Pallone: Republicans Are Trying to Distract from Their Devastating Health Care Crisis
Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following remarks on the House floor in opposition to H.R. 498:
Mr. Speaker, it is shamelessly bold for Republicans to bring a bill to the floor called the “Do No Harm in Medicaid Act.” But that’s today’s Republican Party – they simply lack any shame. I mean really – saying that they are doing no harm to Medicaid when their Big Ugly Bill earlier this year cut nearly one trillion dollars from the Medicaid program. That’s a huge cut that will leave millions of low-income families without any health coverage at all.
We are already seeing the devastating effects of their Big Ugly Bill. States, which are already facing budget shortfalls, stare down a reduction of as much as twenty percent of their federal Medicaid funding. They are being left with an impossible challenge and many have started cutting. We are seeing across-the-board cuts that are crippling hospitals, maternity units, home care providers, and clinics. We are seeing health care providers close their doors and cut their services. And we are seeing states scale back benefits — leaving even those who are able to keep their Medicaid coverage with less of the health care they need.
And now, Republicans have the audacity to bring a bill to the floor that they claim is about “doing no harm in Medicaid.” That’s not what this is about. H.R. 498 is an extreme attack on medically necessary health care for children. The bill bans Medicaid funding for gender affirming care for minors, and strips states of even more Medicaid funding if they choose to cover this medically necessary care with their own state dollars.
Republicans are once again reaching into the doctor’s office and taking deeply personal and private medical questions out of the hands of doctors, parents, and patients—and putting it into their own hands. As if anyone wants politicians making medical decisions for them and their children.
As members of Congress, we ought to be focused on bringing down health care costs and ensuring people have access to the health care they need—not getting in the way of doctors and parents who know what’s best for their patients and their children.
The reality is, this floor debate is nothing more than political theater—aimed at distracting from the devastating health care crisis Republicans created and are making worse every day. They are trying to distract from the fact that their health care cuts are going to strip health care away from 15 million Americans and close hospitals all across the nation.
They are trying to distract from the fact that they are letting the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits expire on January 1st. The Republican inaction is driving up health care costs for more than 20 million Americans who are facing double, triple, or even quadruple premium increases.
Republicans cannot distract from this cruelty. I urge my colleagues to vote no on this bill. I also call on Speaker Johnson to immediately bring up the Jeffries discharge petition that has the support of a majority of House members and that would extend the ACA premium tax credits for three years. A majority of the House wants to act to extend these tax credits. It’s time for Speaker Johnson to bring the bill to the floor.
And I reserve the balance of my time.
###