Political Quotes

“just like the distinguished Senator from Virginia, I, too, have had so many Floridians reach out to me. And sometime in the next 12 hours--literally in the next 12 hours--we are going to vote on the confirmation of the President's nominee for the Health and Human Services Secretary. The reason so many people are reaching out to us, giving us these personal stories, is that HHS is the primary agency for protecting the health of all Americans as an agency. You could certainly say we ourselves are primarily responsible for our health, or in the case of children, their parents, but when you get to an agency of the U.S. Government, it is HHS. It provides health coverage through Medicare and Medicaid, the Federal marketplace, and the Children's Health Insurance Program. I don't want it to be lost on the Senators--you know a little bit about Florida and that the percentage of our population that is elderly is very high, which translates into 4 million people in my State on Medicare for access to health services, and another 3.5 million Floridians rely on Medicaid and CHIP for care. So that alone is reason to be concerned about this appointment. Another nearly 2 million Americans signed up for coverage under healthcare.gov--specifically 1.8 million in the State of Florida. That is more signing up under the ACA under healthcare.gov than any other State.…”