Last year, our subcommittee was remarkably productive. We held 19 hearings and passed 31 bills, all of which had some bipartisan support.

No one can go up against these programs and the Federal Government and the bureaucracy and straighten them out themselves.

No family should suffer the death of a child without knowing why, yet over 400 children and 3,600 infants die each year from unexplained causes.

Each year, 700 American women die and 50,000 women are severely injured due to complications related to child birth.

Hearings--legislative hearings are foundational to strengthen bills, and so the expert testimony... is always very powerful.

I am proud to rise in support of H.R. 5377 and am an original cosponsor of this legislation. I am going to put my full statement in the Record, but let me just say a few things that are top-line--top-line--for my constituents. There are…

let me express on behalf of all of the members of the committee, both sides of the aisle, for not only accepting our invitation to be here today to describe your idea, your legislative proposal, but the clarity in which you have done so.

Can we just pass the law?

To give you a flavor for what that means as a matter of public finances, if you were to finance that in the traditional fashion of Medicare with a payroll tax, you would need to have a 21-percentage point increase in the payroll tax.

Every American should feel secure that, if they get sick or if they are hurt, they will receive the care they need without going bankrupt.

I just can't help but say, 'Thank God for Medicare and Medicaid.' Where would people in this country be without that coverage?

What else can we do? We have to just go ahead and say we intended Medicaid to be expanded under the Affordable Care Act.