Michael Burgess

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 717 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. General Leave

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 717 provides for consideration of H.R. 3522, the Employer Health Care Protection Act. The rule provides for 1 hour of debate controlled by the Committee on Energy and Commerce, equally divided between the majority and minority. One clarifying amendment has been included to clarify that group health plans for the upcoming year can be covered under 2013 plans. The minority is afforded the customary opportunity to offer one motion to recommit, should they so choose. This is a fair rule to allow us to give some relief to Americans who want to keep their health insurance plan but are being told that, because of the Affordable Care Act, they may not. Mr. Speaker, it seems that the President has quickly forgotten some of the promises he made to the American people about this law. In a June 2009 speech before the American Medical Association, President Obama, addressing the house of delegates, said: We will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what. In March of 2010, the President said: Your employer, it's estimated, will see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent, which means they could give you a raise. It is obvious that both statements were not only nonoperational, they were completely false. Individuals and businesses have experienced or will face in the future the loss of current health insurance if it does not comply with Affordable Care Act coverage requirements. The Affordable Care Act is, quite simply, a job killer. Employers are reducing hours and limiting pay increases just to keep up with the demands of the law. Just a few weeks ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that over half of employers are changing insurance in response to the Affordable Care Act. These changes aren't being done for the benefit of the employees. All across the country, employees have lost doctors, seen premiums rise, seen hours cut, or had their coverage dropped. This will continue as long as the Affordable Care Act continues with the benefit mandates, burdensome taxes, and unreasonable regulation. In fact, employees are paying more in out-of-pocket costs than ever before. Premiums have skyrocketed under the Affordable Care Act, but access to doctors has narrowed. Today, H.R. 3522 offers a solution to this problem. This bill would allow employer-sponsored plans that were available at any point in 2013 to continue to be offered. This bill would also help protect both employers offering these plans and their employees enrolled in them from the Affordable Care Act's costly taxes and penalties. The President recognizes that there are serious flaws in his signature health care law, a law that he championed and, in fact, was written at the White House. Since the law was passed, the President has signed seven bills into law that repealed parts of the Affordable Care Act, bills that passed both the House and the Senate, went to the President for his signature, and he signed them. In addition to these statutory changes, there have been attempts to fix this broken law through a series of unilateral executive orders and regulations. Can we really expect the same administration that wrote this disastrous law to now fix it? Last year, the President unilaterally decided to delay the employer mandate. Even the administration doesn't believe that businesses and their employees can handle the burdens imposed by the Affordable Care Act. H.R. 3522 is offering the American people a legal solution to get out from under the crushing demands of the health care law. The law would grandfather in employer plans that existed before the law went into effect. With the passage of this bill before us today, no employee would have to lose their coverage or have their out-of-pocket costs soar because of the Affordable Care Act. It is clear that H.R. 3522 offers the only feasible lifeline to millions of employees who want to keep their health care plan. It is Congress' job to protect the American people. I urge men and women on both sides of the dais to pass this law so that Americans will have the opportunity to keep their plans and their doctors and reduce their out- of-pocket costs. To be clear, this bill before us today, if signed into law, will not fix the Affordable Care Act. No piece of legislation, short of a full- fledged repeal, could ever achieve that. The bill we are voting on today serves to stop the hemorrhaging that is occurring as a consequence of this ill-conceived government takeover of the American health care industry. As a physician, I know that sometimes it is important to just stop the hemorrhage if you are going to save the patient. That is what the House of Representatives will do today. I hope all colleagues from both sides of the dais will support this. I encourage everyone to vote ``yes'' on the rule and ``yes'' on the underlying bill and stand with millions of Americans who are losing their employer health care coverage and access to their doctors, despite what has been promised to them repeatedly by this disastrous law. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes. Mr. Speaker, that is an interesting recitation. I wanted to draw my colleagues' attention to Bloomberg View and an article by Megan McArdle from September 9 of 2014, just a couple of paragraphs in the article that prices--talking about reissue rates-- that prices are not being based on claims data. She points out, and I am quoting here: ``Companies began setting these rates just a few months ago after open enrollment closed, and because so many people bought in the last few weeks, they had no meaningful idea of what their expenses would be, that is, the insurance companies.'' And, further quoting: ``The companies that are coming in are looking to gain market share, not make a profit.'' Continuing to quote: ``The other reason we cannot learn much from these data right now is that for the next year, insurers are operating under the expectation of large subsidies from the Obama administration via the various reinsurance provisions in ObamaCare. These provisions expire in 2016.'' Continuing to quote: ``Right now, it is just not very risky to write a policy that loses money because your losses are capped. Starting in 2017, all that changes. Insurers are going to need to price policies with the expectation of making money and the fear of losing it.'' Mr. Speaker, what Megan McArdle is saying is, right now you don't really know much about the renewal rates on insurance policies because there is distortion in the market because of the reinsurance provisions in the Affordable Care Act. But I will share this with you. I bought insurance in the Texas Federal fallback exchange. I bought a bronze plan on Blue Cross/Blue Shield. It is the most expensive insurance I have ever had in my life. Trying to plan and trying to budget for next year, I can't because here we sit, September 10, and I do not know what the renewal rates are going to be. And in all likelihood I will not know until around election day, with very little time to plan. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous materials into the Record on the bill.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4701) to provide for scientific frameworks with respect to vector-borne diseases, as amended.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gibson).

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous materials into the Record on the bill.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4290) to amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the Emergency Medical Services for Children Program, as amended.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4290, the Wakefield Act of 2014, introduced by Mr. Matheson of Utah and Mr. King of New York. Children have special health needs, especially in the field of emergency medical services. The emergency and trauma care system has been slow to develop an adequate response to these unique needs. Some problems are endemic in emergency services, such as fragmentation and poor coordination among pre-hospital services, hospitals, and public health. The problem is worse for children when hospitals lack the appropriate medical personnel, pediatric supplies, or transfer agreements that lead to better care within the golden hour, when chances of survival of an accident are higher. In 1984, Congress passed the Emergency Medical Services for Children as part of the Preventive Health Amendments of 1984. Last reauthorized in 2010, the program aims to reduce child and youth mortality and morbidity caused by severe illness and trauma. H.R. 4290 reauthorizes the Emergency Medical Services for Children program through 2019. The program supports education and training of EMS providers and identifies models that can increase pediatric care in rural and tribal communities. The bill also supports the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network that facilitates collaborative research on pediatric emergency services. I ask my colleagues to support emergency medical services for children by voting for this important piece of legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 669, the Sudden Unexpected Death Data Enhancement and Awareness Act, introduced by my colleague, Mr. Pallone of New Jersey. Prevention of stillbirth, sudden unexpected infant death, and sudden unexplained death in children depends upon the collection of data related to the biological, social, and environmental factors associated with these outcomes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collects data through existing surveillance systems in order to identify the extent of the problem and risk factors. Sudden unexpected infant death rates decreased in the 1990s during the Back to Sleep campaign, but have remained unchanged since then. It is time for us to address this problem. H.R. 669 authorizes activities at the Centers for Disease Control to help improve the understanding of stillbirth, sudden unexpected infant death, and sudden unexplained death in children by improving data collection, increasing surveillance strategies, and setting guidelines and protocols for death scene investigations. I ask my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material into the Record on the bill.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 669) to amend the Public Health Service Act to improve the health of children and help better understand and enhance awareness about unexpected sudden death in early life, as amended.

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4067) to provide for the extension of the enforcement instruction on supervision requirements for outpatient therapeutic services in critical access and small rural hospitals through 2014.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4067, which provides for the extension of the enforcement instruction on supervision requirements for outpatient therapeutic services in critical access and small rural hospitals through 2014. This was a bill introduced by Congresswoman Jenkins of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, this is a commonsense solution to a problem that has the potential to limit or delay access to health care for America's seniors in rural communities. The bill would delay until the end of the year enforcement of supervision requirements for outpatient therapeutic services in critical access hospitals. This delay would give the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services and provider groups time to identify which services will eventually fall under the requirement. I ask my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation and reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I would like to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Kansas, Congresswoman Jenkins, the author of the bill.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and yield back the balance of my time.