Sheila Jackson Lee: “I am delighted to join the Congressional Progressive Caucus, on which I serve as a vice chair. I remember this…”

“I am delighted to join the Congressional Progressive Caucus, on which I serve as a vice chair. I remember this experience less than a decade ago when we worked so hard to have the Affordable Care Act. For many, you are seeing this poster for the first time. I think I need to give you a little journey down memory lane as we talk about why we are so vigorously opposing what would seem to be new and fresh ideas. First of all, let me say the good thing about the Affordable Care Act is that it is not a respecter of economic standing as relates to the benefits of health insurance. We were able to grant every American the right to have insurance that did not penalize you for being a woman, penalize you for having a preexisting condition. In fact, it did lower premiums. We realize that in certain areas that is one of the beginning aspects of a bill that is only 7 years old, but one of the important points is that we have given you insurance that has more benefits than it ever had 10 years ago, 15 years ago. More importantly, working people who happen to be of low income and who are no less able or dignified or equal in this Nation now have insurance. It is insurance. The underpinning of it is Medicaid, but it is insurance. It allows families, pregnant women, and children to have insurance, people who are working. Then, on the other side, it has help for the blind, the disabled, as well for those in nursing homes. Remember, people in nursing homes have worked.…”