Ron Kind: “I thank the gentleman from Michigan for yielding me this time. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 5. Two years…”

“I thank the gentleman from Michigan for yielding me this time. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 5. Two years ago, the Affordable Care Act was passed, and I was a proud supporter of that legislation. Not because I thought it was the perfect bill, but because I thought it gave us the tools and the potential to reform a health care system that was in desperate need of reform, of putting things in place that could deliver better quality of care that is given for a better price, and also increasing access to health insurance throughout the country, and to finally address the 52 million uninsured Americans that we have living in our own communities. Yet the ultimate verdict on whether health care reform works or fails for everyone in this country is whether we can figure out creative ways of bringing down those costs in health care. One thing I do know under the health care reform bill that has been enacted is that in my congressional district in western Wisconsin, this year alone 4,200 young adults are able to stay on their parents' health care plan; whereas, before they couldn't. What a relief that has been to those families, making sure that those kids, many of whom are in school, can stay on the family plan. Of the 5,800 seniors this year who have fallen into the doughnut hole, they are seeing a cost savings of roughly $610 apiece because of the 50 percent price discount they now get under this legislation. That's not peanuts in western Wisconsin.…”