John Yarmuth: “Opponents of the Affordable Care Act in Congress have spent the past few weeks reveling in the problems of the Federal…”

“Opponents of the Affordable Care Act in Congress have spent the past few weeks reveling in the problems of the Federal exchange Web site, healthcare.gov. In my State of Kentucky, where we have created our own exchange, we have had tremendous success. As of last week, nearly 415,000 people had explored the Web site and assessed their options. More than 42,000 are now enrolled in health plans, many of them for the first time; and 843 small businesses have begun applying for coverage for their employees, with 309 of them already able to offer coverage to their workers. We are 6 weeks into a 6-month open enrollment period, and while the failures of the Federal health care Web site are frustrating, they are far from fatal. The true danger to the more than 42,000 Kentuckians who have gained coverage under the law--and the hundreds of thousands more who will--is what opponents of the law are proposing in its place: a return to the broken system that failed tens of millions of Americans each year. Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues and the American people to keep a healthy perspective. We did not enact the Affordable Care Act to launch a Web site. We did it to ensure that every American has access to affordable, quality care, and we should all work together to accomplish that goal. ____________________”