Mr. Murphy mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from connecticut. Mr. Murphy mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak to up to ten minutes each. The presiding officer the senate is in a quorum call. Mr. Murphy i ask that we dispense with the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Murphy and then ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak to up to ten minutes each. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Murphy i now ask that i be recognized to speak for as much as time as i may consume. The presiding officer the senator from connecticut is recognized for that purpose. Mr. Murphy thank you very much, mr. President. We now are in about the six months of implementation of the Affordable Care act and we have over 11 Million People who have received health care, who previously had not been able to receive it either through the private exchanges which have signed up four Million People all across the country or through the expansion of medicaid that have reached millions more or through all of the young people that have been able to stay on their plans until they are 26 years old. Taxpayers are saving money. In fact, c. B. O. Has redone their estimates for the tenyear period after the passage of the Affordable Care act to suggest that we are now going to save 1. 2 trillion on federal Health Care Spending in large part because of the reforms in the Affordable Care act. And across this country millions of americans who had been kept out of the ranks of the insured because of a preexisting condition now have access to health care and tens of millions of seniors are paying less for their health care because they get checkups for free and they are able to access prescription drugs when they get in the doughnut hole for 50 or less of the original cost. The Affordable Care act is changing lives. When you reorder onesixth of the American Economy there are going to be bumps along the road. Nobody should come down to this floor, even those of us who are the most vocal proponents of the law, and suggest that there arent going to be some people who are not going to have a perfect experience. And of course there is no excuse for the way in which the web site operated for the first several months. But its time for proponents of this law to tell the real story, and the real story is that the Affordable Care act is working. Its working for millions of americans who now have access to health care. Its working for taxpayers that are spending less than ever before. As you look at annual rates of growth in federal Health Care Spending. And today and this week, me and my colleagues are focusing on the benefits for one specific group of patients, one specific set of families all across this country. Those are patients and families dealing with cancer diagnoses. And so i want to start myself ill be joined later on by senator stabenow and some of my other colleagues. I want to talk first about a family, a family actually in indiana. Ill talk about some families in connecticut as well. The treenans have a story that is frankly not unique. They had insurance and they thought they had really good insurance. They didnt pay too much attention to the lifetime cap that was in their insurance policy of 1 million because they just figured as a relatively Healthy Family there was no way they were ever going to spend 1 million on health care over the course of their time on that Insurance Plan. But as millions of families across this country know, cancer can interrupt your plans, and thats what happened to the treenans. Their doctors diagnosed their teenage son michael in 2007 with an aggressive form of leukemia, and the treatment called for ten doses of chemotherapy that cost 10,000 per dose. A 56day stay in an intensive care unit alone cost about 400,000. Michael and his family reached that 1 million lifetime maximum in less than a year, and it was left to this brave family to go out and raise money in solicitations in their neighborhood, in their community and all across the country which miraculously allowed them to bring in 865,000 in six days to keep their sons treatment going. Now, needless to say, that avenue is not available to every family due to their ingenuity and their passion, the treenans were able to raise almost 1 million from private donors in order to keep their sons treatment going. The story, though, doesnt end well for the treenans. Though money came in from all over the United States and as far away as places like germany, michaels cancer eventually stopped responding to chemotherapy and he died may 25, before he could receive the transplant that he would hope would save his life. The reality is, is that Insurance Companies have been getting away with this practice for years. Lifetime or annual limits that for 105 million americans were preventing them from receiving care when they really got sick. Thats when insurance really is supposed to be. For those of us that buy insurance, we get it in the hopes that should we get very sick that, that Insurance Plan will be there to help us, but with annual and lifetime limits when people got really sick especially with cancer diagnoses, that help wasnt there. For tom bakacio, a retired Police Officer in newington, hes still tkaelg with the consequences of lifetime caps. His wife passed away an after eight year struggle with adrenal cancer and after her death the husband that she left behind was saddled with a 1. 5 million bill because the pachiaos over that eight year period of fighting cancer exceeded their fiveyear cap. That changed toms life in a myriad of ways. He lost his wife and there is no way to describe the pain that comes with that especially after this brave courageous battle of almost a decade but now his life is up ended by the fact he has a 1. 5 million bill hes got to pay and doesnt have the resources to do it. First and foremost for Cancer Patients across this country, 105 million americans no longer face lifetime limits on health benefits. For Cancer Patients, not only does that deliver Financial Security but it delivers mental and psychological security as well to know that in the midst of dealing with this diagnosis and all of the tphaeupb comes with con all the pain that comes with confronting this disease head on that they dont also have to worry about skim skimping on treatments, cutting back on hospital stays that might harm the recovery of the patient simply because they are trying not to get above that annual or lifetime limit. The benefits to Cancer Patients extend beyond just that protection on lifetime and annual limits. In addition, Cancer Patients are going to be able to keep their health care because of the ban on discrimination against families, individuals with preexisting conditions. I spoke about the burger family many times on this floor. They are a family that explains why they need this protection. They had a son who was diagnosed with cancer during the twoweek period in which the husband, through which the family had insurance, didnt have a job. He switched jobs, and during that twoweek period in which he was waiting to get insurance through his new job their son got diagnosed with cancer. The new insurance policy decided it was a preexisting condition. The burgers had to pay every dime of that treatment and they lost everything. They lost their savings. They lost their home, their lives were transformed because of the misfortune of having a cancer diagnosis at the wrong time. No no family anywhere in the country dealing with a cancer diagnose will have to go through what the burgers went through because forever here after, the law of this land says that if you have a preexisting condition, you cannot be discriminated against. There are all sorts of other benefits that matter here, whether it be the fact that you dont have to pay for Preventative Health care any longer so you can go get a checkup without cost or that trials are covered now, clinic trials are covered, which many Cancer Patients enjoy the benefit of. Life changed for Cancer Patients and families dealing with cancer when the Affordable Care act passed. We had a press conference, senator stabenow and myself and others earlier this week in which we heard the story of david weiss who is a senior at georgetown university, and he was diagnosed days before his 19th birthday with thyroid and lymphatic cancer. David talks about the difference that the Affordable Care act makes for him, not in financial terms but in terms about how he thinks about his future. David now can go out and get a job, search for and pursue a career based on what he wants to do with his life rather than based on what job will provide him with adequate benefits to treat his cancer should it recur. I have a constituent, aaron berrell who talks about it the same way. He was 14 when he was diagnosed with a form of leukemia. He went through treatment for over three years, and his family now knows that with the Affordable Care act, because hes only covered on his moms policy until he is 26, that with the Affordable Care act after he ages out of his moms plan, that he will be able to pursue his dreams, no matter what kind of Insurance Plan his prospective employer has. What we have learned over the years is that there is a connection between the mind and the body, and if you are stressed out about things like how youre going to pay for treatment for your disease, it does have an effect on your bodys ability to fight that disease. And unfortunately for millions of families who are dealing with cancer, their treatment has been restrained, their bodys recovery has been curtailed because they are obsessively and appropriately always worried about what will happen if their insurance runs out. The a. C. A. Says never again, no family will have to have that worry because coverage will be guaranteed and the discriminatory policies of annual and lifetime limits disappear. Mr. President , i will just end with the notion that its important to remember, every time that our republican friends come down to the floor and talk about how awful they believe the Affordable Care act is, that their proposal is to return Cancer Patients and families dealing with cancer back to the reality in which they had lifetime limits that ended their coverage for this family that i talked about from indiana after only several months and they want to go back to the day in which families like the burgers lose everything, their savings, their home because of a mistimed cancer diagnosis. This week, the house of representatives voted for the 50th time to repeal all or part of the Affordable Care act. I was a member of that body for six years, and i proudly participated in about 40 of those votes, and despite the fact that i heard lots of my republican friends come down to the floor and say were voting to repeal and replace, they never once voted to replace the Affordable Care act because their agenda is not to replace it. Their agenda is simply to repeal it and go back to the days in which Cancer Patients were treated with this kind of carelessness by our Nations Health care system. And so, mr. President , our colleagues on the democratic side who voted for the Affordable Care act, we understand that there are places that it can be better. We understand that there is a process of perfecting it, but we understand because of families like the berrells, because of families like the weisses and the treinans and burgers, they know that the a. C. A. Is working and they know they never want to go back to the day in which their lives were put in jeopardy by a Health Care System that didnt work for them. Thank you for the time, and i yield back the floor. The presiding officer the senator from michigan. Ms. Stabenow thank you, mr. President. I first want to thank my friend and colleague from connecticut for his passion and his wonderful advocacy for people who just want to know that they have health care for themselves and their families. Thats a pretty basic thing. I want to thank you, senator murphy, for your vigilance in speaking out and being here and talking about really what is at stake. You know, i was thinking about there is an ad. You have heard the ad before on tv that says Something Like new car, 30,000. New house, 150,000. Peace of mind, priceless. Peace of mind, priceless. What were talking about here in terms of access to Affordable Health care, getting what youre paying for, knowing you cant get dropped just before you just because you get sick, knowing that your child with juvenile diabetes can get care even though that would be viewed as a preexisting condition, thats peace of mind. I cant imagine how scary it must be to sit in a Doctors Office and have the doctor come in and say you have cancer, you have leukemia, you have Breast Cancer. Thats happening to people every single day, and there are many, many things going through their minds at that time. At some point they will turn to the doctor and want to talk about what kind of treatment do i need and is it going to be covered and how do i get it, whats going to happen . One in every eight women in america will develop invasive Breast Cancer during their lives. Its not a statistic. These are real women, like my sisterinlaw, like many, many other people that i know. They are our daughters and our sisters and our mothers. We have men as well who are being given diagnoses of Breast Cancer, our friends, and they now have the peace of mind of knowing that they are going to be able to get the care that they need at an affordable price, that they cant be dropped, that there is not a cap on how long they are going to be able to get treatment, and that is priceless. Id like to share a story, a true story about a cancer survivor whose life has been changed thanks to the Affordable Care act. Her names chris, chris g. She found a lump in her breast. Every woman can imagine the thoughts that must have gone through chris mind. The fear that must have been unimaginable. It was even worse for chris because her husband has lost his job and they didnt have insurance. The worst of all possible situations. And because she didnt have insurance, she couldnt see a doctor to get the tests that she needed. Chris didnt ignore her lump. You cant ignore Something Like that. Its on your mind every single minute of every single day, but at that moment, she didnt feel she could do anything about it. Because without insurance, if chris went to a doctor, her Breast Cancer, of course, would count as a preexisting condition, and then she would never be able to get insurance. But now, thanks to the Affordable Care act, chris and millions of women like her can get the affordable insurance that they need through the marketplaces where Insurance Companies now have to compete for her business, give their best price for her business, and these are good policies that cover treatments that women need to beat cancer and survive. But before the Affordable Care act, cancer would haunt these women for the rest of their lives. As Insurance Companies labeled their survival a preexisting condition. No more. Thanks to the a. C. A. , millions of cancer survivors like chris have peace of mind. Peace of mind, priceless. Thanks to the Affordable Care act, millions of women have access to mammograms, other preventative services. Thanks to the Affordable Care act, millions of women like chris will never have to worry about annual or lifetime limits on their coverage, not being told okay, cancer, you have got eight visits, thats it. Hope it works. Thats it. No more. In fact, the a. C. A. Flipped that around. It says that Cancer Patients like chris will never be asked to spend more than a set amount of money in total on their treatment, and once they hit that number, that outofpocket number, the Insurance Company has to pick up the rest of the costs of the treatments. For women fighting cancer, this law is a lifesaver, a lifesaver. There are 7,000 women in michigan alone who will be newly diagnosed with Breast Cancer this year. 7,000 women in my great state of michigan. And thats why it is so important for women to get covered, to sign up before march 31 so they can have the health care that they need this year. This is literally a lifesaving day of march 31. Once youre covered, you get no costpreventative services, so you can go in, you can get the checkup, you can get the mammogram, you can get other cancer screenings, you wont have outofpocket costs. You get again the peace of mind of knowing that youre not going to go broke because of health care, even if you get diagnosed with canc