On the recordFebruary 16, 2017
We see so much on TV. I was watching the President's press conference a little while ago. We see so much discord out there, and this opportunity that we have in the afternoon to really delve deep into the issues is so valuable to me. It is one of the only opportunities that the American people get to see us delving deeply into the issues. You and I know that we are in the committee room, we are behind closed doors in a bipartisan way grappling with all of the hardest issues that face American families, but folks don't see it and they don't feel it. Why it is we celebrate the discord instead of celebrating the discourse is a mystery to me. I bring, Mr. Speaker, today some stories about the Affordable Care Act from my district at home. It is not going to be a surprise to you that these are stories of challenges. In Cumming, Georgia--it is up in Forsyth County, Georgia, just north of Atlanta--I heard from a single mom. She has two kids, ages 11 and 13. They have a family physician that they want to hang on to. She says: I work part-time as a paralegal. I earn $25,000 a year, and I also receive child support payments. She said that she was encouraged by a health insurance company to go out and enroll in Medicaid instead, but neither of her children's doctors accept Medicaid. How often do we hear that? The solution for everything is to dump everyone into Medicaid. Medicaid is not a healthcare system. It is a healthcare payment system.…
