On the recordNovember 8, 2017
I rise today to call for bipartisan action on healthcare. I think it was interesting to learn that the citizens of Virginia who voted yesterday listed as their top issue healthcare. There was obviously an issue there where there had been no Medicaid expansion, and they were unhappy with the way it had been handled by the legislature there as well as Republicans who were in charge of the legislature, and they appeared to be pushing for a change. We have an opportunity here to make a bipartisan change. I think it is exactly the kind of message that we got yesterday. In my State, we have a Republican legislature and a Democratic Governor. They came together to do something about some of the rates, particularly in our rural areas. They focused on reinsurance, cost sharing--some of the things in the bipartisan agreement reached between Senator Alexander and Senator Murray. We have 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans cosponsoring that bill. Support includes the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Society, the March of Dimes, and the Arthritis Foundation--and those are just the A's. The American people want us to work together to make fixes to the Affordable Care Act. The day it passed, I said that it was a beginning and not an end. Unfortunately, we have been stymied in trying to make those kind of changes, and this is one bipartisan big opportunity to do it. I think it is a sensible bipartisan approach.…
