Ed Markey: “I rise to speak about this impending attack upon the Affordable Care Act and the impact it can have on the hospitals of…”

“I rise to speak about this impending attack upon the Affordable Care Act and the impact it can have on the hospitals of our country, in terms of draining revenue from them; on the issue of the impact on community health centers across our country and the impact it can have upon them; upon the impact that the repeal of the Affordable Care Act would have on the access of those who are addicted to opioids who need help for opioids, who are in a situation where they are going to need the Affordable Care Act, the access to coverage, so their problems can be taken care of. So this is no small threat. In fact, this goes right to the core of what started in Massachusetts back 10 years ago when we as a Commonwealth decided that care for people who needed health care was going to be made available to them. We have proven in Massachusetts that we are able to provide health care for 98 percent of our population, at the same time having an unemployment rate of 3.2 percent, while simultaneously having the highest scores for kids in the 4th, 8th, and 10th grades in math, verbal, and science, while having the strongest protections for the environment in the United States, while having an energy efficiency standard that is the tops in the United States.…”