State Health Care Premium Reduction Act
Floor Speech
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Mrs. DINGELL. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act.
And, yes, I agree with my colleagues, this is not the time for partisan politics. It has been over 10 years since the passage of the historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which expanded healthcare to 20 million Americans. And now this administration is at the Supreme Court trying to repeal it, and it has been 4 years since our colleagues, who say they will protect people, have done anything. They have not given us anything else. All they do is take knocks.
Many forget that when that bill passed the reforms ended lifetime limits. People could not get health insurance if they couldn't afford it, if they had pre-existing conditions. It allowed States to expand Medicaid and provide access to both quality, affordable healthcare and protection from crippling medical bills.
In my home State, the bipartisan expansion under Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican Governor, Healthy Michigan, currently covers 650,000 Michiganders, and supports rural hospitals in Michigan that would otherwise face a significant financial hardship. The reforms in today's bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act, build on these successes.
The legislation would reduce healthcare premiums for Americans by expanding existing subsidies under the Affordable Care Act to those that need the help. It would also support outreach and enrollment efforts and roll back the current administration's plans to promote junk insurance plans that lack the coverage of basic benefits.
Finally, it would save Americans billions of dollars annually by allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services, a Republican right now, to negotiate drug prices. The Congressional Budget Office also estimates that the drugs subject to negotiation would reduce prices by 55 percent.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
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