I can afford it. Family values. In the last six months, as the new administration has taken hold, and as the repeal of the Affordable Care act has become the talk of the nation, in a more recent visit she said, weve delayed getting pregnant. Because were not sure if i can have insurance. If they repeal, they kill the obamacare, i wont have insurance. And we wont have a baby. Family family values. I want to talk about values. Family values and others. I used this last week and im going to use it over and over again, because this is a statement of values. This is from Franklin Roosevelt in the midst of the great depression. President roosevelt said this, the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is, rather, whether we provide enough for those who have too little. Thats a statement of value. Thats a statement of purpose. That is the reason why he and the democrats, during the great epression, took the actions, for example, social security, for those who have little, social security. And then again in the 1960s, for those who have little, this same statement of value came to place during Lyndon Johnsons presidency, the mocrats created medicare for seniors, men and women over 65, all you needed to do to get Health Insurance was to live until you were 65 years of age. And they also added medicaid for he poor and children and mothers. It was a statement of values. Its a statement of purpose, its a statement of where their heart lay and what they thought was important. And today, were working on the Affordable Care act. Sometimes, often called obamacare. Many of us proudly call it obamacare. Five million californians with Health Insurance across this nation, 20 million in every state. Although some states chose not to extend the method of buying insurance, the exchanges. And so the federal exchange exists. This house went the opposite direction. So what did it mean . The uninsured rate in america declined, down to the lowest number ever in our history, as men, women and families were able to get Health Insurance. I think of the farmer, a single woman in my district who never had insurance, never could get Health Insurance and couldnt afford it until the Affordable Care act, obamacare came along. She was able to get insurance and able to get cancer treatment. She didnt have insurance, she surely would have died. And so it is. We have countless examples. When i was insurance commissioner in california, we would always fight the Insurance Companies over their denial of insurance. Used to call it preexisting conditions. And since the Affordable Care act went into place in 2011 and 2012, preexisting conditions were no longer legal as a mechanism for denying insurance in the United States of america. Insurance companies could not, could not rate people on preexisting conditions. I remember those lists, two pages. As insurance commissioner people would come to me and say why do i have to fill out this form. Everything i have ever done in broken leg had to contagious sthma, diseases, are you a pilot . Are you into dirt bike and dirt bike racing . These were all reasons why insurance would be denied, but with the Affordable Care act, no more. That history was gone. And so, today, the president of the United States perhaps proudly, stood before the American People and he said i will let it die. I will let it die. I will let the Affordable Care act fail. So what is the message to the American Public . What is the message that the president of the United States, mr. Speaker, has said to the American Public . Mr. Speaker, he has said, i will work to deny the American PeopleHealth Insurance. Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States has in so many words said that he will take the American PeopleHealth Insurance. Not all of them. Just 20 million. Proactively take specific actions. And what are those actions, to tell the i. R. S. Not enforce the mandate so people will be able to go without insurance until they get some sickness and end up in the emergency room so everybody else can pay for their care. Will not allow the payment of the cross subsidies of those Insurance Companies that have enrolled and excessive amount of sick people and other Insurance Companies have enrolled a healthy population. That cross zizzation is critical. He will create more uncertainty so the Insurance Companies do not he know how to price their insurance. He has removed the ability for the federal exchange to advertise and for the state exchanges to advertise. There is no Insurance Company i can tell you from my own experience no Insurance Company they have to talk about what they are offering and sign people and have a cross subsidizzation. Ut he set up a system that those exchanges that are in existence in the states and fed ex changes will not have the money to advertise. Now california, were a big state. We can get along without President Trump. And so we have set up our own mechanism for providing advertising and a couple of other states have been able to do the same. But not every state. There has been discussion that the market is collapsing. I want to read to you an analysis done by the Kaiser Family foundation, an analysis hat came out a week ago that would counter the arguments that this is a collapsing argument. Let me read this but i think its worth understanding. Early results from the 2017 suggest the individual market is stabilizing and insurers in this market are regaining profitability. Insurer Financial Results show no sign of a market collapse. Perhaps i should read that again and perhaps the president might want to also read although i understand he doesnt but if he did, he should read the Kaiser Family foundations report coming out. Quote, insurers Financial Results show no sign of a market collapse. First quarter claims from 2017 support the notion that 2017 premiums, increases were necessary as a onetime market correction. To adjust for a sicker than expected risk pool. Im going to come back to that after reading this. Although individual market enrollees appear to be sicker than the prea. C. A. Hopization in this market suggests the risk pool is stable on average and not getting progressively sicker as of early 2017. Some insurers have exited the market in recent years, but others have been successful and expanded their footprints. As would be expected in a competitive marketplace. While the market on average is stabilizing, there remain parts of the country that are fragile. Policy uncertainty has the potential to destabilize the individual market generally. Mixed signals from the administration and congress as to whr costsharing subsidy payments will continue or whether the individual mandate will be enforced, have led some insurers to leave the market or request larger premium increases than they would otherwise. A few parts of the country may be at rick of having no insurer on the exchange. Though, new entrapts or expanding insurers have moved in to cover most areas previously thought to be at risk. Not my words, but rather the words of the Kaiser Family foundation. Speaker, the president apparently intends to destroy the Affordable Care act. By saying that it doesnt work. And ng fact, his actions may and, in fact, his actions may make a situation in which it would not work. And so i suppose if he has his way, we are going to see in 0818, a number of insured 2018, the number of uninsured rise to where it was before the Affordable Care act. And thats about 22 million americans without insurance. Well done, mr. President. Well done. If thats what you want, i want to know what your values are. What are your values . Mr. Speaker, i would ask the president , what are your values, mr. President . You have been supporting the republican legislation to repeal and replace. It happens to do much for those who have much. The largest single tax break for the wealthy ever in this nations history was in the legislation that passed the house of representatives with the repeal and replace legislation. So much so that mr. Trumps cabinet made up of the wealthiest cabinet would receive huge tax breaks, well over 4 million a year and much possibly a much higher number. Those are not the values of the democratic party. Those are not the values of president roosevelt. And those are clearly not the value of americans. We care about each other, who are concerned about those who have little. Ask the American Public if they want to do away with social security. Ask the American Public if they want to do away with medicaid. Do away with medicaid. Yes, 60 of the money in medicaid supports seniors and Nursing Homes. Want to do away with that . I dont think so. But thats what it would do. Now the Affordable Care act does need to be improved. And the democrats have been trying to do that for some time. How can we do it . Many ideas have been proposed. And the legislation was heard in committees here, the democrats proposed several amendments to improve the Affordable Care act. The First Amendment was to do away with the repeal, but of course that didnt pass in committee and certainly wasnt on the floor. So, how do you deal with improving the Affordable Care act . Lets start with drugs. We know that for the medicare system that the federal government cannot negotiate the price of drugs and for the exchanges, the fed ex changes. We cannot negotiate the price of drugs. It was a law that was written with Medicare Part b back in 2002 and 2003. So why cant we negotiate the price of drugs . We ought to be able to do that. Lets negotiate the price of drugs. How about another one . How about how about consumer services. Increasing the risk pool. Increasing the number of men and women that are in the pool. By advertising. I talked earlier about the president , removing the money for advertising on the federal exchanges and state exchanges. You want to improve it, improve the risk pool. A broad risk pool is a fundamental fact of any Insurance Program that is successful. But to take overt action, to diminish the risk pool and to put into the risk pool less Healthy People and to keep people who are healthy out of the risk pool, please keep in mind that any of us at any particular day may find ourselves in need of very serious medical attention. Perhaps a car accident. Erhaps a contagious disease. Zika. Who knows what it might be. Or a pregnant. So expand the pregnancy. So expand the risk pool by advertising. By enforcing the mandate, which is the third element that could be done. The president has already taken action. Already taken action to tell the i. R. S. Not to enforce the mandate. And so the young, healthy invincibles shirk the law, knowing that they dont ever have to pay a penalty because the i. R. S. Is not looking. Ok. If thats what you want to do. But, however, if you want to improve the health care of america, if you want to hold premiums stable and perhaps even declining, expand that risk pool. Ow about a few other things. When the Affordable Care act passed the house of representatives in 2010 excuse me, 2009, there was a public option in it. Unfortunately the senate wouldnt stand for a public option. Bring the public option back. So that there would be a National Public option Insurance Company available to everybody. Bring that back. Thats another idea that ought to be in the improvement of it. Another thing, states can and have successfully modified the Medicaid Programs in their state. Expand the ability of states to experiment with different ways of providing services under the Medicaid Program. Not by eliminating it. As the republicans would do. That is eliminating the expansion, as the republicans would do in their repeal. And in trumpcare. But rather allow the states to experiment with different ways of providing the medical services and the Medicaid Program. There are some great ideas out there. We know that many of the people n medicaid have long illnesses. High Blood Pressure. Perhaps they have other illnesses that require constant care. We know that there are examples of programs that provide Going Services so that these illnesses are constantly being able to be monitored and dealt with. You want to deal with Blood Pressure . Take a couple of cheap pills and you keep the Blood Pressure down and you avoid stroke. And diabetes and the like. Those programs should be existing in most states and most Medicaid Programs. And so we ought to provide the opportunity for the states to experiment with different ways of keeping down the cost of medical services. There are many other things that we can do with regard to the Delivery Systems. Californias been a leader in creating various Delivery Systems that do keep down the cost of care. Comprehensive delivery system. Preexisting conditions being taken care of. And so we can do that with a variety of ways. All of these should be on the floor of the house of representatives, in the senate, and presented to the president. As we have the Affordable Care act in place and we have ideas on how it can be improved. Rograms such as mandatory care. All of those can be taken into consideration. But, no. Were not going to do that. Were just going to let the Affordable Care act die. So says our president. Its unbelievable. To you sign on, presumably provide more opportunity for americans, to provide better medical care for americans. But, no, thats not whats going to happen here. The president of the United States says hes going to let it die. Let it collapse. How cruel. How harsh. And how unlike previous president s. And i pray future president s. President of b as the United States is to carry out yeah. The preamble to the constitution. To form a better union. But, apparently thats not the case with this president. So the Affordable Care act is the law of the land. And it is the responsibility of the president to carry out the laws of the land. And that includes things that e thinks may be discretionary. Such as the i. R. S. Mandate. Such as the advertising. The crosssubsidization for those Insurance Companies that have higher risk pools than other Insurance Companies. We live in a very, very important moment. Where at risk are 22 million, 23 million, 24 million american lives. Stood ly four senators strong and courageous and said no, they were not going to support the repeal of the Affordable Care act. Its not over. This fight is going to go on for some time. And as it goes on, i would hope the American People understand what is at risk. The wellbeing of their neighbors, it is the health of their communities, and indeed in some cases it may be their own life. Well see. But today a good thing happened. Actually it was yesterday. A good thing happened. The senate was unable to pass a repeal of the Affordable Care act and a replacement that was in every way a terrible, terrible blow to americans. Were thankful and we look to the future. And we look to the fight ahead. I can tell you this, my colleagues on the democratic side are absolutely determined that the Affordable Care act be improved and that it continue to be the law of the land and that the millions upon millions of americans that have had the opportunity to purchase Health Insurance, to be covered in health exchanges, to be covered under the expansion of the Medicaid Program were there for them. And were going fight this and we will succeed. Because americans know what is t risk in the legislation that passed the house represent the house of representatives, and the legislation that almost, almost passed the senate. This isnt over. Our determination to stay the line remains. With that, mr. Speaker, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Under the s