Gene Green

If we didn't vote to repeal it 63 times and voted to improve it 63 times I think we would have a much better law.

It is just 6 years since enactment and 3 years since the major reforms of the Affordable Care Act, the ACA, went into effect.

Regardless of whether you supported the ACA 6 years ago or when it passed into law, it is hard to deny that there is historic success.

I am mystified by Republican attempts to paint a rosy picture of the insurance market prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

We have come a long way. An estimated 20 million Americans have gained health insurance through the ACA.

The way I look at it, the problem is our friends in the majority don't want to fix it. They want to break it so it will go away.

Unfortunately, my Republican colleagues are only interested in undermining, weakening or repealing the law.

While the progress has been made, there is much room for improvement.

Millions of Americans, as many as one in five, have a mental illness.

For too long mental health and substance use care has been siloed from the rest of the healthcare system and stigmatized.

However, without strong enforcement of the parity law, millions of people continue to struggle to get the health care they need.

Congress did our part. We passed a parity law requiring health plans and Medicaid and Medicare and the private market to cover mental health and substance use treatment to the same extent as they do medical and surgical services.

And I know with our mental health bill we passed--it is still in the Senate--we didn't put that provision from Representative Kennedy in, but it is one we intend to do.

Perhaps the biggest barrier to accessing care has been higher cost, lack of coverage for mental health, and substance use care on par with the physical health care.

We are examining five pieces of legislation that will improve public health and build on this committee's record of advancing and enacting very bipartisan bills.

But if it is being polluted by dioxin from this facility, it is actually the responsible party who is supposed to clean that up.

What time line for the final decision? Did you say a final decision may be by October?

I know you heard from a lot of Members on their particular problems. And in our district in East Harris County, Texas, we are concerned about the San Jacinto River Waste Pits, a toxic site that was polluted with dioxin, a cancer-creating…

This site was added as a Superfund site in 2008 at both my urging and Congressman Ted Poe.

Last week, the Harris County Health Department sent letters to residents near the waste pits advising households not to drink their tap water, due to the possible dioxins contaminating local private wells.

This legislation would clarify the oversight of care provided by emergency medical services practitioners through standing orders.

I disagree. I was here and it wasn't bipartisan, on our side.

The law has made access to comprehensive affordable health care a reality for the American people.

I'll be looking forward to working with both of you all to see we move the bill out of the subcommittee.

It's been a work in progress and it still is.