Political Quotes

“Congresswoman Demings, in fact, you do have a lot to lose. We see how Florida, with its elders, its senior citizens, will really take a major hit if this law is passed. And our colleagues have been giving us examples all the time. I am always trying to let them know that the Virgin Islands stands as an example of what it will look like if the Affordable Care Act is repealed because the Virgin Islands doesn't have the expansion. We were not put in the mandate for the exchange, and that has led to 30 percent of Virgin Islanders having absolutely no health insurance, which then means that our hospitals are strained because the hospitals have to pick up costs for individuals who are without health care. Listen, if your child is ill or sick, or you are dying, you are going to go to the hospital whether you can take care of it or not, whether you can pay the bill or not; and that has put a tremendous burden on our hospitals for them to meet the costs of those 30 percent of individuals living in the Virgin Islands who do not have health insurance, are not covered by either the government group insurance for the local government or by the Medicaid money that we utilized because we did not have the expansion. And even that is scheduled to leave after the fiscal year 2019, and we are going to have to make choices of removing people from Medicaid, of removing care from children, removing care from elderly and from individuals with disabilities.…”