Pelosi Remarks at Steering & Policy Committee Hearing: ‘Action Now: Updating & Improving the ACA to Lower Costs and Ensure Options for Families’

Leader Pelosi Opening Remarks

Leader Pelosi.  Good afternoon everyone.  Thank you for very much for joining us today as we step forward on a path to keeping America healthy and making America even healthier.  We have three very distinguished witnesses who we will hear from shortly.  Our Co-Chairs Congresswoman [Rosa] DeLauro and Congressman [Eric] Swalwell will be introducing them shortly but I want to acknowledge their great service to our country.

Doug Elmendorf, the Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, welcome.  Teresa Miller, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, an honor to have you here.   Gary Cohen, very familiar to the Capitol, former-Deputy Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

To our distinguished witnesses, your testimony today is very important to us because stability in the marketplace is essential to the success and good health of the American people.

My privilege now to call to order our hearing, ‘Action Now: Updating and Improving the Affordable Care Act to Lower Cost and Ensure Options for Families.'  We, Democrats, take great pride in the success of the ACA in lowering costs, protecting the health and financial security of families.  20 million previously uninsured Americans are covered.  That is just the beginning of it.  We talk about the additional numbers: that is important.  But what is also is important is the over 100 million, 125, 150 million people, who have expanded benefits at lower cost and more access under the Affordable Care Act.

There is quality for every American, no matter where they get their coverage.  Since the ACA, health care cost growth has been the slowest on record.  The Republicans have been working since day one of the Trump Administration to drive up cost and sabotage the marketplace as a pretext for passing Trumpcare.

So I just want to focus on the word cost, cost, cost, cost.  Every version of Trumpcare would hit Americans with crushing health bills, sky-high deductibles, soaring out-of-pocket costs.  Under Trumpcare, for example, a middle-aged, middle-income person would face a choice between increasing his or her deductible from $5,000 to $13,000 or paying hundreds or thousands more in premiums.

So, we talk about lower premiums.  But costs are still going up with higher deductibles and higher co-pays.  A 64-year-old with an income of $56,800 dollars would be forced to pay 11 thousand dollars more for the same level of coverage he or she has today.  $1,700 under the Affordable Care Act, over $14,000 under their bill.

According to estimates, premiums for those under 40 could be up to 70% more expensive if they want maternity coverage, and without coverage, giving birth costs an average of $30,000 or $60,000 for a C-section delivery.

As a mother of five and grandmother of nine, that's totally unacceptable.

Earlier this month, Senator McConnell said, ‘If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur.'

Trumpcare also includes two provisions Democrats have long been calling for – cost-sharing reductions payments and reinsurance to stabilize the marketplace and drive down costs.  Republicans must end the sabotage and join us in passing stabilizing measures before the August recess.

Again, we're honored to be joined by our distinguished board of experts on coverage in America who will share their thoughts with us but first I'm going to yield to the distinguished Co-Chair of the Steering and Policy Committee, a leader in protecting the good health of the American people, a champion in this cause Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro.

Leader Pelosi Closing Remarks

Leader Pelosi.  I thank our co-chairs and again I'm going to yield to Mr. Swalwell to close, Congresswoman DeLauro opened, but I want to thank our three guests, Mr. [Gary] Cohen, Mr. [Douglas] Elmendorf, Commissioner [Teresa] Miller for your excellent testimony and clarity that you presented.

Your objectivity in making judgements about what works, what doesn't work, where we can do better, where we must weigh in has been very helpful.

I started the meeting by talking about costs, cost to individuals, costs to businesses, costs to the public sector, the private sector, in many manifestations.  And what this will do in terms of costs to individuals in any other elements of this is just horrific.  As I said earlier, $17,000 if you're in your 60s and make $56,000 a year, you pay $11,000 more under the Republican plan.

This is person making $56,000, so I think we have to focus on cost in all of the discussions we have and what it means in people's lives.  Some of it means having access to care.  But I will say this and this I was pleased to hear.

We know the mandate was important, the individual mandate, but there are other ways to skin that cat, and I was hoping the Trump administration would come in and say, ‘I'm not for a mandate but I know we can't have any free riders. How do we solve that?'  You've suggested we do that, and I think Democrats are very open to doing that.

Congresswoman [Rosa] DeLauro and our distinguished Whip [Steny Hoyer] and other members pointed out that in the Republicans bills that relate to stabilization, short term and long term and stabilization, and cost sharing, let's embrace that and do that right away, it would go a long way.

The court case wasn't an intervention unfortunately; we thought that the case was clear in terms of it's already called for in the bill.

The judge thought not, now it's up to the President to give us a little more certainty but certainly Congress can act, as Mr. Elmendorf mentioned.

Thank you, Dean Elmendorf for your letter to the Directors of the Congressional Budget Office, in support of objectivity, evidence, fact and data.  Thank you all for the evidence, facts and data that you gave today to make our decisions.  We consider you an intellectual resource; we're blessed by your presentation today, but hope we can count on you further in the future