Debbie Stabenow

I am working to make Washington understand the differences between the economic conditions then and what you all are facing now.

Because of Medicaid expansion in Michigan, 650,000 people have insurance, and uncompensated care has been cut by at least 50%.

I do not want to see women being discriminated against.

Should we as women be paying more for health care because we are women?

Do you support having that basic set of essential services in our health-care system?

When we look at another really important set of provisions in the Affordable Care Act--it is something I call patient protections...

Do you support returning to a gap in coverage for seniors under Medicare Part D?

Under the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, actually seniors would begin to pay more.

I think competition is the key to getting good prices.

Do you believe that Medicare programs should negotiate the best price for seniors on Medicare?

The reality of what has been done in the House and what is now in the Senate is a massive cut to health care in Medicaid and a great big additional tax cut for the wealthiest Americans that does not reflect the values I know of in Michigan.

Twenty percent of the world's fresh water surrounds Michigan and eight other Great Lakes States.

I have tremendous concerns about a wide variety of issues in this budget and how they do not match up with priorities of Michigan families.

I think folks on Social Security and Medicare ought to be really worried.

I have heard the same thing from so many people who have been able to go into small business and their life's dream because they've been freed from that chain of having to be somewhere with insurance from their employer.

I want to particularly, Holly, thank you for being here, as the author of the mental health parity provisions in the ACA.

We cannot afford to discard and destroy the ACA and Medicaid for millions of people like me who would be turned away.

If these programs are cut, people will face more catastrophes than ever before.

32 million people, including many of you on this panel today, would lose health insurance coverage.

Republicans in both the House and the Senate pulled the first thread that will unravel potentially the entire health-care system.

This is about differences, fundamental differences, and ideas and policies and what helps people, what hurts people.

I personally believe people on Medicare should be very worried right now in terms of what we are hearing overall.

But let me just stress that, for about 35 years, we have tried high-risk pools. Thirty-five States had them before the Affordable Care Act. And frankly, they did not produce great results.

Not a lot to live on, and for about a third of the seniors in the country, that is 90 percent or more of their income.

I think that is an unfulfilled promise and obligation that our country still needs to keep.