Mr. President, I come to the floor today in support of the Patient Protection and Affordability Act, and I wish to give some of the reasons why I am supporting this important piece of legislation. Before my colleague leaves the floor, I…
Mr. President, I come to the floor today in support of the Patient Protection and Affordability Act, and I wish to give some of the reasons why I am supporting this important piece of legislation.
Before my colleague leaves the floor, I would like to respond to his last comment. One of the reasons the American people are having difficulty believing the government can do anything right is that he and his colleagues have spent the last several decades convincing them that the government is the problem and that the government can't do anything right.
Even in the face of strong evidence that suggests otherwise, they continue that worn-out, tired mantra. People in my State and around the Nation are getting tired of it because they know that government must stand sometimes to protect them from abusive practices in the private marketplace, abusive practices of insurance companies, to try to level the playing field and set the rules. Of course, those on the other side don't believe in a level playing field and rules. They believe citizens in our country should be at the whim and mercy of the private market. That has been their philosophy for decades. That is not the philosophy of the Democratic Party. We believe in a public-private partnership. We believe in a level playing field. We believe in giving people the opportunity to earn their way, with fair rules in place. That party has never believed that, and that is at great issue in the underlying debate. They can continue to fabricate myths and lies about this bill, but those of us who support it will proudly continue to tell the truth about it.
I have served in public office for 30 years as a State legislator, State treasurer, and now as a United States Senator. But it doesn't take 30 years to know the health care system our citizens live under and live with today is expensive, wasteful, and painfully inefficient.
From my visits with doctors and nurses, to seniors on Medicare, to recent college graduates struggling to afford coverage, to dozens and dozens of small business owners who are frightened to death that they are not going to be able to continue in their business because of the rising cost of health care, it has become clear to me that the time for reform is now.
In Louisiana, the average family spends more than $12,000 each year for health insurance. That is almost 100 percent of the earnings of a person who is working 40 hours a week at the minimum wage. Think about that. Only in one developed country in the world would we have a system that says if you go to work 40 or 50 hours a week, you have the privilege of taking all that money and having to purchase health care in the system that my colleagues on the other side want to advocate for. That is wrong. We must drive down the cost to the government, to businesses, and to families. This bill will begin to do that.
Since 2000, the amount that working families are charged for health insurance has increased by 91 percent. That doesn't seem to concern my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. If this Congress stood by and did nothing, those costs would nearly double in the next 6 years, with economists predicting that families in my State will pay a whopping $23,000 for insurance in 2016--an 85-percent increase. To say that a different way, that means that if we do nothing, the average family in Louisiana will be paying 60 percent of their income for health care--if they can find it and if they can get around a preexisting condition--leaving only 40 percent of their wages to cover food, education, children, housing, transportation, and everything else families need their funds for.
These skyrocketing costs are burdening families not just in Louisiana but in every State. We don't have a choice but to change. We cannot continue to rely just on the private market without reform, without guidelines, and without incentives to change. Our people will be priced out of the market. Maybe that is what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want. That is not what I want.
Small businesses are struggling to remain competitive and to turn a profit. In the face of highly unstable and unpredictable health care costs this is getting harder and harder. As chair of the Small Business Committee, I have held 23 hearings and roundtables just this year, and several of them have been focused on how the current health care system and volatile health care costs are hurting our Nation's small businesses.
Today, small businesses are seeing their health care costs increase faster than the prices of the products and services they sell four times faster than the rate of inflation since 2001. Premiums for single policies increased by 74 percent for small businesses in the last eight years, according to a 2009 Kaiser Family Foundation survey. Nationally, 40 percent of small businesses say that health care costs have had a negative impact on other parts of their business.
What are we supposed to do, stand here and do nothing? No--that is why acting now is so important. That is why this bill is so important, because the status quo is unsustainable. It is unsustainable for our government and it is unsustainable for small businesses.
Even though families, businesses, and government budgets are being squeezed by unsustainable costs, Senate Republicans are doing everything they can to argue for the status quo. Why? I don't know. Each day, they find a new excuse for their obstruction. I wish they had put the same amount of passion, energy, and creative thinking into contributing policies and ideas to this debate as they have into their delaying tactics. Every amendment they offered was to send the bill backward, not forward. They seem hell-bent on defeating and not improving this bill, contrary to their statements on the floor.
The Republicans have charged that we are rushing in to vote for this bill. That is simply not true. We have been debating this issue on and off for the last 87 years.
Republican President, Theodore Roosevelt, made national health insurance a plank in his party platform when he sought the Presidency in 1912. President Harry Truman, in 1945 and then again in 1948, called on Congress to pass reform legislation to expand quality health care coverage to more Americans. President Truman believed we needed a stronger system and that the federal government must play a role in establishing a more robust system of care. His critics called his approach ``socialized medicine.'' Sound familiar?
Only in Washington would 87 years be considered rushing!
This has been a debate that has gone on with particular intensity for the last 2 years, as our Presidential candidates took to the airwaves in debate after debate--Republican and Democratic--outlining their ideas for reform. This hasn't sprung up in the last
2 weeks. This hasn't sprung up in the last 2 months.
Millions of Americans went to the polls, understanding, in large measure, what we needed to do to change the system. Despite the rhetoric from the other side, that is the reality, and the record will reflect that. Instead of coming to the table and working with Democrats to write a bipartisan bill, Republicans chose to put partisan party politics first. I listened to my friend, Max Baucus, this morning. I, myself, who thought I had followed carefully the work of the Senate Finance Committee, was actually moved to hear the number of meetings-- dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds and hundreds of meetings--he attempted to have in a bipartisan way months ago, years ago, with Republicans. Then, at some point, they decided they thought that politics was more important than policy. I think they made the wrong choice.
They fabricated death panels, distorted Medicare cuts, and undermined and disrespected the role of government in protecting its citizens. They have engaged in a relentless misinformation campaign, aimed solely at using fear to sway public opinion against this bill.
Recently--just yesterday--Senator John McCain, our colleague from Arizona, claimed that the American people are opposed to reform, and he speaks about the will of the majority. I remind my colleague from Arizona that the will of the majority spoke loud and clear last year when they elected President Obama to be President and decided not to elect him. The President is carrying out the will of the majority of the people by trying to provide for them hope and opportunity in an area that has eluded us for 87 years.
This is a good effort, a strong effort, and I most certainly believe that the will of the American people is being heard. The other side has tried to paint a picture of a nation opposed to health care reform. Recent polls show otherwise. When we cut through the misinformation and scare tactics, when Americans hear what is in the bill, they overwhelmingly support it.
According to a recent CNN poll, 73 percent of Americans support expanding Medicaid for the poor. Americans know what most of us know: Most people on Medicaid are the working poor. These are people who wake up early in the morning, work hard all day, and they go back home at night, often by taking public transportation because they don't have an automobile. They work hard. They are American citizens. But they don't have enough money to spend 60 percent or 80 percent of their income on health insurance in a broken, unbridled, unfixed private market. So we join together with our States to provide them access to care through the Medicaid system. I support that. And in this bill, the Federal Government will pick up a large share of the cost of expanding coverage.
That same poll showed that providing subsidies for families that make up to $88,000 a year is favored by 67 percent of Americans. Additional regulations on insurance companies, such as banning denial of coverage for those with preexisting conditions are favored by 60 percent of the American people.
I am one of the Democrats who didn't want to eliminate insurance companies. I believe in private markets. But there have to be certain rules and regulations in order for the private market to work for everyone, and not just for those with wealth or those with the inside scoop on how private markets work.
So we are incentivizing a healthier insurance industry--not coddling it but encouraging it to be competitive and to provide services and coverage for more people in our country.
A recent poll by the Mellman Group shows that support for this bill exists in all States. In my home State of Louisiana, when the provisions of the bill were actually read to voters, 57 percent of Louisianians supported the bill, with 43 percent strongly supporting the reform effort. And most importantly, 62 percent of Louisianians oppose using the filibuster to stop health care reform.
I will read the language used in the poll because people say you can say anything in polls, which is true. If pollsters are not reputable, they can twist and distort. I will read the language used by the poll to describe the plan:
The plan would require every American citizen to have
health insurance and require large employers to provide
coverage to their employees. It would require insurance
companies to cover those with pre-existing conditions and
prevent them from dropping coverage for people who get sick,
while providing incentives for affordable preventive care.
Individuals and small businesses that do not have coverage
would be able to select a private insurance plan from a range
of options sold on a National Insurance Exchange. Lower and
middle income people would receive subsidies to help them
afford this insurance, while those individuals who like the
coverage they already have will be able to keep their current
plan.
This is a very accurate description of this bill before us--the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It is not a government takeover. There is no public option. There is a national plan available now to every American, just like the Members of Congress and the Federal employees have. There will be exchanges--similar to shopping centers--and Americans will be go to the exchanges and choose from a number of insurance options. The prices will be more transparent. Administrative costs will be lowered. You will not need a Ph.D. to be able to read these policies--they will be written in plain English.
Again, this is not a government takeover, as the other side claims. That is why 57 percent of people in Louisiana, when given the right information, without the rhetoric, without the railing, without the distortions, say: Absolutely, I am for a public-private partnership.
The American people elected President Obama to bring about change. A big part of the change President Obama and Democrats promised during the campaign was improving health care for all Americans. Thanks to the President's leadership and the leadership of Senator Reid and many others, we are taking several meaningful steps toward fulfilling that promise.
With the exception of two colleagues, Republicans have failed to negotiate in good faith. I want to say how much I respect our two colleagues from Maine, Senator Snowe and Senator Collins. I have been in dozens of meetings with both of them and know that they struggled mightily to find a way to work with us and to support this bill. I have not spoken with them in the last few days, so I will not discuss their reasons for withholding their support. I am sure they will express those on the floor. But I can say that they are the exception to the rule. I know Senator Grassley, Senator Graham, Senator Bennett, and a few others engaged early on. I want to acknowledge them and I appreciate their good will. But, unfortunately, the leadership of the Republican Party chose politics over policy. I am disappointed that not a single Republican could support an end to the filibuster. I suppose it is easy to stay unified when the only word in your vocabulary is NO. Although Democrats did not initially agree on exactly how to get there, we were united in saying yes to the common goal of delivering meaningful health care reform to America's families and small businesses. It has been difficult. Some of us come from very conservative States. Some of us come from liberal States. We have diverse populations in our States that have different needs and different views. It has not been pretty, but it has been a practical and hopefully a positive exercise that will bring comfort, support, and strength to the American people and to our economy.
I do hold out hope that when we take our vote on final passage, Republicans will recognize this historic opportunity and vote in favor of this bill that will reduce costs and increase access to health care for millions of Americans.
Last month, I stood here on the floor of the Senate to announce my intention to vote in favor of bringing Senator Reid's melded bill to the floor. At the time, I was very clear that my vote was not an indication that I supported that particular version of the bill. My vote was to bring that bill to the floor so that we could do the legislative work the American people sent us here to do.
After weeks of floor debate and amendments and round-the-clock negotiations, that work has been completed. We produced a health care bill that is significantly improved from the one that came to the floor. I would like to share a few thoughts about why, in my view, it is improved.
Through tough negotiations, Senate Democrats have developed a consensus that blends the best of public and private approaches to reduce costs, expand coverage, and increase choice and competition for Americans and have done so without a government-run public option.
Since I continue to hear distortions from my colleagues on the other side, let me be clear: there is no government-run public option in this bill. Instead, we reached an agreement to provide private health insurance plans to be sold nationwide. The Office of Personnel Management will negotiate lower premiums, just as they negotiate the plans currently available to Federal employees and to Members of Congress. Importantly, we ensured that at least one nonprofit plan will be offered in every State exchange and that the States cannot opt out at the whim of every Governor and legislature. For the first time in our Nation's history, Americans will have an opportunity to have the same kind of insurance that federal employees, including Members of Congress, have.
In addition, there has been a lot of talk about the cost of this bill to the government and to taxpayers. There have been a number of false claims about how this bill will add to the deficit and be a burden to our children and grandchildren. The fact is, this bill is completely paid for and it will reduce the deficit by $132 billion over the next 10 years and as much as $1.3 trillion in the following 10 years.
Based on our efforts, the Congressional Budget Office and the Nation's premier economists have confirmed that premiums will go down over time or remain stable so that wages for millions of Americans can increase. When this bill is passed, 3l million uninsured Americans will have access to quality health coverage.
This bill is a big step toward fiscal responsibility and a stronger economy. It aims to achieve these goals by streamlining the health insurance market, ensuring efficiency, and limiting insurance company administrative costs, and to some degree, their profits.
It also imposes an excise tax on insurance companies with high-cost plans. This will encourage employers to be more value-conscious purchasers of health insurance. Employers are expected to choose cheaper plans, and as less capital is spent on health care, wages will go up for hard-working families. Economists predict that this could give American workers a $223 billion pay raise, amounting to $660 per household.
I strongly urge that this provision be included in the final legislation. I know that there is fierce opposition to this on the House side. But--and the President has said this publicly and privately to us--this is one of the most significant provisions that will help drive down costs for the entire health care system. It cannot be jettisoned at this point in the debate. This provision must be in the bill for me to give my final support.
We have also created administrative savings through insurance exchanges, and during Senate consideration of the bill we strengthened the Independent Medicare Advisory Board to find more ways to reduce cost growth and improve quality.
The final Senate bill includes a substantial investment in community health centers and will provide funding to expand access to health care in rural communities and under-served urban areas as well. In Louisiana, federally-supported health clinics have saved the state over $354 million in emergency room visits by the uninsured. The legislation also expands access by increasing funding for rural health care providers and training programs for physician and other health care providers.
There are many parts of the current bill that I am proud to have fought for. The bill creates health insurance exchanges that will provide individuals, families, and small businesses with a wide variety of affordable choices and ensure that they will always have coverage, whether they change jobs, lose a job, move or get sick. These state- based exchanges will enable consumers to comparison shop online for health insurance which will drive down costs by increasing choice and competition.
The exchange will help the uninsured obtain needed coverage and will also help the more than 200,000 Louisiana residents who currently do not have insurance through their employer to get quality coverage at an affordable price. Many of these Louisianians in the exchange will qualify for a tax credit to help them purchase the insurance of their choice.
For example, in Calcasieu Parish, the median household income is $39,713. In the exchange created by this bill, the average family in Calcasieu would receive an affordability credit that limits what they spend on their premium to around 5.6% of their income or $2,225. Considering, right now the average Louisiana family is spending up to 28% of their income on health care, this is a huge improvement.
This version of the bill that we improved on the Senate floor now includes additional much-needed help for small business owners, led by Senator Lincoln, Senator Stabenow, myself, and other members of my committee. Senator Shaheen, Senator Cardin, Senator Hagan, Senator Bayh, and others worked very diligently on these provisions.
While small businesses make up 74 percent of Louisiana's businesses, only 37 percent of them offered health coverage benefits in 2008. Of those, 62 percent say they are struggling to do so. Of the 64 percent who don't provide insurance, 87 percent say they can't afford it.
I worked closely with Senator Stabenow to improve affordability and choices for small businesses and amended the bill to make the bridge credit available immediately to help small businesses afford health insurance for their employees, and improve the tax credits for small businesses. This means that small businesses who want to offer quality health insurance to their employees will get tax breaks right away, rather than waiting until 2011. I also worked with Senator Lincoln to expand the number of small businesses that will be eligible for tax credits so that more small businesses get help in offering health insurance coverage for their employees--allowing more small business workers to benefit. In all, these changes bring an additional $13 billion in tax relief--on top of the $27 billion already in the bill-- to small businesses.
If you own a small business of 25 or less employees here is how reform will help you: Businesses with 25 or less employees whose average annual wages are less than $50,000 will get immediate help through a three-year bridge credit. The creation of exchanges and a 2 year exchange tax credit will lift the burden of excessive paperwork administrative costs. The exchanges will create more stable, secure choices for your employees
In Louisiana, more than 50,000 small businesses could be helped by this small business tax credit proposal!
This will help small business owners such as Mary Noel Black and her husband, who own a UPS franchise store in Baton Rouge. They offer their four employees group coverage and are willing to pay half the cost, but the premium rates have gone up so much that neither the workers nor the business can afford to pay the $3,600 a year per employee for insurance. To help Mary pay for the health insurance of each employee, beginning in 2011, Mary could get a $1,260 bridge credit per employee under this bill for 3 years. Then, in 2014, if she purchases coverage through the exchange, her business is eligible for an exchange credit of $1,800 per employee for an even more generous tax credit for another 2 years. This savings could mean the difference between offering insurance or dropping coverage because instead of costing her business $14,400 a year now for her four employees--a cost that is just unaffordable--the tax credit could initially bring her cost down to $9,360 and later to $7,200.
Through our work on the Senate floor during this public debate, we have made this good bill better for small business. Not only have we extended and expanded the small business tax credits, the legislation includes several amendments I authored to ensure small businesses continue to have a seat at the table once this bill is implemented.
The bill requires that small businesses receive information regarding reinsurance for early retirees, small business tax credits, and other issues specifically for small businesses regarding affordable health care options.
It lists Small Business Administration resource partners as eligible recipients of exchange public awareness
grants and will include all Small Business Administration partners in the program, including Women's Business Centers, SCORE, Minority Business Centers, Veteran Business Centers, and others.
The bill now requires the Government Accountability Office to specifically review the impact of exchanges on access to affordable health care for small businesses to ensure that exchanges are indeed making a difference for small business owners.
It also clearly states that agencies cannot waive the Federal acquisition regulation, which requires them to report small business contracting numbers and meet small business contracting goals of 23 percent.
There is a provision that modifies the definition of a full-time employee to take into account fluctuation in employee hours, and reduce the impact of employer responsibility requirements for industries with high turnover and that rely on part-time employees.
The bill eliminates penalties for businesses that wait up to 60 days to provide health insurance to their full-time employees.
Finally, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act establishes a national workforce commission to gather information on the health care workforce and better coordinate and implement workforce planning and analysis. The managers' amendment ensures that small businesses and the self-employed will be represented on the commission.
These are important considerations for small businesses and I was proud to ensure these concerns were addressed through the amendment process.
Despite claims from opponents of the bill, we have taken important steps to strengthen Medicare, not weaken it. The Senate health care reform bill creates an independent Medicare advisory board to find ways to reduce cost growth and improve quality and moves to a system that rewards quality over quantity. It reduces payments for preventable hospital readmissions in Medicare, and cuts waste, fraud and abuse by enhancing oversight, identifying areas prone to fraud and requiring Medicare and Medicaid providers and suppliers to establish compliance programs.
As much as our Republican colleagues have tried to scare seniors into opposing this bill, the fact is that Louisiana's 650,000 Medicare beneficiaries stand to gain from this health care reform bill. The AARP and many seniors' organizations are continuing to support this bill because they know it improves care for our seniors.
The bill lowers premiums by reducing Medicare's overpayments to private plans. All Medicare beneficiaries pay the price of excessive overpayments through higher premiums--even the 78 percent of seniors in Louisiana who are not enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. Without reform a typical couple in traditional Medicare would pay nearly $90 in additional Medicare premiums next year to subsidize these private plans.
Our bill extends the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by 9 years and lays the groundwork for a more sustainable health system. Thanks to these reform efforts, there will be no additional cost for preventive services under the Medicare program. This includes a free wellness visit and personalized prevention plan designed to help give beneficiaries the resources they need to take better care of themselves in these important years.
This legislation puts taxpayers' dollars above insurance company profits by forcing insurers to bid competitively for the business of Medicare beneficiaries and makes changes to the Medicare Advantage payment structure that will give insurers an incentive to deliver more value.
Another critical aspect of the bill is that it increases the amount of coverage Medicare Part D beneficiaries receive before they begin to pay out of pocket for their prescriptions. Right now, roughly 116,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Louisiana hit a wall in Medicare Part D drug coverage that will cost some of them an average of $4,080 per year. This reform legislation will provide a 50 percent discount for brand- name drugs.
Some of the bill's most important provisions will benefit the most important population--children.
The underlying bill includes a provision allowing children to remain on their parents' plans up until the age of 26. I have children. I would like to think that by 22 or 23, they will be on their own, they will be gainfully employed and off my payroll. But any of us who have raised children know that sometimes it takes a little more time to launch our children. I see Senator Shaheen, who is nodding. She has done this herself. It takes a little time to launch them. According to the latest data from the Census Bureau, in 2007 there were an estimated 13.2 million uninsured young adults. So the bill includes this important provision to allow kids to stay on their parents' insurance for a bit longer as they transition into adulthood.
But my question was, where do the young people who age out of the foster care system sign up, because they do not have parents? I was proud to work on a provision that Leader Reid included in this bill to ensure that every young person who ages out of the foster care system will be able to stay on Medicaid until the age of 26 starting in 2014. Almost 30,000 young people age out of the foster care system every year, having never been adopted or reunified with their birth parents. The fact that they aged out is our failure as government. We have failed them once and we just can't fail them twice. We must support their transition to adulthood, and guaranteeing access to quality health care will help with that transition.
When this legislation is signed into law, insurance companies will not be able to drop children for preexisting conditions beginning immediately. This is crucial for families with children who have battled cancer or diabetes. When a parent loses a job, they may struggle to get insurance when they find new employment. Once this bill becomes law, no insurance company will be able to deny a child with preexisting conditions.
This health care reform bill holds insurance companies' feet to the fire to ensure they are accountable to their customers. By 2014, insurers will not be able to deny coverage due to preexisting conditions. That means they will not be allowed to drop you from coverage if you get sick or are in an accident.
Because of the good work of my colleagues Senator Rockefeller and Senator Ben Nelson, this bill requires insurance companies to disclose the pricing of their benefits to ensure that premiums are spent on health benefits not profits and gives consumers rebates, putting the insurance companies' excessive profits back into your pockets. It contains new requirements ensuring that insurers and health care providers report on their performance, empowering patients to make the best possible decisions. Under this bill, a health insurer's participation in the exchanges will depend on its performance. Insurers that jack up their premiums before the exchanges begin will be excluded--a powerful incentive to keep premiums affordable.
Finally, I was also proud to work with Leader Reid and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus to address an inequity in the formula that determines the federal match of Medicaid dollars. As we all know, in 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the Gulf Coast and destroyed homes, neighborhoods, and even full communities throughout South Louisiana. In an effort to aid the recovery, Congress approved a much-needed aid package for Louisianians that infused grant dollars and direct assistance to speed our recovery.
Some of the necessary one-time recovery dollars were calculated into our state's per capita income. In addition, labor and wage costs increased because there was heightened recovery activity and a constriction in the market. Consequently, Louisiana's per capita income was abnormally inflated and put us in a category with richer states.
The result is that our federal match for Medicaid is scheduled to drop pretty dramatically. I worked with my colleagues to correct this formula. I never asked for special treatment for Louisiana, but only for understanding of our state's unique situation. We only wanted to be treated fairly and not to get penalized because we have been forced to rebuild following the worst natural disaster in the United States' history. Our federal Medicaid match rates should reflect that the reality on
the ground in Louisiana, not the cold calculations of inflexible federal formulas.
An important note is that this Medicaid funding fix was supported by every Member of our Congressional Delegation, and specifically and repeatedly requested by our Republican Governor Bobby Jindal. Some politicians in my state may run and hide when the heat gets turned up, but that's not the way I was raised. I never have and never will run from what I think is right. I was sent here to fight for my state and that is exactly what I'm doing.
Those who have dubbed this provision the ``Louisiana Purchase'' know little about lawmaking and even less about my views on health care reform. This Medicaid fix alone would not have been enough to earn my vote on this legislation. This was one of literally a dozen priorities I had as the Senate considered health care reform. I am voting for this bill because it achieves the goals I laid out at the beginning of this debate: it drives down costs and expands affordable health care choices for millions of families and small businesses in Louisiana and around the nation. Any claim to the contrary, is a pathetic lie meant to derail this bill, a tactic that was all too common during this debate.
Today, we stand on the verge of history, with an opportunity to support a bill that will provide health insurance to 31 million more Americans, reducing the deficit by $132 billion over the next ten years.
The bill is not perfect. It is not the exact health care bill that I would have written. I think the same could be said for each of my colleagues. It was a long, difficult process and during the course of completing this landmark bill there were a lot of twists and turns. But, as former President Clinton was fond of saying, we should never let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
And through hard work and good faith and tough negotiations and keeping our eye on the ball, Senate Democrats have actually crafted, in my view, an extraordinary piece of legislation that will go a long way to providing comfort and security to the American people who elected us to do so.
It will provide comfort and security for the local grocery store owner in Jennings, the 22-year-old in Lake Charles who has just left the foster care system, the single mother of three in Monroe, the 9- year-old boy in Natchitoches who was just diagnosed with diabetes, and the 70-year-old Medicare beneficiary in Houma who worked for three decades in the offshore oil industry.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will make a difference in these lives and millions more across America, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
I yield the floor.