Repeal of the Affordable Health Care Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. EDWARDS. I'm so pleased to join you today and to talk about health care. And I feel very personally about health care, as somebody who went for a long time without any health care coverage and worried like Americans do all across this country. They did prior to our really investing in reform for the American people. And so I know that anxiety.

And I was thinking about some of our constituents, constituents in Maryland's Fourth Congressional District, and around the country, who, today because of what we did in the Democratic-led Congress in passing landmark health care reform legislation, are better off today. And we haven't even fully implemented the benefits for the American people.

I think about a letter that I got from a gentleman who lives in my district in Olney, Maryland, a small town, Olney, Maryland. And he writes to me that his son, Mike, was 25 going on 26, and he could receive health care insurance coverage. When he wasn't able to get it, he needed it and he couldn't get it. And he got a letter from Blue Cross/Blue Shield saying to him that his son could continue to be covered until his 26 birthday. And what he did was he did what a lot of American families do, they're wiping the sweat from their brow because they know that they can now keep their young people on their health care plan until they're 26. I have a 22-year-old. I was feeling exactly the same way.

I got another letter from a woman who actually does health care policy, but she lives in my district; and what she said to me is that her daughter had a preexisting condition and she was very concerned, but she was an older young person, 20-some years old, 20 years old with a preexisting condition, really worried that she wouldn't be able to provide health care. And then she got the notice for COBRA coverage, which we've all said, you know, the backup is COBRA. It turned out that that was going to be an extra $400 to $500 a month for her to have COBRA coverage to make sure that she didn't lose her health care when she actually lost her job.

Well, now, this parent, actually, for the cost of about $70 or $80, as opposed to $400 or $500 a month, can keep their young person, their child, their young person on their health care coverage.

I think this is a great benefit for America's families, for families who work every day and actually have health care coverage.

I heard us earlier discussing premium increase hikes, and I want to tell you something. I know when we were working on health care reform, and many of us, very concerned about people who don't have insurance and need coverage. But most Americans all across the country actually do have some form of health care coverage. And you know what they're worried about? They're worried about those premiums going up at astronomical rates. And I've heard from my constituents, 20, 30 percent premium hikes.

Well, because of what we did in this health care package, insurance commissioners, like you were a commissioner, insurance commissioners all across the country now have the power vested in them to be able to actually say, you know what? We're going to put a check on these companies. And so in States like California, a big State like California and Connecticut and Maine and Colorado and Maryland, all across the country, that's what these insurance commissioners are doing. And they're not saying the Feds do it for them; it's the States.

And of course we heard here this morning, as we read the Constitution, a reminder that States are in a great position to look at what insurance companies are doing in their States, to regulate what's happening in their States, and to say to them, you have to stop taking money away from consumers, away from patients by raising your premiums excessively.

And so these are real accomplishments for the American people and for people who go to work every day. And so I'm glad to be here actually talking about these benefits with the American people.

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