The Legacy of the Affordable Care Act

WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) discussed the progress we have made since the Affordable Care Act was inacted in 2010 and how Congress needs to work together to tweak and fix parts of the law to ensure its success in the future. .

Below is a video and transcript of the speech.

Mr. Speaker,

I rise today and ask you to consider where we were before the Affordable Care Act.

Premiums were rising three times faster than wages—and eating up more of American’s hard earned paychecks.

Millions more families were drowning in medical debt.

Americans had to pay for critical preventive services like flu shots, yearly check-ups, and birth control.

Many young 20-something’s went without insurance.

Your suffering child could be denied coverage due to preexisting conditions.

The so-called “donut hole,” or gap in Medicare Part D coverage, was forcing many seniors to choose between buying food to put on the table or life saving prescription pills.

Women were charged more than men for coverage simply for being women.

And insurance companies could set annual or lifetime dollar caps on benefits, sticking American families with the remainder of the bill.

Thankfully, in the six years since the ACA was enacted, 20 million Americans have insurance for the first time in their lives,

And the uninsured rate is the lowest it has been in American history, currently at 8.6 percent.

The ACA has helped 105 million Americans, including 39.5 million women and nearly 28 million children, by preventing health care plans from capping benefits.

We have also seen that the Marketplace is working better in states where elected officials collaborated to implement the ACA, rather than trying to undermine it.

In states that chose to expand Medicaid, insurance rates are an estimated seven percent lower.

In contrast, governors and legislatures in 19 states have blocked Medicaid expansion, even as millions of their lowest-income residents go without insurance coverage.

Unfortunately over the past few years, it has been popular around here to say that the ACA is a failure.

That it has socialized medicine and that it is driving down the quality of American healthcare.

That we need to “repeal and replace” it because Obamacare isn’t working.

This mindset is all wrong because I’m happy to report that the ACA is working.

However, faster progress has been prevented due to obstruction and politics.

Since being signed into law in 2010, Congressional Republicans have voted to repeal all or parts of the ACA over 60 times.

This hyper-partisanship has prevented funding needed for implementation and necessary fixes to the law.

It is time once and for all for Congress to accept the ACA as the law of the land and begin working to improve the law, not repeal it.

Now, I understand there are challenges as the law continues to take deeper roots throughout the healthcare industry.

As they prepared for ACA, some insurance companies set prices too low and they are now adjusting them in response.

But I want to remind everyone that the insurance marketplace was dynamic before the ACA and will continue to be dynamic.

ACA calls for a more innovative approach to healthcare and many insurance companies have adapted so that they can focus on coordinated care and care management, for example.

When insurance companies were still able to discriminate based on pre-existing conditions, they excluded or undervalued expensive patients,

The same people who had the most health care needs.

Now that actual data is available, the market is undergoing a natural correction to bring prices in line with costs.

And it is important to note that shopping on the marketplace has proven to help all consumers find the best price for coverage.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, almost half of returning Healthcare.gov consumers switched plans and saved an average of $42 per month.

I understand that challenges with the ACA remain – that is why HHS is taking steps to address those problems.

And Congress has a duty to look for policy solutions that improve everyone’s access to the best care available and to make that care affordable.

There are real ways that Congress can provide stability to the health care marketplace.

And I urge my colleagues to bring some of those solutions to the House floor.

I was proud to vote for the ACA, and when the Majority is ready to get serious, I will be proud to vote for common sense improvements and reforms to the law.

The American public has spoken and they will not return to the days before healthcare reform.

It is time Congress finally listens to the American people.

Thank you and I yield back.