Ladies and gentlemen, the president and Vice President of the United States. [applause] Vice President pence speaker ryan, majority leader mccarthy, majority whip scalise, chairwoman mcmorris rodgers, chairman brady, chairman walden, chairwoman black, congressman macarthur, congressman meadows, and all the principled members of congress who are standing with us today, on behalf of President Donald Trump and the first family, welcome to the white house. [applause] Vice President pence and thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump, welcome to the beginning of the end of obamacare. Cheers and applause] Vice President pence it was march, 2010, seven years ago, democrats passed the government takeover of health care, and at that time republicans in congress promised the American People that law would not stand. Today, thanks to the perseverance, the determination and the leadership of President Donald Trump and all the support of those gathered here, weve taken a historic first step to repeal and replace obamacare and finally give the American People the kind of health care they deserve. [applause] Vice President pence so today, with heartfelt gratitude for all he has done to keep his word to the American People and for all he will do to continue to make America Great again, it is my high honor and distinct privilege to introduce to you the president of the United States of america, President Donald Trump. Cheers and applause] President Trump thank you. Thank you. Thank you, mike. [applause] President Trump thank you. Thank you very much. This really is the group. What a great group of people, and not even doing it for the party. They are doing it for this country because we suffered with obamacare. I went through two years of campaigning and im telling you, no matter where i went, people were suffering so badly with the ravages of obamacare. And i will say this, that as far as im concerned, your premiums, they are going to start to come down. We are going to get this passed through the senate. I feel so confident. Your deductibles, when it comes to deductibles, they were so ridiculous that nobody got to use their current plan. This nonexistent plan that i heard so many wonderful things about over the last three or four days. I dont think you are going to hear so much right now. The Insurance Companies are fleeing. Its been a catastrophe. This is a great plan. I think this will get better. Make no mistake. This is a repeal and replace of obamacare, make no mistake about it. Make no mistake. [applause] President Trump and i think most importantly, yes, premiums will be coming down. Yes, deductibles will be coming down, but very importantly, its a great plan and ultimately thats what its all about. We knew that wasnt going to work. I predicted it a long time ago. I said its failing, and now its obvious that its failing. Its dead. Its essentially dead. If we dont pay lots of rents or money over to the Insurance Companies it would die immediately. So what we have is something very, very incredibly wellcrafted. I tell you what, there is a lot of talent standing behind me, an unbelievable amount of talent, that i can tell you. I mean it. [applause] President Trump and, you know, coming from a different world and only being a politician for a short period of time, how am i doing . Am i doing ok . Hey, im president. Im president. Could you believe it . I dont know. I thought you needed a little more time, they always told me, more time, but we didnt. But we have an Amazing Group of people standing behind me. They work so hard. They worked so long and what i said, lets do this. Lets go out. Just short little shots for each one of us and say how good this plan is. We dont have to talk about this unbelievable victory. It wasnt unbelievable so we dont have to say it again. But its going to be an unbelievable victory, actually, when we actually get it through the senate and theres so much spirit there. I said, lets go out. We have a list of some of the people. I think after that list goes, if they dont talk too long, our first list, we are going to let some of the other folks come up and say whatever you want. But we want to brag about the plan because this plan really uhoh. Well, we may. But were just going to talk a little bit about the plan, how good it is, some of the great features. I want to thank paul ryan. He has [applause] President Trump worked so hard. You know, i was joking. I said, paul, for the last week i have been hearing paul ryan doesnt have it. Its not working with paul ryan. Hes going to get rid of paul ryan. Then today i heard paul ryans a genius. Hes come a long you know, the groups have all come together. We have the tuesday group. We have so many groups. We have the Freedom Caucus. We have and they are all great people. We have a lot of groups, but they all came together. Really, paul, id say in the last three, four days, especially in the last day, i see mark and i see kevin. I see so many people, jim. We just have developed a bond. This has really brought the Republican Party together. As much as weve come up with a eally Incredible Health care plan, this has brought the Republican Party together. Were going to get this finished and then were going, as you know we put our tax plan in. Its a massive tax cut. The biggest tax cut in the history of our country. I used to say the biggest since ronald reagan. Now its bigger than that. Also, pure tax reform. So were going to get that done next. And this really helps it. A lot of people say, how come you kept pushing health care knowing how tough it is . Dont forget obamacare took 17 months. Hillary clinton tried so hard really valiantly in all fairness to get health care through. Didnt happen. We really have been doing this for eight weeks, if you think about it. And this is a real plan. This is a great plan. And we had no support from the other party. So i just want to introduce somebody to say a few words who really has been, i think, treated very unfairly but it no longer matters because we won and we are going to finish it off and we are going to go onto a lot of other things and we are going to have a tremendous four years and maybe even more importantly we are going to have a tremendous eight years but were going to start off with just a great first year. And paul ryan, come up and say a few words. Congratulations on a job well done. Cheers and applause] speaker ryan thank you. First, thank you, mr. President. Thank you. Thank you for your leadership. There are too many people to name who played such an Important Role in helping us get to this part, but i want to thank a few people in particular. I want to thank chairman greg walden, kevin brady, diane black, Pete Sessions and the members of their committees for all the hard work they put in to getting us to this point. [applause] speaker ryan i want to thank all the other members who contributed to making this the best bill possible. It really was a collaborative, consensusdriven effort. I want to thank the team here at the white house. I want to thank tom price. I want to take Mick Mulvaney and reince priebus. We couldnt have done this without you, gentlemen. You guys are the best. [applause] speaker ryan of course, this would not have been possible if it werent for these two gentlemen behind me. This is the fourth presidency i have been part of. I have never seen any kind of engagement like this. I want to thank mike pence and i want to thank donald trump for their personal involvement in working with our members and working to get this right, for getting this done and getting us to where we are. Thank you, gentlemen. [applause] speaker ryan today was a big day, but it is just one step in this process, an important step. We still have a lot of work to do to get this signed into law, and i know that our friends over in the senate are eager to get to work. [laughter] speaker ryan they are. Were going to see that work through. You know why we are going to see this worked through . Because the issues are just too important. The stakes are just too high. The problems facing American Families are real and the problems facing American Families as a result of obamacare are just too dire and too urgent. Just this week, just this week we learned of another state, iowa, where the last remaining Health Care Plan is pulling out of 94 of their 99 counties, leaving most of their citizens with no plans on the obama market at all. What kind of protection is obamacare if there are no plans to choose from . And this is a trend we are seeing all across the country. The truth is this law has failed and is collapsing. Premiums are skyrocketing and choices are disappearing and it is only getting worse, spiraling out of control. And that is why we have to repeal this law and put in place a real vibrant marketplace with competition and lower premiums for families. Thats what the American Health care act is all about. It makes health care more affordable. It takes care of our most vulnerable, and it shifts power from washington back to the states and most importantly back to you, the patient. Like i said, we got a lot of work to do, but one thing is now clear. Republicans are committed to keeping our promise to lift the burden of obamacare from the American People and put in place a better, more patientcentered system. It is my pleasure at this time to thank and to welcome to the stage someone who helped make this so possible, our very talented majority leader, kevin mccarthy. [applause] mr. Mccarthy i remember the very first time i came down here to see the new president , President Trump. We talked about health care. You know what the president said . He said, lets not make this partisan. Dont do what you think is right for the Republican Party. Do whats right for the american country. And today thats exactly what we did. You see, if you simply read the papers from this week, you take politics out of it and you put people before politics, how do you look in the faces of 94 counties in iowa out of 99 . Not that they will have very many choices, they will have no choice. How do you care for preexisting conditions when theres no care at all . Or you read the paper yesterday and you look at aetna pulling out of virginia or to tennessee next year with 16 counties with no care. Or what about those families that paid into those 23 coops that obamacare created with 22 billion . 18 of them collapsed. And the only american this American Government gives them is a penalty and the only answer this American Government gives them is a penalty. If you simply look at the facts, more people took the penalty or he exemption than actually signed up for obamacare. I did not run to this office to promote a party. I ran for this office to make this country better. Yeah, it would be easy to say no. It would be easy to watch it collapse, but i cant look at those families. I dont think thats right, and thats the exact message i got from this administration. So mr. President , i want to thank you. I want to thank you for your leadership. I want to thank the Vice President. You know, ive only but through a few president s, but ive never seen someone so hands on. Walk into my Office Yesterday morning and said the president s calling again. I pick up the phone [laughter] mr. Mccarthy i happen to be the majority leader, former whip. I know my members well. The president gives me a list who i think would be best to talk on the list and he was right. [laughter] mr. Mccarthy and mr. President , they all voted for the bill. [applause] mr. Mccarthy today is a start. Today is a start of a new beginning. Yes, its about providing Better Health care, but i happen to have been a Small Business owner. I listened to my district. You know how many families no longer have a 40hour job and now have to take two parttime jobs . Or how many Small Businesses told me that they couldnt expand any more because they were afraid of what obamacare would do for them . We are going to unshackle, build an economy, let people have greater choice in their health care and protect preexisting conditions. And i thank you for that work. I want to call up [applause] mr. Mccarthy i was this job before being majority whip. I never had to go through a bill like this, and i will tell you being the whip really isnt one person. The deputy whip should get a lot of credit as well. [applause] mr. Mccarthy patrick mchenry. Hip Steve Scalise never gave up, answered every question and the team between scalise and mchenry i put beyond any team we ever had. I give you the whip Steve Scalise. Mr. Scalise today we took the first step toward rescuing families from the failures of obamacare. Weve been seeing it play out all across the country. This isnt some hypothetical discussion. You see families struggling in every part of our country. I heard from families you will all the time in my district in Southeast Louisiana sharing with me stories of doubledigit premium increases every single year. When we had the 27 1 2hour markup before the house energy and Commerce Committee, longest they said in the history of congress to pass this bill out of committee, we had a long and important discussion about Health Care Policy in america and how this isnt about achieving some kind of political goal. Its about families, families who are struggling under the weight of this law that doesnt work. And so i reached out to my own constituents and said, share with me some of the stories and how this law, obamacare, is affecting you personally. And unfortunately i got a lot of horror stories. You know, we talked a lot about protecting people with preexisting conditions in the context of this bill, and there are so many things, multiple, ultimate am layers in our bill that we passed multiple layers in our bill we passed today that not only protections people with preexisting conditions but actually focus real targeted money on lowering premiums for families with preexisting conditions. And so during the committee hearing, might have been around 3 00 in the morning, i shared a story of one of those constituents, chris from slidell, who sent me a letter and talked about their family having preexisting conditions. They have a Family Member with preexisting conditions and how because of the problems with obamacare, theyre paying doubledigit increases but this is the real story for families that have preexisting conditions that are truly being hurt by obamacare. One of the Untold Stories are the dramatic increases in deductibles. So there are a lot of families across the country that have over 10,000 deductibles. For most people that means they cant use the health care they have in obamacare. What chris told me was, not only when we go to the doctor do we have to pay so much for our premium but almost everything we do were paying out of pocket because we have such a large deductible. So basically im paying a lot of money for a Health Care Plan that doesnt work for me. Please provide relief for my family. We hear these stories over and over. And whats been so encouraging about this debate is that from the very beginning, every member of congress thats been involved in trying to get this bill passed has been focused on two main things. And the first one is lowering premiums for families that are struggling. And the second is making sure that patients and doctors are the ones that make their own Health Care Decisions. Unelected bureaucrats in washington should not have anything to do with the Health Care Decisions made between a patient and their doctor, and hat ends with this bill. [applause] mr. Scalise and so as we went through this process and it took weeks. Some people wanted it to take a couple of days but we said we want to take the time to get it right because it affects every person in this country and every change that was made along the way made this bill better. Almost every change that was made along the way was focused on lowering premiums. Of course, you had a lot of other things we wanted to do. We reformed the Medicaid Program, one of the most broken parts of health care. Anybody will tell you is medicaid. And so we actually give governors and states the flexibility to go and be innovative and do things that will in a much more targeted way help lowincome families in a way that medicare is failing them today. Thats another important aspect of this bill. But we wouldnt be here today without the work and the help of the president and the Vice President of the United States directly getting involved because every meeting we had with members that wanted to get additional components added to the bill, President Trump said, bring them into the white house. I want to meet with them. I want to talk with them about how we can actually lower premiums, because President Trumps focus from the beginning was the same thing. He knows obamacare fails. But its failing because its hurting families and he said, how can we lower premiums . How can we give patients more control of their health care . And ultimately all of the meetings that we had along the way that made this bill better were focused on those objectives. And thats why its so important we got this first step done today. Theres a lot of work left to be done, and i look forward to the designate taking the action they Senate Taking the action they need to make but getting a bill to President Trumps desk to sign and put patients back in charge of their Health Care Decisions and lower remiums. And the man that led the charge in starting this process in the committee was the house energy and Commerce Committee chairman, greg walden. I want to bring him up. [applause] mr. Walden thank you, mr. Scalise. Ladies and gentlemen, mr. President , mr. Vice president , its been a pleasure and an honor to work with you hand in hand to get this bill to this point. And i want to tell what you a great team you have and what a great team i think we have in the congress and on the energy and Commerce Committee and our subcommittee chair mike burgess. Mike, come on out here for a second. Dr. Mike burgess did incredible work on this as well. [applause] mr. Walden you heard a lot about this goal to get to a doctorpatient relationship, to ake insurance affordable and available where they have lower cost and more competition. Its collapsing state by state, county by county. Last year there were 225 counties in america where you had one choice on the obamacare exchange. This year there are 1,022. And there are some counties where you have no choice. Thats not affordability. Thats not access. Thats not patient care. That is what were trying to reform in this legislation. You heard about medicaid reform. I started on medicaid reform in the 1989 session of the oregon legislature. I helped out there. We became the majority in 1990. I was majority leader in 1991. We continued these reforms to achieve this same goal of trying to get people care that they needed when they didnt have it. And i continue that battle today. We reached out to governors. We reached out to insurance commissioners. We reached out to innovators. I think about governor herbert out of utah who told us the story of having to petition c. M. S. , the old c. M. S. , not seema and tom c. M. S. , but to use a technology to communicate with his medicaid recipients who had that same technology. You and i would know that as email. Nine months later, the government here in washington denied his request to communicate with people that had email by email. They told him no. I asked the governor of utah, how much would that save your state . 9 million. Do you want to spend it in snail mail, postage or health are . Why do you need to go to washington, d. C. To get that kind of permission to begin with . What this legislation does is open up the states with the ability to innovate, make a real difference for the people of utah or the people of oregon or the people of florida. We can get this right. It is our duty. It is our obligation. This is the first step. I look forward to the partnership with the senate in continuing one with the white house until we get this signed into law. Thank you. [applause] mr. Walden now its my great pleasure to introduce the chairwoman of the budget committee, the chair who put us on this task, a nurse, incredibly capable legislator, diane black. [applause] mrs. Black thank you, greg. Some 45 years ago i graduated from Nursing School and when i graduated i took an oath of honor to devote myself to those committed to my care. And it is what brought me here to congress because i saw almost seven years ago what this was doing to those in my state. The people who come to me at church, that sought me in the grocery store, that stopped me wherever i am in a ball field with my grandchildren to tell me with tears in their eyes, please help us. Please help us. The premiums have gone up. The deductibles are so high we cannot even get the care even if we pay our premiums. It was breaking my heart and has been breaking my heart over those last seven years now that ive been hearing this. So this is a great day for us. This is just the beginning. We have the opportunity now to rescue people, to give them the opportunity to truly get them the kind of care they want, they deserve with the doctors they choose and a price they can afford. And thats what this celebration is about. Its not about politics. Its about looking those people in the eye. The people that were thrown off f their care in our state, 28,000 people lost their care in our risk program in one day. Ust like that. And this is a great day. Its just the beginning. Theres still more to be done. Im hopeful that the senate is even going to make this bill better. There are so many people to thank. A lot of them are standing back here, but most of all i want to say thank you to mr. President and mr. Vice president for being engaged, for giving an opportunity for our members to feel theyre being heard and at the end of the day to give something to the American People. Thats what this is all about. Now its my honor to bring to the podium my chairman of ways and means, representative brady. [applause] mr. Brady thank you, diane. Mr. President , mr. Vice president , i am proud on behalf of the ways and means committee, on behalf of our house republicans, again, to say thank you for your leadership. You know, i know this is just a first step, but make no mistake, this is a giant step toward a day yeah. [applause] mr. Brady toward a day when americans arent struggling under 1 trillion of tax hikes that hurt Small Businesses, that land on families, that drag our economy down, that hurt patients. Under this new law, its gone. We take a giant step toward a day when americans arent forced to buy health care they dont want and cant afford. And Small Businesses are no longer forced to offer health care their workers cant afford either. And we take a giant step today to a moment when americans can save in their Health Savings plans for those big outofpocket costs and they get a personal tax credit that can go with them job to job, state to home to raise a family or business. Even in retirement if they want. We can take that step so they can choose the health care they need, not the Health Care Washington thinks they need so this is a giant step forward. Ill finish with this. We know you have some big, big plans on ax reform. Bold plans. At least weve heard theyre great. [laughter] mr. Brady and i think they are. And make no mistake, today we have taken a giant step toward delivering bold tax reform that leapfrogs america into the leader around the world and simplifies this code like its never been done before. Mr. President , we intend to deliver on that promise too. [applause] mr. Brady now, im proud to introduce my friend from north carolina, the leader and the chairman of the Freedom Caucus who stayed at the table, worked to bring our conference together, mr. Mark meadows. [applause] mr. Meadows r. S. C. There are three numbers that matter today. 217, one and 318. Today we had a vote in the house, 217 votes actually came together from different districts from all across the country, from maine to california, from michigan to florida and in between. And all of those 217 members came from different districts that represented a different kind of people. And its a good day because of the number one, a president who wouldnt give up, a president [applause] mr. Meadows who got engaged. A president who said, you know, i dont care what the Mainstream Media is saying, were going to get this done and were going to make it better for the American People. And mr. President and mr. Vice president , for those late night calls, im glad that ill get some rest. [laughter] mr. Meadows but i want to thank you on behalf of the most critical number and thats the 318 million americans who now once again will be able to get Affordable Health care, to allow those decisions to be made between them and their doctor and once again, make sure that they dont have to go begging and figuring out how to pay for their Health Care Premium instead of their mortgage. So mr. President , its a great day for america. Its a great day for this administration, but its a truly great day for the American People. God bless and i have the honor of introducing someone that i didnt know real well before this all happened, and i use the term gentleman in the most appropriate way, the gentleman from new jersey, my good friend, tom macarthur. [applause] mr. Macarthur well, thank you, mark. And hello, friends. I have said from the beginning of this long process that this has to be about people, not bout politics. I watched my dad, who i love very much, hes in the latter stages of alzheimers right now, but i watched him all my life working three jobs to pay off medical bills because he had no insurance when my mother died of cancer when i was 4. He paid those bills off when i was in college. I remember the day he called me and told me he had finally lifted that burden, and i was roud of him. Im very thankful to have had a small part in moving a bill forward that will help every american be able to afford insurance so that nobody has to endure that. [applause] eight years ago, we had a president who faced a really important question. How do we get more americans insured . How do we help the most vulnerable among us . Its a really important question, and he and his party, for all their efforts, came up with the wrong answer. The answer was lets have more government control. Lets have more government imposition. Lets trust washington and not the states. And its failed. Today we have a president who is facing the same question. How do we make sure people with preexisting conditions, the most vulnerable among us, are protected. How do we get premiums to come down for everyone ills at the same time . How do we make sure every american has a chance in this area . And im proud to stand with a president who has a different answer a president who trusts the stakes and ultimately trusts the American People. So this is a big day. Its a first step. But its an important step to make sure we keep our promise and we care for the American People. Im really proud to be part of that. Its my [applause] its my honor to invite up the director of c. M. S. , the administrator. Thank you, congratulations to the president , the Vice President , and the leadership in the house. Ms. Verma i have spoken to a lot of moms like me, and they are so concerned about the rising costs of health care, paying for premiums and high deductibles, having an insurance card they cant use because its still unaffordable. For the Medicaid Program, i have worked in the Medicaid Program for over 20 years. The me cade program is our age Medicaid Program is our aged, our blind, pregnant moms, kids, disabled and the poor. These are people that have no other place to go but the Medicaid Program. And the status quo in the Medicaid Program is not acceptable. We can do better. And the big step that was taken today is a very important stride toward making that program work better. Toward getting governors the flex the flexibility to design programs that are innovative and actually improve health outcomes. Im so excited about this big step forward and i think its a great day for our country. So thank you for everybody that as involved in this. [applause] mr. Price it is a remarkable day and its a tai of great victory, not for politics or washington, d. C. But for the American People. Mr. President , you have you understand and appreciate the importance of teams and teamwork. This is a remarkable team that is assembled here that is trying to address one of the real conundrums and challenges this nation has and that is how to make certain we are able to provide the kind of quality care for every single american. Great teams dont just come together they need great leaders. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the privilege of being on your team and thank the Vice President and you for what youve done to date to make this happen. [applause] and weve gotten to this point right now because the men and women behind us have acted upon principles. Its the principle that patients and families and doctors ought to be making medical decisions, not washington, d. C. Its the principle that our Health Care System ought to be accessible for everybody, affordable for everybody, and of the highest quality and empower patients through transparency and accountability and choices. Thats che kind of principle these men and women act upon. I know thats the kind of principle the senate will bring to the table as they move forward and deal with this piece of legislation and i cant wait for the day, mr. President , where were able to come back to the white house and were able to gather with you as you put that pick up that pen and sign that piece of painer that will move us in a direction that will provide for patientcentered health care for every single american. God bless you. [applause] President Trump so the journey continues, we will get it done, we will have great, Great Health Care for everyone in our nation. We have an unbelievable country. An unbelievable country. I want to thank the men and women behind me, i want to thank at least some of the men and women in front of me. And of course i even want to thank the media. [laughter] thank you all very much, everybody. Hank you, thank you very much. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] were likely to hear more about the Health Care Bill passing the house tonight when President Trump is in new york city. Hell be there to commemorate a battle when the u. S. Joined forces with australia to defeat the japanese fleet. Live coverage beginning at 7 45 p. M. Ian. Congressman rodney davis of illinois tweeted this afternoon, great news, the house just passed the American Health care act to repeal and replace obamacare. Florida Democrat Stephanie murphy writes, trumpcare offends my conscience and hurt misconstituents, i voted no the only thing bipartisan about this bill was the opposition. The Health Care Replacement goes next to the senate. Delaware senator chris coombs sent this message. The bill thus