On the recordMarch 8, 2017
I join literally millions of Ohioans and tens of millions of Americans in my concern about what the House of Representatives is trying to do to our healthcare laws and our healthcare system. I leave just one statistic with my colleagues in the Senate, and that is that in my State alone, there are 200,000 people who are now under treatment for opioid addiction, and they are able to get this comprehensive treatment because they have insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The legislation apparently coming out of the House of Representatives, even though we do not know how much it costs, is a big tax cut for the wealthy. We do not know how much it costs because they are moving so quickly. It was under wraps, and now they are moving it so quickly that the Congressional Budget Office has not even had time to look at it and understand what it costs, nor has it been able to tell us how many of the 22 million Americans who have insurance under the Affordable Care Act will lose their insurance. They want to move so fast that they are not even answering the basic questions of how much it costs--a lot; how much it is going to add to the deficit--a whole lot, but they will not be specific; and how many people will lose their insurance. As I said, today 200,000 Ohioans are getting treatment for opioid addiction under the Affordable Care Act.…





