Diminished Access to Healthcare
Floor Speech
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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, 5 days from now, on July Fourth, our country will be celebrating its 250th birthday.
All over the Nation, there will be enthusiastic events in big cities and small towns to recognize the publication, 250 years ago, of the Declaration of Independence, which, as historian Jill Lepore recently wrote, is ``arguably the most important piece of prose in modern history.''
Its author, Thomas Jefferson, laid out a vision of an independent America built around the individual's rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which still inspire not only our own people but people all over the world.
Unfortunately, it is also the 1-year anniversary of arguably one of the worst pieces of legislation in the modern era, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed into law on July Fourth, 2025.
As the Congressional Budget Office documented, this bill will add 3.4 trillion new dollars to our national debt, provide permanent $1 trillion tax breaks to the top 1 percent of income earners, cut nutrition programs by at least $187 billion, and, worst of all, cut $1 trillion from America's largest healthcare program, Medicaid, starting on January 1.
At the time the bill was debated, an overwhelming coalition of hospitals, nursing homes, physician groups, nurses, and patient groups tried to warn the Republican majority and the White House that millions of Americans will be denied healthcare from this draconian butchery of the healthcare system. To be exact, 10 million Americans will lose their coverage, according to CBO.
The majority dismissed those concerns and jammed this measure through, accusing Democrats of scaremongering. According to them, the new work requirements in the law for vulnerable populations would have exemptions for the ``medically frail,'' and there was nothing to worry about.
A couple of weeks ago, however, these warnings sadly came true when RFK Jr.'s health department released the actual rule that State Medicaid directors will have to follow starting in January.
The hope was that a medical diagnosis for cancer, HIV, or other serious, chronic conditions would qualify for protection. Instead, the rule makes clear that a cancer diagnosis will not automatically qualify for an exemption. Instead, the patient will have to document that the disease actually impairs the ability to work.
A patient suffering from pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, breast cancer, or lymphoma will have to demonstrate, with job searches and employer paperwork, that the disease and the debilitating therapies are an impairment, a hopelessly vague standard that will rob desperately ill patients of care.
To put it in a nutshell, the definition of ``medical frailty'' is no longer a medical diagnosis by a doctor but a subjective employability standard that makes no sense.
There is a word for this, Mr. Speaker. It is ``inhumane.''
Don't take my word for it. On this poster is a list of 48 patient groups vehemently denouncing this vicious rule, which Secretary Kennedy and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should withdraw immediately.
As you can see, the most credible patient groups--American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, National MS Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Lupus Foundation of America, March of Dimes, The ALS Association, and The AIDS Institute, to name just a few--have all warned Kennedy and his followers in Congress that this rule will create chaos and dramatically increase the number of desperately ill people who will lose their health coverage.
There is no better way to honor the principles of our treasured Declaration of Independence--to guarantee the right to life and the pursuit of happiness--than to block this grotesque rule, which will condemn the sickest and most vulnerable of our society to degradation and pain.
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