Sheila Jackson Lee: “I am pleased to rise and support, enthusiastically, H.R. 987, the Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription…”

“I am pleased to rise and support, enthusiastically, H.R. 987, the Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act. This omnibus bill combines three key bills to lower drug costs by promoting generic competition--long overdue--and four key bills to strengthen healthcare, reverse the GOP sabotage, and rescind the Trump administration's devastating junk plan rule. I know full well what happens when individuals are impacted by junk plans, and they don't have the courage they need. I encourage my good friends on the other side of the aisle to drop politics and join with us to pass this legislation. This omnibus bill invests most of the savings of $13.8 billion created by its cracking down on junk plans into strengthening healthcare, which will fund about 500,000 additional enrollees into non-group coverage and Medicaid. Let me say to you, in 2017, due to the direct interference by the Trump administration, the number of uninsured people increased by 700,000, the first increase since implementation of the Affordable Care Act. I know full well that Texas, which is the number one State in the number of uninsured, is experiencing the devastation of not having the expanded Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act at its fullest. We had a roundtable discussion with people who experience diabetes. Insulin is going through the roof. These people are suffering.…”