Lois Capps: “I thank my colleague for yielding. It is not a joke. It is disheartening that here we are for the 56th time again…”

“I thank my colleague for yielding. It is not a joke. It is disheartening that here we are for the 56th time again considering a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. This time it is different. This time repeal will do more than simply take away the important consumer protections that hold insurance companies accountable and make sure everyone is insurable. This time it will actually take health insurance away from millions of families, plans they have both chosen and paid for. This time it will hit families where it hurts, raising their costs by erasing the benefits that make their insurance more affordable, as well as raising Medicare prescription drug costs. This time small businesses who have received tax credits to make insurance affordable will lose them, leaving employees without coverage and few, if any, affordable options. We all know that the Affordable Care Act is not perfect and there are clear areas where we could work together to build on and improve this law, but today's repeal vote would turn back time, reverting back to a system everyone agreed was broken. The American people deserve better than that from us. I ask for a ``no'' vote.”