Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference on Defending Protections For Pre-Existing Conditions

Leader Pelosi Opening Remarks.

Leader Pelosi.  Thank you very much Leader Schumer for your very tremendous leadership in this fight over time, and you have been engaged in it.  It's an honor to be here with you, with Senator [Maggie] Hassan, who speaks so eloquently as a Senator, as a Governor, who understands the impact of change in policy in D.C. and the health and wellbeing of people in her state, and most importantly, as a mom, I look forward to hearing her your inspirational words.

I'm glad to be here with my colleague from Maryland, Congressman Anthony Brown, a freshman Member who has some constituents here as well, bringing the voice of our newest Members of Congress.

But we all agree, the VIPs today are Olivia [Hatcher], Estie [Johnson] and Annelise [Bedan].  Thank you for sharing your stories and speaking for the millions of people in our country who have a pre-existing condition.

I want to thank the Little Lobbyists, they have been fighting to protect the Affordable Care Act from the start.  They were part of the 10,000 events that were held around the country to protect the Affordable Care Act.  They are here to protect Medicare, Medicaid and the rest, and we succeeded until this tax bill came along.  The tax bill came along, surreptitiously, the Republicans eliminated the individual mandate, and, in doing so, found their legal rationalization for taking this to court to say, ‘We now will do away with pre-existing conditions.'

So again, thank you for fighting the fight, the tax cut, the tax fight, the GOP Tax Scam to give a tax break to the richest people in our country.  Who's paying the price?  Our children with a pre-existing medical conditions.  This is wrong, it is wrong, it is wrong and we will continue to fight it.

As the Leader [Schumer] said, the court, this Administration decided they would not protect the constitutionality of this benefit in the court.  Let's hope that they will change their mind.  The only reason they would, is if public opinion spoke out against what they were doing.

So with that tax cut, what they did was, again, move to eliminate the pre-existing condition benefit and then have a budget that cuts the funding for Medicaid by a trillion and a half dollars.  A trillion and half dollars.  The exact amount that that they were giving to corporate American some of which to shift jobs overseas.

So who pays the price again?  Children with pre-existing conditions.  Children who depend on Medicaid.  The list goes on.

Today our focus is on the fact that over 125, maybe 130 million American families have someone in them that has a pre-existing medical condition.  This has an impact not only on their health, but on their fiscal stability.

It's the wrong thing to do, it will deprive many people to access of health insurance and therefore health care.  We all have to join together.  What better voices could we have than the people directly affected, the young people.

With that though, I'm pleased to join a person whose voice on this has been so strong in the Congress, officially and personally, Senator Hassan.'

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Leader Pelosi.   Any questions?

As you decide if you have any questions, let us salute again, our special guests here today, Olivia, Annelise and Estie, you are so eloquent.  You tell the story so well, who could say no to them, when we talk about access to affordable, quality health care.  Thank you and thank you Simon.  And I want to acknowledge Elena, who has been – Elena and Xiomara, they've been in every event I think for the past year and his Little Lobbyist with Charlie, he's not here today but is usually always here, and so many others of our special guests whose presence here is again the strongest possible statement: that because someone has a pre-existing medical condition, they should not be excluded from access to quality health care.

And as our distinguished gentleman from Maryland, Mr. [Anthony] Brown said, some don't, only 18 percent would get it and some don't even apply for it, others don't get coverage for a pre-existing condition, and then others it's just so very expensive, that is its own limitation.  And let me again salute Senator [Maggie] Hassan for her beautiful presentation, as a Senator, as a former-Governor, and a mom.

Q:  Leader Pelosi – on family separation, would House Democrats – l

Leader Pelosi.   Excuse me, I'm happy to take that questions but I would like to stick to this subject for the moment because we have our special guests here.  Any questions regarding what we're talking about here?  This is an assault that is being made on not only the health but the financial stability of America's working families.  This is what the Republicans want to do.  To take to court what they could not achieve in Congress, but we want the American people to know.

Senator [Hassan] did you have any other things you want to mention?

Senator Hassan.  No, I don't, I just want to echo what Leader Pelosi is saying.  While Members of the Administration come to the HELP Committee in the Senate and say that, as a policy matter, they don't want to take away this health care, at the same time the Administration is presenting a case in court to do just that exactly that and allow, again, insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.

It is hard enough to live with some of these pre-existing conditions, it is hard enough to manage a family and get through the day with some of these pre-existing medical conditions.  The notion that we are saying that these families and these individuals shouldn't be able to get health care on the private market, simply because they have a serious illness of condition is a direct contradiction of American values and we all have to stand up and speak out strongly against the Administration's position in court.  Thank you!

Leader Pelosi.   Mr. Brown?

Congressman Brown.   I'm ok.

Leader Pelosi.   130 million families in America affected by a pre-existing medical condition.  Any one of us, one phone call, one diagnosis, one accident away from have a pre-existing medical condition diagnosed on us.  So everybody has exposure here, everyone should be a health care voter.  Now any questions on this subject?  Yes, ma'am.

Q:  On the Supreme Court ruling this morning –

Leader Pelosi.   Well we'll go first here then.  Let us thank our guests, I know it's hot in the sun and if we're going to other subjects.

[Applause]

Thank you, Simon.  Thank you, Xiomara.  Thank you, Estie.  Thank you, all!  Health care voter!

I'm sorry?

Q:  Would any House Democrat be willing to go along with a narrower bill that renews the protections in the Flores settlement?

Leader Pelosi.   Not to my knowledge, we have yet to see what will emerge for the Republican caucus as a bill, but everybody in our Caucus understands that the Flores decision is not improved by extending the length of time, it is weakened.  It is a bad bill, it's a cynical attempt of the part of the Republicans once again.

But the important thing for us to do, is to focus on the future.  And the future is about health care, it's about job creation, it's about the raw deal Republicans are giving our country to the Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Pay, Better Future, and they would like to keep the subject on immigration because it appeals to their base.  The fact is, we will protect our children, all of our children.  The children at the border.  The children with a pre-existing medical condition.  The children on CHIP.  The children who need food stamps.

The Republicans have an all-out assault on children in America.   Today's press conference is part of pushing back on that, by saying no to their attempt to eliminate the benefit of a pre-existing medical condition.

Yes ma'am.

Q: What's your reaction to the Supreme Court upholding Trump's travel ban?

Leader Pelosi.   I haven't read the decision.  I'm disappointed by it, but I have to read it to see what their justification is.   I do think, though, that we want America to be American the beautiful.

I really reference to you, oh does somebody have my phone? Oh, in the car?

I want to read you this statement that Ronald – President Ronald Reagan made.  President Ronald in his last speech as President of the United States.  He said, in my final speech, I want to leave you with a final thought.  And it's coming on my phone right this second.

Ronald Reagan was a great President for immigration, as well President Herbert Walker Bush.  Just to put this in context, when President Obama instituted the DACA initiative, he protected a large number of people in our country.  But, it was a smaller percentage of people than President Reagan and President George Hebert Walker Bush protected.

President Obama acted because Congress did not acted.  President Reagan acted after Congress acted.  And he said, that Congress didn't go far enough.  He instituted Family Fairness to protect more families in this country.  And that continued with him and future, other presidents since him, including President George W.  Bush, who was a great President on immigration and, of course, President Clinton, President Obama.  So, Republican and Democratic Presidents have understood that value.

Now, in a moment, I'm going to read you this statement because it's important that you know this.  It's also important to note that when I read this on the Floor of the House the other day, the Republicans didn't want to listen.  They just didn't want to hear about it.

But he, you have to hold for a sec.  You have to hold for a sec.  So many messages coming in here, oh my goodness.  But, basically, what he said.  Where is it? Basically what the President said was that the one message he would leave, was that the Statue of Liberty, the Lady Liberty, was the symbol to the world of who we are as a country.  And to tell us, he told us in his message that it's important for us to remember, and this is his message to us, that the life force that each generation of new Americans brings to our country, is what will completely strengthen our role in the world and keep us the important country that we are.

Do you have it? Okay, here it is.  Let me read his words.

It says, ‘This is the last speech I will give as President.  I think it's fitting to give one final thought, an observation about a country I love' said Ronald Reagan.  ‘Yes, the torch of Lady Liberty symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage.  The compact with our parents, our grandparents and our ancestors.  It is that lady, which gives us our special place in the world.'

Supreme Court, hear this: ‘For it is the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America's triumph shall continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond.' These were the words of President Ronald Reagan in his last speech as President of the United States when he said ‘it is fitting that I leave one final thought, an observation about the country I love.' That is what I think about their decision.

Q: Would Senator Hassan also talk about the ruling?  

Senator Hassan.   I also haven't read the full opinion yet, and I need to do that, but I share in Americans' disappointment everywhere.  We know we need to secure our borders and keep our country safe.  There are ways we can do that consistent with our values and we will continue to fight to do just that.

Q: Leader Pelosi, back on the matter of separations legislation, a narrow bill.  Can you expand on what you think would need to be in a bill to get to a compromise?

Leader Pelosi.   Well, the fact is that there is nothing about compromise in anything that they are doing.   They are going down a very bad path.

After some of this became known last week, Senator Schumer, Leader Schumer, and I sent a letter to the administration asking for three things.  Reunite the families, stop the zero tolerance and separation policy and provide opportunity for people to be absorbed into our country and having their due process without sending them into jail.

And so, I say to the President, we all want to secure our borders.  That's our responsibility.  We take an oath to protect and defend our country and protecting our borders is an important part of that.  We do not think that a great nation protects its borders by putting children in cages.

And, I will just say this about the Democrats.  After 9/11, you may not remember, you may not have been here.  After 9/11, a commission was former, a bipartisan commission was formed.  By 2004, in the summer, they had proposed the 9/11 commission recommendations.  The Republicans were in the majority.  They completely ignored the recommendations of the commission for protecting the homeland.  The first bill we passed when we became the majority, HR-1, 2007, was to pass the homeland security commission recommendations.

So, this isn't about securing our borders.  It is about something else that Ronald Reagan would have probably objected to.

Thank you all so much.