Donna Christensen

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I thank you for yielding. Mr. Chair, I rise today during a time when we should all be celebrating the many great successes of the Affordable Care Act on its second-year anniversary. Democrats have rightly been applauding the health and economic benefits of affordable, reliable access to high- quality health care services brought about by that landmark law. Not so with our Republican colleagues, who choose to ignore or misrepresent the many benefits millions of people have been enjoying because of the Affordable Care Act. Then comes this disastrous marriage between two bills--one that will repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board--which some Democrats like myself support--and the other malpractice bill, which I strongly oppose because it will trample States' rights, providing extraordinary protections for drug and medical device and health insurance companies, making it nearly impossible for those harmed to seek and achieve justice. I support the IPAB repeal because in its current form it will not achieve significant savings or ensure quality access to health care under Medicare. Additionally, as a physician who practiced for more than two decades, I'm opposed to its broad authority to make recommendations that would detrimentally affect health care providers and eventually Medicare beneficiaries. However, attaching at the very last minute a medical malpractice bill that provides protection to every entity involved in medical malpractice and health care lawsuits except the victim is just plain wrong. And, no pun intended, but adding insult to injury is the fact that their medical malpractice bill is completely outdated. The bill was designed more than two decades ago. Back then we did have challenges with malpractice insurance, but today those challenges have been addressed. Today, we do not have a malpractice insurance crisis in this country. I strongly oppose H.R. 5, and encourage my friends on the other side of the aisle in the future, if it's more than just political rhetoric, to quit while they're ahead.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and add extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, tonight the Congressional Black Caucus again thanks the Democratic leader for allowing us to have this hour to talk about something very important. As we approach the second anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a truly landmark law that's bringing about health reforms that are helping millions of Americans not only save money but have healthier lives, we want to review some of those facts this evening, not the myths, not the misrepresentations about this great law, the facts. There's so much that's being spread that is just flat-out wrong, wrong about the facts and wrong to tell our fellow Americans things that are just not true about this law. At this time, I would like to begin yielding to some of my colleagues. I will begin by yielding such time as she might consume to the gentlelady from Cleveland, Ohio, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Fudge. And thank you for reminding us that such a large percentage of Americans, once they really know what's in the bill and what is being provided, support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. At this time, I would like to yield such time as she might consume to the Congresswoman, the gentlelady from Texas who often joins Congresswoman Fudge and myself on these Special Orders, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, and thank you for making those points and for making them so passionately. I know you said we'll save $1 trillion over the next 20 years, but I am confident that the savings will be more than that when we look back on the good that this bill is going to be doing over those 20 years. I just want to say a few words about the bill. Some of it will be repetitive. For the first time, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is finally making a significant investment in prevention. We're finally beginning to turn what is supposed to be a health care system into a real health care system and not a sick care system. The old adage, ``an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,'' is still true, and it's no more true than in health care. In my family practice, I would see patients who had difficulty getting their preventive care, getting their mammograms, their colonoscopy and other preventive services. That will no longer be true. And so they would come in sicker. And some patients would come to me after being sick for a long, long time when they had far advanced disease. So I know that that is the same not only in my district and in my practice, but it's the same for many low- and middle-income people everywhere in this country, but especially for African Americans, other people of color, of course the poor, and people who live in rural America. Let's talk about African Americans and preventive care. Twenty percent of African American women are not up-to-date on their Pap smears; 32 percent of African American women are not up-to-date on their mammograms; and 45 percent of African Americans have never had a colon cancer screening. The Affordable Care Act, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, takes important steps to reverse this trend, and makes sure that all Americans can afford the preventive care that they need. And this will reduce the premature deaths. It is said that in this country, every year, about 88 or more thousand people die in excess numbers that should not have died if they had received the preventive care and the kind of health maintenance that we want them to have and that this legislation will allow them to finally have. Today the life expectancy for African American men is 7 years shorter, and for women it's 5 years shorter than our white counterparts. There's an article I was reading on MedlinePlus. Overall, the national life expectancy was nearly 75 for men, for white men, 68 for black men; 80 for white women, and 74 for black women. Washington, D.C., the Nation's Capital, has the largest life expectancy disparities between blacks and whites: a 13.8-year disparity for men and 8.6 years for women. New Mexico had the smallest disparities. Let me just mention some of the States with the largest disparities. More than 8 years for men: New Jersey, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. The ones with the largest disparities for women--more than 6 years-- Illinois, Rhode Island, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Florida, and Nebraska. Surely all Americans, but African Americans in particular, have a serious stake in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It's clear that our lives really depend on it, but not our lives alone. It will also, as has been said, reduce health care costs. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies reported about 2 years ago that the direct and indirect costs of health disparities in this country over just a 4-year period was $1.2 trillion. We could save that money just by reducing health disparities in this country. Of course, now 26-year-olds can stay on their parents' health insurance for the very first time. I remember when my daughter turned 22 and I had to drop her from my insurance coverage, the insurance coverage I had right here in the House of Representatives. But now, 2.2 million young people--of which 400,000 are African Americans--are being covered on their parents' insurance. Seventeen million children can no longer be denied because they have a preexisting disease, just because they're sick. Children with asthma, children with sickle cell disease, and the children who are increasingly having diabetes, they can no longer be denied health coverage; they have access to health care. In 2014, that will be extended to adults, who also will not be able to be denied health insurance because of preexisting diseases. There are up to 129 million Americans under the age of 65 that have a health condition that could make it hard for them to find health insurance. Going back to African Americans again, who suffer disproportionately from multiple chronic diseases, we need this benefit. Deaths from cardiovascular disease were 30 percent higher in African Americans. The prevalence of diabetes is 70 percent higher. It's also very high in the American Indian population. African Americans represented about 55 percent of all adult AIDS cases and 65 percent of pediatric cases. And our infant mortality is more than 2.3 times higher than our white counterparts. As you heard from Congressman Green, being a woman will no longer be a preexisting disease. It's amazing, being a woman is almost like having a preexisting disease. They don't deny us the insurance, but they charge more. There's another article from The New York Times written by Robert Pear, and I'm reading from it now. It says: For a popular Blue Cross Blue Shield plan in Chicago, a 30- year-old woman pays $375 a month, which is 31 percent more than what a man of the same age pays for the same coverage. In the States that have not banned gender rating--and I think there are about 28 or so that have, 26 or so that have--but in the States that have not banned gender rating, more than 90 percent of the best- selling health plans charge women more than men. So many testimonies of people that we heard from while we were having the hearings in preparation for developing this bill, of people who lost their coverage because they had a serious illness. I remember one lady with breast cancer. They dropped her coverage. I remember a young girl who had had a liver ailment in her infancy. She could not get coverage. Her parents almost had to sell their home and become destitute to be able to provide coverage for her. That would not happen now under this Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. You can't have benefits cut because of lifetime limits anymore. Before the law, 105 million Americans had lifetime caps on their care, including 10.4 million African Americans. Who wants to go back to those days again? No one wants to go back to those days. We're not going back. There can be no scrimping on our care to give bonuses to the CEOs, or for fancy ads. At least 80 percent of premiums must be used to provide health care services. Before the health care law, some insurance companies spent as much as 40 percent of premiums on administrative overhead, like marketing and CEO bonuses. Now that cannot be any more than 20 percent. I have a pet peeve about Medicare because I keep hearing especially my Republican colleagues saying that Democrats have cut $500 billion out of Medicare. That's not exactly what happened. I think the American people understand savings. We found savings, $500 billion worth of savings, and we used most of it to make Medicare stronger. I'll go to some of the facts here: It reduces prescription drug costs for seniors. The health care law provides a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs for seniors in the Medicare part D doughnut hole; 3.6 million seniors have already received that discount, saving a total of $2.1 billion, each senior saving an average of $604. It provides free coverage of key preventive services; 32.5 million seniors--25.7 in traditional Medicare and 6.8 in Medicare Advantage-- have already received one or more free preventive services. It provides a free annual wellness visit. It strengthens Medicare. By providing those savings and putting them back into Medicare, we strengthen Medicare and extend its solvency by 8 years, from 2016 to 2024. We have more work to do, but we extended it by 8 years. It helps seniors remain at home and stay out of nursing homes, and it provides nursing home residents with more protections from abuse. The average premiums for Medicare Advantage enrollees are 7 percent lower in 2012 than they were last year. Since the health care law was enacted, those premiums have fallen by 16 percent. The Medicare part D deductible has fallen by $22 in 2012, the first time in Medicare history the deductible has fallen. So we didn't hurt Medicare. We did not take money out of Medicare. We found savings in Medicare, mostly from fraud and abuse, and also from leveling the reimbursement to providers so that the Medicare Advantage may have that much more reimbursement than other providers. And we made Medicare stronger. So today, 47 million Americans are benefiting from a stronger Medicare program. We put Medicare on a stronger, more secure course; and we're not going back. We're not going to vouchers where the beneficiary will take on a lot more of the cost. We will not break our commitment to seniors and people with disabilities. Small businesses also. We've heard that they've done well; 360,000 small businesses used tax credits and covered 2 million employees in 2011. I know those 2 million employees and the people that employ them don't want to lose that coverage. We don't want to go back. We will oppose any attempt to take us back to the days when we could not provide health care for our small businesses to provide insurance for their employees. As was said earlier, health care is a right. President Obama led and we worked with him to ensure that that right is there for every American. We also worked very hard, the Tri-Caucus did--the Black, Hispanic and Asian Pacific American Caucus--to include health equity as a part of this important law. In it, discrimination is expressly prohibited. There are core objectives within it to reduce health disparities and to create health equity. There is data collection. You don't know what you don't know you don't know. There are health profession provisions to increase not only the overall health care workforce, but to make sure that that workforce looks like America, that there's diversity in that workforce, and to support institutions that train underrepresented minorities. We created Offices of Minority Health in some agencies of the Health and Human Services that did not have them, such as SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. We know that mental health issues often go unnoticed, undiagnosed, or misdiagnosed in people of color or people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. We need an Office of Minority Health there. We needed one at FDA to make sure that when medicines are approved, that they have been tested in minorities and people with disabilities and other comorbidities. I've had bad experiences with CMS asking about the impact of changes of medication in end-stage renal disease, where we know that African Americans and some other subpopulations require more of a certain medication. After a few years, we asked, What was the impact on this population group? They said, well, we don't collect data that way. We can't know what we're doing wrong or where we might have to change things to improve people's health. I represent a territory. Although the territories did not get State- like treatment under this bill, we will finally be able to cover close to 100 percent of the Federal poverty level in our territories under Medicaid--finally. We will have an opportunity to have an exchange. In our case, we may only cover up to 200 percent of poverty, but we're making steps. This bill has allowed us to make steps that will allow us to begin to transform our health care system and open up access to care to our constituents that they've never had before. This is in the United States Virgin Islands, in Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and Puerto Rico. As I said, we have a lot more to do, but we made a good start with the Affordable Care Act, and we'll continue to work until all Americans, no matter where they live in this country, have equal access to health care. And the rising costs of health care are already slowing. The best is really yet to come. In 2014 the exchanges will help to pay premiums for families that are at or below 400 percent of the Federal poverty level. Small businesses will get even more help in the form of tax credits. There will be no denial for anyone because of preexisting disease. The doughnut hole will begin to be closed. The research that this bill creates will improve the quality of health care and make us safer. And the skyrocketing health care cost increases will stop, will start going down. I know that there are some in this country that feel that all of this that we talk about in this bill threatens the health care that they already have, but it doesn't. It does not. It makes the health care coverage that you already have more secure. It cannot be taken away just because you're sick. There will be no lifetime limits or annual caps. And the increases in premiums are already beginning to level off, so insurance is already becoming more affordable. The American people ought to be thanking President Obama, and I know that many do. More than 80 percent support the provisions of this bill, thanking the President for this landmark law, as important as the one that created Medicare. We ought to feel good about the fact that this country is living up to the high ideals on which it was founded, and that we will no longer be shamefully lagging behind so many countries in the health of our population, not in the richest country in the world. I'm certain that if the Supreme Court decides on law and the Constitution, without any political activism coming into play, as they should, this good law will prevail, and more importantly, the people in our Nation will prevail. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Certainly, we know that Planned Parenthood has always followed the law. And in this Women's History Month, thank you for raising the issue of the unfair treatment of women by some of the laws like the one in Texas, the one in Virginia, and also legislation that has been attempted to be passed in the Congress of the United States. We're also joined this evening by a Congressman from Texas, Congressman Al Green, who often joins us here. We're representing all of the 43 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who know how important this law is to our communities and, really, to communities across this country. So we thank you for joining us. I yield such time as he may consume.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the National Black Leadership Commission on AID, Inc, I submit a statement on condolence on the passing of my dear colleague, Donald M. Payne. National Black Leadership Commission on Aids, Inc. NBLCA Mourns the Passing of Rep. Donald M. Payne In reaction to the death of Rep. Donald M. Payne, Tuesday, March 6, 2012, C. Virginia Fields, President and CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, Inc, issued the following statement of condolence: The National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, Inc. (NBLCA) expresses its profound sorrow at the death of Rep. Donald M. Payne. For over two decades, Rep. Payne served his constituents in New Jersey's 10th Congressional District and the nation with courage and distinction. He was a longtime supporter of the NBLCA and dedicated his 12 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives to fighting social injustice and advocating for the health and well-being of all Americans and other fellow citizens of the world. His support in the House was instrumental in the full implementation of the Minority AIDS Initiative and other legislation addressing disease prevention and health promotion. Rep. Payne was especially passionate about ending HIV/AIDS and human rights violations in Africa during his distinguished service on the House Foreign Affairs Committee where he chaired the Subcommittee on Africa. Mr. Payne will be sorely missed by all who had the pleasure and honor to work along side him in the fight against HIV/ AIDS and health disparities based on race and ethnicity. On behalf of the NBLCA's Board of Directors and staff, I convey heartfelt condolences to Rep. Payne's family, constituents, and colleagues in the 112th Congress of the United States. In Mr. Payne's memory, we rededicate ourselves to enhancing our advocacy to protect the health, human rights, and civil liberties of all Americans. May God grant him peace.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congressman Pascrell. And thank you for bringing the sympathies of Sinn Fein to the floor. I would now like to yield 2 minutes to a person who served with Don for quite awhile on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Chairman Dan Burton of Indiana.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman. I would like to now yield 2 minutes to one of Donald's colleagues from New Jersey, Congressman Holt.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, today, as you heard, the House, the Congress as a whole, the 10th District of New Jersey, our Nation, the countries of Africa and the Caribbean, of Ireland, where he was an honorary citizen and, indeed, the world, has suffered a great loss. Donald Payne was a friend and advocate for the world and all of its people, but particularly for the sons of Africa here and worldwide. Tonight I am honored to chair this Special Order in his honor, and to recognize my colleagues from both sides of the aisle who will be coming to pay tribute to Donald Payne. I'd like to begin by asking unanimous consent that all Members might have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of the Special Order.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I'd like to begin by yielding 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison).

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I'd like to yield 2 minutes to Mr. Wolf of Virginia.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I would next like to yield 2 minutes to the Congresswoman from Texas, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I would like to yield 2 minutes to the Congresswoman from the District of Columbia, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congressman Holt. Now, I would like to yield 2 minutes to another colleague from New Jersey, Congressman Frelinghuysen.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you for joining us and for offering those words on behalf of Congressman Payne. I would now like to yield 2 minutes to the Congresswoman from California, another dear friend of Congressman Payne, Lynn Woolsey.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Woolsey. I would now like to yield 2 minutes to another colleague from New Jersey, Congressman Lance.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congressman Lance. I yield to the gentlewoman from California, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who I believe succeeded Donald Payne as the chairperson of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Waters. I yield 2 minutes to the Congressman from Texas (Mr. Al Green).

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I now would like to yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen).

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Schakowsky. I would now like to yield 2 minutes to another colleague of Don Payne from New Jersey, Congressman Bill Pascrell.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I thank Congressman Green, and now I would like to yield to another colleague from New Jersey and friend of Donald Payne, Congressman Chris Smith.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I thank Congressman Smith, and now I'd like to yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Congressman Clarke).

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen. And now I would like to yield to the gentleman from American Samoa, Congressman Faleomavaega.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I thank the gentleman from American Samoa. I would now like to yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Illinois, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky.