would lose their insurance, and the insurance you get is worse than what you got.
We can't afford to take this major step backwards in our efforts to put quality insurance within the reach of all Americans, and this is why I urge all of my colleagues to support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act so that we can strengthen the ACA and ensure millions of Americans will have access to better health insurance than they have now and certainly better than they would have if this lawsuit is successful.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Shalala), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor, and the former Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis), the chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici), the chair of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Wild), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. McBath), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), who is the distinguished Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Schrier), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished majority leader of the United States House of Representatives.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Underwood), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time each side has remaining.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Trone), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Nevada (Mrs. Lee), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, this bill will reduce the cost of prescription drugs. Americans pay twice as much, three times as much, as much as 10 times more than those in other countries pay for the exact same drugs. This bill will allow the Department of Health and Human Services to try to negotiate better prices.
Those on the other side have criticized reduced prices because they potentially could reduce investments and research, but this bill offsets any such reductions with significant increases in investment in research at the National Institutes of Health.
This bill makes improvements to the Affordable Care Act by reducing premiums, expanding coverage to families, protecting those with preexisting conditions, and reducing the number of uninsured.
We have heard criticisms but no description of a better alternative.
We have heard about the 1996 law on preexisting conditions, but that did nothing in the individual market. And that is what the Affordable Care Act protects: preexisting conditions in the individual market.
But look at what the CBO said about the Republican bill when they had the majority and were able to pass a bill. They actually passed a bill that CBO scored, and they said that it would increase costs 20 percent the first year, 20-some-million fewer people would be insured, those with preexisting conditions would lose some of their protections, and the insurance you get is worse than what you have.
We can do better than that by passing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act, and that is what we should do today by voting ``yes'' on this legislation.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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