Fred Upton

Mr. UPTON

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

Mr. UPTON. May I ask the gentleman from California how many speakers he has left?

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining?

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I say to my friend from Pennsylvania, we would have liked to have had some amendments when the Affordable Care Act passed. The rule denied us any amendments. Why are we here this afternoon? Most observers of the legislative process would say that the President's health care act would never have passed back in 2010 without the assurance that the President gave, even many times this year, that you could keep your health care if you liked it. If you liked it, you didn't have to do anything, period. I don't think it would have passed in this Chamber or in this Senate without that promise that the President gave. Then, millions of Americans in the last couple of months have gotten mail. In that mail, there are the cancelation notices. They are seeing their rates go up 200 percent, 300 percent, even 400 percent. Deductibles are going up in the thousands of dollars. People were coming to us all last week when we were home for our veterans events and parades and all the things that we did. They were bringing those letters to us and saying, Hey, what is going on? I thought I could keep this? Until yesterday afternoon, when it looked like we were going to get as many as 300 votes, including perhaps Mr. Doyle's and others, when it looked like we were going to get 300 votes for a bill that we introduced only a week and a half ago, all of a sudden the President felt that he needed to act. It wasn't until this bill that he came to the mic and said, You know what? I made a mistake. I am sorry. Maybe this thing will fix it. But until then, he was going to sit on his hands and just watch us, watch millions of Americans literally watch their health care, watch maybe their economic lives, just go over the cliff. He was prepared to do that, until we showed that we had some bipartisan zip around here to try and, in fact, enforce, make whole his promise that he has said over and over and over again. That is what this bill does. Read it. It is not too long, a couple of sentences long. I commend our leadership for bringing this bill to the floor as fast as they can. Man, 5 or 6 legislative days from when it was introduced, that is pretty good. More importantly, it got a wake-up call to someone down the street on Pennsylvania Avenue, saying, hey, something is wrong. Let's restore what we might have said. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve a point of order.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe).

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. McKinley), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time is remaining?

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains on both sides?

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Meadows).

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I now yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, at this point, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), the Republican whip.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds. The gentleman needs to read our bill. It doesn't say that the insurance companies must sell those policies. That may be in the Senate bill, the Landrieu bill. It is not in this bill. I yield 1 minute to the vice chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the gentlelady from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn).

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor), the majority leader of the House.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the good State of Oregon (Mr. Walden).

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia, Dr. Gingrey, a member of the Health Subcommittee.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Dr. Tim Murphy, the chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), the chairman emeritus of the Energy and Commerce Committee. (Mr. BARTON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the provisions of House Resolution 413, I call up the bill (H.R. 3350) to authorize health insurance issuers to continue to offer for sale current individual health insurance coverage in satisfaction of the minimum essential health insurance coverage requirement, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1\1/2\ minutes. Mr. Speaker, across generations, Presidencies are often associated with one famous utterance: ``Ask not what your country can do for you,'' ``The only thing we have to fear,'' ``Tear down this wall.'' And our current President will be no different: ``If you like your health care plan, you can keep it, period.'' For the last 3 years, the President repeated this promise in selling his signature law, and he did so with the knowledge that it would not be met. Millions of Americans, including nearly 250,000 in Michigan, took the President at his word and now, unexpectedly, are receiving cancelation notices. They are confused, worried, and upset. Today we stand with those families with the Keep Your Health Plan Act. This bill is to help provide peace of mind to folks like the farmer in Bangor, Michigan, who just found out after purchasing his family's insurance for the last 30 years that he will be able to keep that plan no more. And the sticker shock will be unbearable, as the premiums double and their deductible jumps nearly $3,000. Sadly, they are not alone. For millions of Americans, it is cancelations today, sticker shock tomorrow. For the last 6 weeks, the White House stood idly by, ignoring the pleas of millions. But as the administration's allies in Congress panicked, the White House went from attacking our thoughtful bill to making an end run around Congress with a universal ``fix.'' Our straightforward one-page bill says if you like your current coverage, you should be able to keep it. The President should heed his own advice and work with us, the Congress, as the Founders intended, not around the legislative process. Everyone today should embrace the Keep Your Health Plan Act, and our efforts to protect Americans from the damage of this law should not stop there. Let's keep the promise. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance), a member of the Health Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana, Dr. Cassidy, a member of the Health Subcommittee.

Mr. UPTON

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, for the last 3 years, the President personally promised that if they liked their current health care plan, that they could keep it ``no matter what,'' period. But cancelation notices are now arriving in millions of mailboxes across the country. In the great State of Michigan, some 225,000 folks will see their plans terminated because of this law. That is twice the number of people who have even tried to select a plan nationwide. I have heard from countless families back home who took the President at his word. They are upset--yes, they are--and worried about how they are going to make ends meet. A self-employed family of three in Bangor, Michigan, had purchased their own insurance for more than 30 years. Their BlueCross/BlueShield plan was working well, had no deductible, a $750 monthly premium. To replace it, the premium is going to nearly double to $1,393 and their deductible will jump to $2,800. In their own words, they told us, they had been thrown under the bus. Sadly, they are not alone. Tomorrow, we will vote on the Keep Your Health Plan Act, a straightforward, 1-page bill that says if you like your coverage, you ought to be able to keep it. Let's keep that promise.

Mr. UPTON

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts), chairman of the Health Subcommittee.

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, at this point, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Washington, Mrs. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a leading advocate of this legislation and the chairman of the Republican Conference.