Political Quotes

“We just had a shutdown over something that the American people I am not quite sure understand, but what they do understand is that they cannot afford their health insurance. They cannot, if you will, afford the cost of being insured. Prices of health insurance and of healthcare are up for everybody. It is not sustainable, and they are looking to us--they are looking to Congress--for solutions. As a physician, as a doctor, I have seen it firsthand. I have seen patients come to see me with insurance, but they could not afford their deductibles. I have seen people who could not afford their insurance and who therefore take the risk that they will not get sick. We should not have that in our country. In July, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee--the HELP Committee, which I chair--discussed affordability across the entire commercial insurance market, trying to find out why costs are going up so high when you are buying your insurance through your employer or, as the employer, buying the insurance for the employee. But it doesn't matter. If you are on the individual market or if you are on the small business market, you are paying more, and because of increasing healthcare costs, insurance premiums are climbing as well. Now let's go to the ObamaCare exchanges because the shutdown we just had for over 40 days was related to the fact that subsidies are ending on the ObamaCare exchanges.”