Political Quotes

“I will try and make this fairly quick. I actually am going to oppose this amendment for this reason. Here we are going through trying to say to the health navigators, in amendment after amendment: Your job is to enroll people in health insurance. That is your job. And, by the way, we are going to have to pass a law that tells you to be sure and include a discussion about mental health, be sure and include and get educated on substance use disorder benefits. One after another, we are going through and putting in the statute all the things that ought to be, A, common sense and, B, ought to be part of an overall educational program for the navigators. And now recognizing, well, first of all, they are very expensive; second, there has been at least some level of questionable activity in the use of the taxpayer dollars; and, third, they don't know what they are doing, so we have got to instruct them via statute; now we are going to say: By the way, go do all these other things, too, that have nothing to do directly with enrolling people in the Affordable Care Act. So you are going to say, on the one hand: We don't think you are getting it right; we have got to give you more money. Now we are going to give you new duties that are kind of loosely described, if you ask me, to provide referrals to community-based organizations and address social needs related to health outcomes. That is all going to be in law now? Really?…”