On the recordJanuary 11, 2017
Mr. Speaker, the Republicans' plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act should be entitled repeal and collapse, because it will generate, in this country, a financial and healthcare meltdown for tens of millions of people. In fact, if we repeal the ACA, 30 million Americans will lose their health insurance. States and hospitals will be on the hook for $1.1 trillion in uncompensated care, and rural hospitals will close. It will cost the country 3 million jobs. All of this is to give the top one half of 1 percent an almost $200,000 tax break and costs middle class families as much as $6,000 more a year. Once again, the Republicans are taking care of the richest while imposing tax hikes on hardworking Americans. As this chart shows, the ACA has caused dramatic reductions in every age group across the entire marketplace in terms of uninsurance, a 50 percent reduction in uninsured in America. So what does this mean to the average American? For my constituent, Penny Floor, it could return her to a time when she lived with no health insurance whatsoever. Here is a picture of Penny. She works for the San Mateo Community College District and is one of the 27 percent of Americans under the age of 65 who have a preexisting condition. She is now at risk, thanks to the GOP's reckless ideological agenda, to lose her health insurance.…





