-9999

Floor Speech

I can tell you that as I move across the State of Georgia, which is a non-expansion State, much like Texas, people are trying to figure out how they are going to keep their healthcare.

In about a month, folks will see their healthcare premiums double, on average. For some, it will triple. For others, it will quadruple. People will lose their healthcare, and some people will die as a result of that.

A healthcare policy in general is a matter of life and death. We have seen the Republicans through their ``Big Ugly Bill'' cut $1 trillion out of Medicaid, and 15 million people lost their healthcare. Now 22 million people are going to see their healthcare double, on average. That is the problem we are confronting right now.

I have not heard a solution from that side of the aisle about how to fix that.

It is particularly harmful for nonexpansion States. Some may reasonably ask: Why these zero-dollar premiums? Georgia, like Kansas, is a nonexpansion State. The truth is, a lot of these folks who have the zero-dollar premium plans, they would have zero dollars if they were in an expansion State.

So for me, it is a matter of fairness. I am standing up for the people in my State of Georgia. There are 500,000 Georgians in the healthcare coverage cap. If they lived in California, if they lived in New York, if they lived in North Carolina, they would be covered.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source