Washington, D.C. – Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), a member of the House Rules Committee and Republican Leader of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, delivered the following remarks today on the House floor. 

H.R. 1425, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act, provides roughly half a billion dollars to save the Affordable Care Act – a law that is a decade old. Isn’t this a sign that the law has failed to provide for Americans? The House of Representatives should be leading in a time of crisis, not making a half-hearted attempt to fix a broken law as a present for its tenth birthday. 

Last fall, before we ever could have predicted the emergence of the novel Coronavirus, we debated a proposal, H.R. 3, that would require the government to set drug prices and therefore squander American biomedical innovation. Some of those policies have made their way into this bill, and I am appalled that such policies would receive any consideration when we are in the midst of a pandemic.

American biomedical innovation, in the form of new treatments and cures, will lead us to victory over the Coronavirus. A vote for this bill is a vote against a cure for this novel coronavirus. A vote for this bill is a vote against a vaccine to prevent future illness. If this body wants to make an impact and lower drug prices, we should do it in a bipartisan way that does not harm innovation. 

Additionally, this bill kicks states when they are already down. State Medicaid budgets are ballooning right now, and we should be helping them, not hurting them. The Foundation for Government Accountability published a report on June 10, 2020, entitled “States are about to be hit by a Medicaid tidal wave” saying that the Coronavirus is putting extra budget pressure on states, with general revenues expected to decrease by 20 percent. 

The bill before us today would reduce states’ administrative FMAP if they do not expand Medicaid. Punishing states in this way would further hurt state budgets that are already being pushed to their limits. 

Let us not forget the Supreme Court case, National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, which ruled that threatening states’ Medicaid funding for not expanding is unconstitutional. Sections 204 and 205 would violate the same principles and coerce states rather than incentivize them to expand Medicaid. This bill will actively damage state Medicaid programs in states like Texas.

H.R. 1425 also wastes taxpayer dollars on Affordable Care Act outreach and enrollment and Navigators that we know do not have a high return on investment. It is one thing if my friends on the other side of the aisle want to improve policies, but it seems to me that the goal here is to bring back broken policies from the dead.

Lastly, this bill fails to protect life. The bill establishes a federal reinsurance fund that adds $100 billion over ten years for the establishment of state reinsurance programs for individuals in ACA exchange plans. Not only is this fiscally irresponsible, but it also does not include longstanding Hyde protections and therefore fails to ensure that federal dollars would not pay for abortions.

The Energy and Commerce Committee has worked in a bipartisan way this Congress on numerous policies that would make a real difference in American health care. It is disappointing that Democratic leadership is pushing this partisan proposal instead of providing Americans with real support.