WASHINGTON, DC— Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard E. Neal (D-MA) took to the House Floor to demand Republicans finally choose families over billionaires, extend the ACA tax credits, and prevent unaffordable premium hikes from decimating millions of Americans:
Opening Statement:
“This argument is about universal access. For years, the Republican leadership and this institution has attempted to avert this very moment. And for us, this is not to be about spiking the football. This is not to be about an end zone dance. This is about to declare a major victory for the American people, despite what we’ve heard. They have used every maneuver and procedure to prevent the very debate that we’re going to have for the next hour. All these years later, they’ve never even had a plan or an alternative. We can finally choose families, and they can join us today in extending the ACA tax credits and save health care for millions of members of the American family.
“How easily and quickly they did a massive tax cut for the wealthiest amongst us, while subsequently arguing that they could deny average men and women an opportunity for health insurance. So here we are, all these years later, as ones who helped to write the Affordable Care Act, the ACA is still standing. And we will continue to improve it every single year. And when you consider now the uninsured enrollment in America is down to 6% thanks to the ACA. If we did not do what we’re about to do in the next hour, a family of four making $130,000 would see their marketplace premium go from $921 to $1,992. That would be an 18.4% increase. Our enhanced credits make sure that nobody would pay more than 8.5% of their income for coverage. Now, Republicans think that people can afford to increase premiums by 37%, and that’s what they’re proposing today. They said two weeks ago that they had a health care plan that they wrote on Friday night. As I noted at the time, it was held together by bubble gum and Elmer’s glue. And by the way, we never even got to see it.
“If they had a health plan alternative, they should have showed it to us. Let me say this, Mr. Speaker: this is a good day for the American family. This is an important consideration for this institution. Despite repeated denials and efforts to thwart this very moment, in the next hour, we’re going to do for the American family what we said we would do. And that’s to extend these tax credits for the ACA. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.”
Closing Statement:
“It’s too bad that we had to play this out to the anxiety and consternation of the American people. Think of what this might be like if you didn’t know a month ago whether or not your children were going to have health insurance. Think of the anguish that you might feel proceeding to the cut through the holidays. Not knowing whether or not that child would be able to complete the doctor’s appointment that you had made for them because you didn’t have health insurance.
“I didn’t hear the other side complaining about keeping 26 year olds on your parent’s health insurance. How about the idea that in the ACA, we were able to abolish preexisting conditions for millions and millions of Americans who had been routinely denied the opportunity to access even primary care? I call attention to this because I have watched over these years how the ACA has not only become more popular, but the American people have come to expect the benefits of the ACA.
“This argument for those of us who were here and participated at the time, was not really complex at all. The argument was that we would proceed on the basis of the notion of universal access. That you wouldn’t have to worry that if you went to the emergency room, that somehow you might be turned away because you would not be able to pay another bill.
“We don’t get a chance on this earth to predict when we’re going to get sick. That’s the basis actuarial realities of what insurance is about. For example, we don’t get to buy homeowner’s insurance after the house is burned down. We don’t get to buy life insurance after we die. The idea of what we did here was to spread the notion of risk, an entirely reasonable consequence offered by former President Obama.
“And, by the way, the steadfast determination at that time of Speaker Pelosi. This was negotiated across the board with all members of the health care system, and we came up with a reasonable solution that we continue to build upon. So let me point out a couple of pretty important statistics.
“Four years straight of record enrollment in the Affordable Care Act, 24.3 million Americans have now signed up. That’s what we had in mind. When you look back at these enhanced premium tax credits, we keep hearing the other side say things like, ‘Oh, there’s billionaires and millionaires that are deriving the benefit.’ JCT said, ‘Nobody over $500,000 is getting this benefit.’
“And we’re open to these conversations as you go forward as well. But only 38% of their tax cuts, in order to the benefit of people at the lower end of the economic spectrum. By [extending] these enhanced tax credits, we will stop the Republican assault on the ACA. They have repeatedly said that they want to work with us, but there’s been no effort on the Republican side to work with us on expanding and extending these tax credits.
“There’s been no concerted effort from our Republican colleagues to really put out a piece of legislation, a tax bill that stands up under the magnifying glass of critical analysis. It’s patchwork. It’s announced every time we get near some cliff in the debate that somehow they’ve got a health care plan. We haven’t seen it yet. I’m going to close, Mr. Speaker, by saying the same words I opened with.
“This is a most significant day. This is a happy day for the American people.”
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