Welcome you all to the city of wilton manors. I like to open my meetings with a pledge to the flag and with good news. If you would join me with the pledge to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And as i indicated, i like to share some good news at the beginning of the meeting. We had excellent news a couple of hours ago. Senator Frank Artiles from the state senate resigned. I do not know if that is appropriate, but frankly, i do not feel there is any room in the florida legislation that makes ticketed, racist, or homoobic rarks so i am happy to see him go. [applause] that is the good news of the day. And i also want to think the Service EmployeesInternational Union and land parenthood and the womens march for hosting this town hall meeting today. I am sure this is going to be very interesting for everyone. Such an incredible topic. I am not an expert on Health Care Issues. However, like everyone else, this affects me, first as a consumer. Second as an employer that pays for insurance for its employees. And third, as a mayor of the city whose residents have particular Health Care Challenges and issues. Especially with obtaining affordable and quality care. I want to start with two premises that i believe. First of all, i think that it is a right as a human being to have access to Affordable Quality Health care. [applause] i dont think we should have to wait until we are 65 to have access to health care. And i think it is something that we should take for granted. If we are sick and need health care, it should be readily available at an affordable rate. Second, i do believe and i think everyone would agree, that our Health Care System in this country is horrible. I think there are many people, even under the Affordable Care act or obamacare, that do not have access to Affordable Quality Health care. And i am not an birth. I do not have the solution or the answers. But i hope that hopefully this panel who are experts will be able to share some ideas and provide information. I do not think the existing system is sustainable and it is not doing our residents and he. As i indicated initially, my experience primarily with health care is as a consumer. My partner eric and i have our Health Insurance through the city. I do not understand why a particular medicine that i purchased, even at the negotiated rate, is 370 for a 90 day supply at a local pharmacy. Not bad compared to what i know other medicines cost. That is over six dollars a pill. I can get the same medicine that is generic from canada for less than . 50 a pill which my doctor told me to do and gave me a prescription for that. As i hinted, i think our system is broken. When he got elected, President Trump said he would negotiate better prices with drug companies. And i do hope he does that. I also indicated that my experiences similar to other employers that provide Health Insurance to its employees. In addition to being a mayor, i am a lawyer at a downtown law firm. Insurance costs for employers are becoming unsustainable. The taxpayers here will pay 1. 5 million this year to ensure 100 employs. It is not sustainable. Every year we see the rates go up between 5 10 . This is probably the second or Third Largest expense of the town. Eric and i have a 5,000 deductible before the insurance kicks in under the city plan. While the city contributes something to the employees to cover some outofpocket expenses, for many, many people, health care is not affordable. And finally, as the mayor of will manors, i know that many of our residents are not offered health care through their employers. Many residents in the area work in the Service Industry in bars, hotels, restaurants, beauty salons. They are either parttime, contractors or selfemployed. They are likely not covered by insurance offered by their employers. I also know there are many others that have particular health issues. We have a Large Population with hiv and aids. This is still one of the fastestgrowing areas for hiv. And we are all aging. And we are all dealing with the Health Care Issues that affect the nations population. Many people in my city say they are not buying insurance because they cannot afford it. They are going without health care they need because it is too expensive and they dont have the wherewithal to pay for it. I look forward to hearing from our panel on these issues. They are important to me and our residents. Let me introduce our esteemed panel. Looking forward to this meeting. First, congressman ted deutch. [applause] he probably has the best Health Care Coverage known to man and does not pay for it. But he has made this a priority issue. Rep. Deutch i am proud of the obamacare that i have as a member of congress. There you go. We are pleased he is willing to tackle this issue and make it a priority for his work in congress. Second, i would like to introduce dr. Tony lewis from the Service EmployeesInternational Union. [applause] dr. Lewis is a family physician and geriatrician that represents the voices of 1. 2 billion nurses and Health Care Workers. And finally, our third panelist is laura. [applause] she works with for many people the best place for people to obtain Quality Health care at a low rate. Let me turn this over to the congressman. Thank you for coming to this town hall meeting. Looking forward to these comments. Thank you very much. [appuse] rep. Deutch thank you. Thanks very much, mayor. I appreciate your starting off the meeting. But more than that, i want to take the opportunity as someone who spends a good portion of my time i get to every part of the district but i tend to spend a good portion of time here and i want to thank you for the job you do leading this great city. It is a wonderful place to visit. And a wonderful place to live. And it is an exceptional place to represent. Thank you very much, mayor. [applause] i am thrilled to be here. Im especially glad to be here for a discussion about health care when i think it is fair to say, lisa, when you came up with this idea, we did not expect there to be quite as much news about health care as there is today. So, i want to take a couple of minutes to talk about that. I am also really excited to be here in the company of two leaders in the field. It is one thing for us to have conversations about health care and the impact that congress has when it goes down, tries to go down a path that it appears the speaker and the president seem to want to go down when we get back. But, it is so much more worthwhile to the discussion and you actually have meetings like this with people who understand the system from the inside. And so, dr. Lewis, it is wonderful to be here with you both to take advantage of your expertise and because you are here and we are joined with so Many Health Care providers. All of the members of sciu and even retired members that are here. Thank you for the perspective. The really important perspective that dr. Lewis gives that you provide to the debate. Anmore portly, thank you for e important work that you do helping people live better lives as a result of the contributions you have me to it. And laura, let me just say that you cannot have a discussion about health care, a good discussion about Health Care Without talking about the impact on Health Care Providers. And planned parenthood, as you will speak to, planned parenthood first and foremost is about providing health care to improve the lives of all of the patients that they see and we are grateful for that work. It is great to be with you as well. I have a whole speech that i think i am not going to give. Im going to do this. I am going back to washington on monday. And perhaps you have seen in the news the announcement by the president that he thinks it is very important that we have a Health Care Bill before the end of his first 100 days in office. Which, i think, if we are going to have a direction coming out of the white house, it should be the direction of having a Health Care System that provides the greatest access to the largest number of people and that works to bring down costs for everyone in this country. That is the direction i would like to see coming out of the white house. Instead, the goal seems to be just passing a new bill. Everyone has been asking what the bill is going to look at. The answer is, i have not seen the bill but ive probably seen a lot of the same things you have. Here is the take away. For many of us in this room, who have participated in rallies and marches over the past few months to preserve the Affordable Care act, the idea of going backward by passing a piece of legislation that would result in tens of millions of floridians, americans losing access to health care, costs going up for everyone, important Consumer Protections that are now part of every individual policy that is written by each company because of the Affordable Care act, and adding medicaid at the same time. The idea that Something Like that would be the approach would be supported by 17 of the American People. That is about the number of people who supported the last effort of the president and the speaker to gut the Affordable Care act and to hurt millions and millions of americans. So now, there is the renewed focus on doing something. And you have a new bill. Here is what is so interesting about it. It seems to acknowledge that all of the things we are so concerned about in the last failed effort, keeping kids on your parents policies making sure that preexisting conditions cannot prevent you from getting access to insurance, not doing away with the essential health care benefits. People want to know that the policy they are getting insurers them for maternity care, emergency care, and pediatric care. The last bill wouldve gotten rid of all the deck. If you have heard my colleagues talk about this, they start by saying oh, we want to do all of those things. Well, they say that because that is obviously what the American People want. That, by the way, is the Affordable Care act. And then, only in the last line of the statements we have seen, only seemingly under their breath do they then say it except, we are going to leave it up to the states to decide if they want to gut every single one of the provisions. Those of us that live in florida, i just want to be clear, we know what happens when you leave it up to the state to make important decisions about health care. In florida, we, unfortunately, our operating at the whim of a governor who has decided, despite the protests, of not just us, but the Business Community and the hospitals and Health Care Providers he has decided that he has refused to expand medicaid thereby costing close to a million floridians access to health care. I am not prepared to leave it up to Governor Scott to determine if we have healthcare services. [applause] so, we are going back on monday my republican colleagues, the ones that came out in opposition to the last version of trumpcare, when they look at this will come to the same conclusion that i think most people come to which is you cannot take a terrible bill, turn it on its head, a knology that all of the things that we hated are indeed bad, and then in the end, slip in a provision that we will allow states to decide. I cannot imagine there is a single republican who came out in opposition to the last version of trumpcare who, when looking at this, will do anything but shake their heads and announce that they cannot support this one either. There is too much at stake in this to try to rush through some terrible piece of legislation in order to meet the president s artificial deadline to be able to attempt to say that he has had a successful first 100 days. We will do as much as we can, i and my fellow panelists, and i know many people in this room, to make sure that everyone understands what a dangerous direction this is that we are going and why we have to Work Together to expand, as the mayor says, expand health care, bring down the cost, make sure there is more competition, and to do it by working together instead of having the president figure out a way to do it that would satisfy the most extreme elements of the Republican Party. That will not get him a majority in the Republican Caucus and it will absolutely not get him anything above 70 Approval Rating that we of rdc. Lisa, thank you very much for having me here. [applause] dr. Lewis good afternoon everyone. Trying to eyeball everyone. How much gratitude i am filled with so much gratitude. I am already fired up. And thank you so much, mayor. I appreciate the real talk. The straight talk. The only way we are going to get to some Real Solutions that go deep into our communities, families, workers, for our future that we are talking about the present and the future, is to have real and honest conversations about how we feel and how we can fix it. So, thank you mayor for starting a soft with some challenges. And laura, we go back a little bit. I appreciate your work. And i feel like we can do gratitude rounds all day. That is not a bad thing. Thank you. And not finally, because this is the first of several. I am completely amazed at the energy that is popping up to make sure that we make some transformative change. To really do something that is right in this country. I want to thank every one of you for showing up and continually showing up. That is how we win. That is how we change. Thanks to all of you. My name is dr. Louella tony lewis. I am named after my grandmother. Tony was my aunt in cook county who was a social worker who took care of her community forever. She had a mean bowling game also. And lewis. That is the side of my family where we are the unions in milwaukee making sure that every kid in every community had an opportunity to grow. I like to say my whole name because im grateful to be sitting in the seat because of the fight of the generations in my family. There would not be a black woman, black physician, dr. Lewis without contributions of groups like this. As the mayor mentioned, i am a Family Doctor and geriatrician. Im blessed and honored to be with people in some of their most intimate moments. When they first enter the world and when they transition. And so, what the representative was saying about how it is amazing to have Health Care Workers in the room i have been honored, i entered the organization as an intern in new york. Working with nursing home workers. With doctors and nurses. All gathered to make sure we make a difference. I am proud of my union. Would every Health Care Worker and retiree raise your hand so we can thank you for your work. Pat, you are not raising your hand. [applause] the first thing is yes, when we planned this, we had no idea where we would be but we should stop being surprised with the craziness. The first time the bill went down, we were talking about this with some retirees yesterday, we had 15 minutes to celebrate before we knew the next batch of azy legislation around sufferins ing to come at it. Let us get in that space. Yes, i know my portion is to talk about the future but we know we always have to play offense and defense. Look at 1965 and 2013 in the Supreme Court and the election. We always have to stay vigilant on the things we have fought for. And yes, i am a fan of the patriot protection and Affordable Care act. The aca. So many different names. One of my favorite things, i could run the numbers, but one of my favorite things about this is that we are all having a conversation about health care in this country. Before we were having this, there may have been a few people that were Health Care Reform activists. Many families, many people were suffering with how to figure out their bills, how to get insurance all of these different things. At least now, in this country, because we have this large discussion, we can say that we have a problem. We do not all get the same care. And when we do, it is not always the right care. And we should be able to do better. Let us take that as the opening for what we can do for the future. There are a couple of things i am excited about. The first part is getting to the discussion of this. I will not talk that much longer. There are many things going on in the country that actually can help us start to think about what we want for the future so that when someone says well, what is your idea of how to make the Affordable Care act . Better there are already activities going on. All you honestly have to do to get ideas is look at the beautiful walls and deprived sinner. I was looking at one poster that said we help people focus on holistic health. Imagine that. That is not justbout when you get sick. It is about being your strongest, fiercest, healthiest self for your children and for yourself, for your lives, and for your community. This is flipping it on its head and defending prevention. That is one thing. Deeper investment in holistic and community health. And hearing from people who have been in their bodies long enough to understand the pieces that make it work and make it not work. We will always need hospitals, doctors, people with degrees and research. But the genius on your life, your body, in your community exists right here. Who better to understand the social determinants of health job, transportation, food than the Health Care Worker that navigates everything when of those determinants every day for the people they provide for. All of you can tell me how food choices, and your budget. I am going to mention a couple of projects im working on. With 1199, the doctors union, the faith communities saying can we invest in community, community determinants, affordable housing, affordable, safe, healthy housing . Working with the governor to the Community Board to do things like that. Imagine if we take this group and do things like that in every city. We can start to transform things. That is one idea of the millions of things going on. My comments with the secretary treasurer of the International Union, gerry hudson, said in an organizer meeting that the resistance to the madness at the federal and global level will happen in rooms like this. Our health, minds, bodies, spirits, health care, and future. Thanyou. [applause] thank you, dr. Lewis, thank you representative deutch. Im proud to be with planned parenthood as a provider and advocate. Im proud to stand in solidarity. I think it is unique that we are Health Care Providers and also we have the strongest field game in the state, for reason. That is because the health care that we provide is constantly under attack. The value that we embody through our membership, through whom we represent, is under attack. Necessarily, we have had to build and organizing infrastructure. I think we have seen in the past couple of months how necessary it is to continue this movement. I am proud to be here with you, with everyone in this room. Planned parenthood is not new to these types of assaults on our organization, the health care we provide. We turned 100 last october. [applause] thank you, that is something to celebrate. We are celebrating our centennial. In the federal government, they have votes to take care away from the patients. It is not like planned parenthood receives a blank check for lifesaving cancer screening, treatment for stds, Birth Control, abortions we provide. The federal government does not fund abortions, except in rare cases. That Patient Access through planned parenthood is a crucial program, such as medicaid and Family Planning programs. It provides comprehensive Health Care Services to women, men, and others, so they can protect themselves and get the education they need to make healthy decisions about their lives. We know that Defunding Planned Parenthood is unpopular. 80 believe that planned parenthood should not be defunded. We are gaining in popularity. The vast majority of people do not want to see that happen. Repealing the Affordable Care act and Defunding Planned Parenthood is politically dangerous. It is not the right side to the on. There are millions of people around the country that would Lose Health Care if they member of Congress Votes to repeal the Affordable Care act. It would be a disaster doubt care, not only in lorna, but across the country, but particularly in florida because we have a high number of uninsured individuals, especially in miamidade and broward counties. Part of that has gone down since the Affordable Care act care act was passed. Because we have not expanded medicaid and people can still not access the care they need i think it is particularly troubling. Very, very appreciated if representative deutchs efforts. When we see a group of men deciding behind closed doors what to include in the bill, like taking away Birth Control to prevent unintended pregnancies and going back to when being a woman was a preexisting condition is troubling. Two months ago we saw the biggest marches in this country that we have seen in decades. In tallahassee we had 1400 people in the streets. Who was a part of those marches . [applause] we need to continue that work, because we will not go back to when people did not have access to coverage, when being a woman was a preexisting condition. We know we can make it better, and i am really happy to be here with you and your strong voices. [applause] we will open it to the floor. If you have a question, raise your hand. I will try to get to everyone. I am a Union Organizer with 1199 in the broward region. [applause] it is a pleasure to be amongst such great people today. In your opening statement, representative, you were getting ready to go someplace you didnt go. You halted a little bit. I want to ask this question to give you a chance to share with the audience, what is your plan to fight back . You mentioned that, then you stopped. What is it you plan to do to fight back . Let me finish the question. [laughter] we are doing everything we can. When our people are fighting and doing whatever, we get the message saying have your members to call this number, your members, your neighbors, your this we are doing that part in the field. Tell me from the representative side, what is your plan to fight back . Rep. Deutch i apologize if i was holding back. Let me try to be more forthcoming. [laughter] when you have an effort taking place in the United States congress coming from the white house to advance a piece of legislation that is worse than the last piece of legislation that was about 17 approval, at the same time as seeing this as another opportunity to cut funding for planned parenthood. Preventing planned parenthood from providing access to lifesaving cancer screenings and health care the way they do. If you prevent them from doing that, that has the Approval Rating of about 20 of the American People. If that is the direction you are going, two things need to happen. You, as you are already doing, will work with everyone to make sure my colleagues hear from all of their constituents. What do i do . It is simple. Im going back to washington next week hear it i will stand on the house floor and talk about why this is a disaster for the American People. Then i will walk over to the house floor and throw my arm around my republican colleagues and point out that if they decide that they have to support a piece of legislation that is so detrimental to the health and wellbeing of the American People, that is so wildly unpopular, it will be one of the last votes they are probably going to cast. [applause] that clear . [laughter] thank you, very much. I have greatly appreciated with the three of you, the four of you, mayer resnick, have talked about. I am concerned about the politicization where it is just polarized. There is just argument and not issue orientation, which has led me to join an Organization Called nolabel. Org. I am asking you to be a member of the Problem Solvers caucus. Where people come on both sides, the same number of democrats and republicans, and sit down with issues and discuss the problem. I cannot disagree with anything any of you have said. I am a physician. Would you like to know what i have to say about how frustrating it is for me to get you the care you need, and how i cant get it to you . We need substantive discussion. Ted, i have known you for a long time. You are sweet, principled man. And you have the most beautiful heart, and you are practical. Please join the Problem Solvers caucus. Rep. Deutch from the moment i got to congress, i worked hard at being a Problem Solver before there was a Problem Solvers caucus. I have been to their events. I agree. It is important to be able to sit down as democrats and republicans. Number two, this is not the topic of this meeting, i will give you by way of example, because i think it is exactly what we ought to be doing here, a year ago a colleague of mine from miami, a republican colleague from miami, and i started a bipartisan caucus to tackle the issue of climate change. We are now up to you can only join if you bring a member of the opposite party, which is what i think you are suggesting. Were closing in on 40 members, equal numbers of democrats and republicans, and we have those conversations. That is what we should be doing on this issue. As we have all been talking about, how to increase competition and bring down cost for everyone. I have to say, i wont make a partisan plan, i will just make a real observation. I have been saying this about health care since i was elected to Congress Just weeks after the Affordable Care act passed. It is a big piece of legislation and we should talk about strengthening it going forward. Do you know what the result was . All we have done is have vote, after vote, after vote to repeal it. It advances no interest except for the most narrow partisan interest. So many of my republican colleagues who announced their opposition to this terrible bill, they are acting on substantive grounds. They understand that it would drive up costs for everyone. They understand it would be devastating in their communities, that it would cause so many to lose access to health care. We need to take those sentiments and use that as a starting point to figure out how to address this in a bipartisan way. It wont happen by having the president go to the microphone and say, i really need you to do this because i need to point to something so that i can say i have been successful for the first 100 days. Thank you for putting this together. You are amazing advocates. Thank you for the support in d. C. Around the Affordable Care act and helping us expand access to health care for all americans. One of our concerns for united way, besides changes to the Affordable Care act proposed, is the chip reauthorization. The chip funding is due to expire this year. It covers 8. 9 million children in the United States. As many states are planning their budget for fiscal year 1718, we are concerned this will be a priority in congress that chip funding will be extended so states are able to plan for that funding, or plan to not receive it. Will that be a priority . Rep. Deutch it is a priority for me. There is bipartisan support. We just cannot afford to let that become part of this broader effort to get health care. We are working to make sure it doesnt. Thank you for what you do. My name is forest. Here is my question. Ive strong ones. Im not here to put anyone on the spot. In your opinion, what would you feel, because i am watching the news all the time and it goes back and forth. In your opion what kind of bill for health care in your opinion what kind of bill for health care would satisfy you to say ok, cool, im in . Rep. Deutch i will give you an easy one off the top. President trump, if you will recall, told us he thought it made sense for medicare to be able to negotiate lower drug prices. If we were to start somewhere, and the president has already stakes out that position, staked out of that position, and there is strong support, lets bring down costs and Lower Health Care costs. There are lots of other things we should look at to increase competition. There are cost sharing subsidies, lots of other things we should be talking about. Given the environment, it makes good sense to start with something for you can get good, bipartisan support. That one, as everyone here knows, that one seems to make so much sense. If walmart is able to negotiate for lower drug prices, medicare, the largest fire pharmaceuticals, should do the same. Lets do that. All of a sudden, we would have made a dramatic advancement beyond the Affordable Care act, and we can continue the system to build upon. I think when you are saying the solution is going back to the state, living in florida and working on policy, we know that health care should not depend upon the zip code you live in. It should be a right. I think a lot of us fought hard to pass and implement the Affordable Care act. We always knew it would be difficult to implement. There are a lot of moving parts. As you watch the debate on the repeal, you heard testimony after testimony of Health Care Experts across the aisle, not politicized organizations, hospitals, doctors, Insurance Companies, the same thing in florida, every Health Care Expert is saying dont do this. They have lots of good ideas. Including the consumers of health care. The ideas are there. It is can we listen and continue to make progress . We have made progress, but we need to implement those pieces so we can lower cost. We always knew the Affordable Care act was focused on expanding access to coverage because you have to do that to potentially lower cost. We have to Work Together to try to implement the things we know that work. Rep. Deutch one more observation, because it gets back to what you said, too. There are perhaps no worse example of the partisanship that affects decisionmaking and health care then the governor of the state of florida. Governor scott [applause] Governor Scott, throughout this entire debate, has put initially, hispposition with anything to do with president obama then broadening that to a special interest driven agenda. He put that partisanship above the best interest and health over the citizens of florida. If we want to and the partisanship, we have to focus on the people responsible for it. The governor and our state is the worst example. [applause] i dont have health care. All i want to do is figure out a way [inaudible] i would like to thank all of you again for having this health care forum. I love coming to these types of things, because in my home, listening to the news, reading newspapers, formulating opinions, i often wonder if i am on the right side. I come to these things and realize i am. Thank you. Two things, with regard to the Affordable Care act, the one important thing is to keep it and fix it. I understand and respect that. For prescription drugs, theres something happening right now. That is hospital coding practices, which are driving up costs to the consumer and Insurance Companies to the point that health care this is one of the main Reasons Health care is truly unsustainable. On march 29 the New York Times magazine published a story called the code rush. The author was elizabeth rosenthal. She explained very well how hospitals are overcharging us for every little thing to the point that i actually fired off a letter to the New York Times the night i came home from the hospital and read her story a few weeks ago and realized i will have to get my hospital bill after threedays in the hospital and fine comb it. If i dont, even with insurance, i dont know what this will cost. All because i got sick. I am dreading the bill. It is terrifying. I wanted to ask you if that is something at some point that will be discussed, hospital coding practices. It is nefarious and done in the shadows. My second the planned parenthood is this, as a social media connoisseur so many people still think that federal dollars go to pay for abortions. I think it should be mandatory that every member of congress recite the amendment at some point in their career, perhaps when they are sworn in. The Hyde Amendment has been there for decades, and it prohibits federal dollars to go to abortion except in those instances. Critical thinking people know that, but i am sick and tired of the people that dont and the people that refuse to see it. [applause] im willing to help in anyway that i can. It is so easy to understand the amendment. I wanted to say to you, if theres anything i can do to help you, i am willing to do that. Thank you, so much. [applause] youre right. It would be good if politicians passing policies understood that so they dont use that argument. At the same time, Women Deserve access to health care that includes abortion. It is unfortunate the Hyde Amendment is still in place. Federal funding does not pay for abortion except in rare circumstances. I will take the coding question. I have been involved in many provider tables. As a Family Doctor and geriatrician, i do not enjoy the coding situation. There is so much more we could be doing as healers, handson, meeting with families, going out in the community, all these things. In the past six months, it is sucking all the air out of the room. The providers, consumers, they are ready to get on transforming the coding system, because it is not working for anyone. If you talk to safety net hospitals, they will let you know it is not a sustainable system. We need to make sure we are putting man beings at e center of our Health Care System. We need to make sure there is infrastructure to take all of the data so we can learn from it and provide better care. As long as we stay in the space, like a pingpong ball, on a partisan discussion not getting to the meat of the solution, we will be there. Yes, that is the right thing. Rep. Deutch i had a meeting last week with a group of doctors. I did not ask them, but im pretty sure some of them were democrats, some of them were republicans. We had a really important discussion about how to provide why providing more information in the system would help bring down costs to consumers. Your question reminded me of it. That is the whole issue of transparency so everyone in our system knows how much things cost, who is getting paid what to provide it, where the actual savings, where are there Additional Savings that might be had . We live in a time where so many of us do almost everything on our phone, it should not be that hard to make it possible for consumers and patients to take a look and understand how much they are being charged or not just what they are being charged, but what the provider paid for that same item before they passed it on to you. Theres nothing partisan about that. Transparency is an issue everyone likes to talk about. Health care is the place where we are most in need of fully exploring ways to provide it. I want to say, thank you for coming out. As well as putting on this event. I want to start with the mayor mentioned the pricing of the cost of health care. I know the doctor, and many individuals, have issues and concerns about the Current Health care. So, i understand republicans, democrats, there is a different process to address the issue. My question is, when do you think congress is able to move forward and address when i know you talked about, criticized the president about bringing up this issue again. What timeline do you think we could have a move forward in making this Health Care Better . Rep. Deutch the moment the president decides it is more important to invite a Bipartisan Group of members of congress to the white house to Start Talking about what the real issues are that we need to address to increase access and bring down costs instead of only inviting over the most extreme elements of the Republican Party and trying to figure out how to make them happy. I have news for the president , there are many, many more democrats than members of the freedom caucus. If you would like to get something done, he might consider bringing us to sit at the table to figure out how to do it. [applause] i would also like to thank you all for coming in. It is great to have the opportunity to ask you questions. I am a retiree. My wife is younger. I dont want to diss the Affordable Care act, but it got expensive for us, so she is without insurance. We are selfinsured. We put money away and crossed our fingers. The question is for representative deutch. I am sure you heard about hr 676 to extend medicare for all. Can you comment . Am i getting old and simpleminded . I try to figure out the way that things work, but i dont know. Medicare for everyone seems like a good idea to me. Rep. Deutch if we had medicare for all we would avoid so many of these issues we have, true. We are in a situation where we we are in a situation where we are because of the Affordable Care act have been able to extend coverage to tens of millions of americans who have not had it before. There is an assault on the Affordable Care act. Those who wish to repeal the Affordable Care act do not want to acknowledge the successes we have seen. Dont want to acknowledge the benefits of extending coverage like that. I think the focus now has to be on protecting and building upon the Affordable Care act. There is a structure in place that will allow us to do that. We talked about a public option to strengthen the Affordable Care act and make it work better. We are at this point where there is a tremendous effort put forth to get us here. There are challenges we have to meet, and i think given the way that washington is right now, we should defend what we have and work to expand it instead of throwing it out and trying to go in a totally different direction. [applause] hi. I hate to use a sports analogy, but a good defense is a strong offense. Strategically, i think that needs to be look at a little more seriously. I am not insured, like many others. I had the good fortune of living in south korea for four years. That was one of the first times that i received insurance. Like most industrialized nations, they covered everyone. It cost 5 or 10 every time i went to the hospital. It was amazing. Here, there is nothing like that on the menu. I would like to hear a serious discussion on medicaid for all, universal health care, whatever we would like to call it. I would like to see democrats getting behind this, the rest of the country. Polls consistently show a high level of support for medicaid for all, medicare for all, and the public option. More republicans are coming around for this. Is that something you support . Politically, it might be difficult for you to publicly say it, but i will ask anyway. Is it something you support, and would you push for it. I understand the aca needs to be defended and we need that as a bottom, but are we willing to go for what we really need . [applause] rep. Deutch of course we need to go further. We talked about some of the ways to do it. A public option, which if we had it today, we would have addressed some of the challenges we face already. A public option is something we need to look at. Giving people the opportunity, under the Affordable Care act, to buy into medicare at an early age, healthier people into medicare it is a pretty good offense to be able to push back against people who want to cut access to health care for tens of millions of americans to say we stand on the side of expanding the system that has been put into place that has been so effective. I think it is pretty clear that if the options today are the Affordable Care act or the attempt to repeal it in its entirety, which we had been fighting every day since i got to congress, if those are the two options, i want to fight against efforts to repeal it. I want to keep it, strengthen it, expand it, talk about a public option and all the ways to do it to maximize more people. Also, as the mayor said, get to the point to where health care is recognized by everyone, as it should read, as a right, not a privilege. [applause] the organizer in me is thinking we need a treaty and around the offense, and the carenotchaos. Is our representatives, us as constituents, we can put more energy on that. Reach out to your colleagues, friends, family, around the state and say lets change this conversation. The president that we have now, it is a popularity contest. This is not me as the iu, this is me as a black woman in this country now. I really want us to move forward and have deep conversations on what we want so we have choices. Lets build street heat around the care, the office, you have to do the defense. You have to handle the chaos, because it will keep coming. Lets start doing this more. [applause] i will echo that. We need to have more hold your own events. It was hard to pass remember the days when we pass to the Affordable Care act, we could not fill a room like this. It was tough. There was support, but people didnt know what it was. Now people understand what their health care is. We are becoming better educated consumers of health care. We are teaching each other, and we did not know before. We need to keep asking that question and organizing. It was hard to pass and difficult to implement. We have had significant gains. Even these issues, what is hhs up to when it comes to Preventative Services like Birth Control . Meone ge to define what is a Preventative Service that doesnt have a copay. Covering people that dont have coverage in the marketplace, we can Pay Attention to that. Educating each other and pushing for something better. Hi, my name is cheryl harris. There is a focus on cost of the Actual Health care and premiums we are paying. There are other issues with insurers. In a strange coincidence, my friend share details about her husbands recent death that pertains what were talking about. I wont mention specific names, but it has to do with one of the Major Health Care companies in the country. Her husband in his late 40s had a couple of cardiac episodes and surgeries. He had to put in for a disability claim. The Health Insurance company denied it, because they said if he was well enough to go to the gym to continue cardio rehab, he was well enough to go back to work, despite their own experts saying that he would never work again. They scared him so badly he stopped going to the gym when they denied his claim. A year later, he was dead. I realize we are fighting hard to keep what we have got at the moment, but a lot of what the aca doesnt necessarily address is some of the issues almost everyone knows of with the Insurance Companies, and how their decisions are made with respect to actual issues. A lot of their stuff is sent to third providers that have no medical training. A lot of claims are being outsourced to third world countries. You get their Customer Service operators on the phone. There are problems, we are trying to block this aaca, but what is being discussed amongst congress, or other medical groups, to address making it sure the insurers do not have this kind of bad power, and this much bad decisionmaking power over our Health Decisions . The fact that we had to take a pause, i always make note of that. Lots of consumer groups, doctors for america, a few others, i go back to my original statement. If we have the energy to enforce it, to put patients at the Center Stories like that. I cant tell you. I keep looking at my doctor and nurse colleague, we all know these stories. That is what we be focusing on. That is really what we should be focusing on. Right now, it is happening in pockets. We have to force this conversation where we are putting people and patients at the center. I think it is first and foremost stories. We know it is important to tell these stories. Insurance reform, people are not as aware of the insurance reforms until they have to deal with their Insurance Companies. We have made great gains for Preventative Care and an appeals process that is complicated, but exists, in the Affordable Care act. They represent Insurance Companies. I was a consumer advisor for florida for a while. It is a complicated Health Care System, as prentrump learned. [laughter] asking people to participate at that level is hard. Thats keep telling these stories. That is what we did before the Affordable Care act. People who were denied coverage where charge exorbitant amounts. If they had preexisting conditions they could not afford the one medication they needed on their coverage. The drug costs, the denials of coverage, so many different people with different circumstances that would be completely shut out of coverage if it were not for insurance reforms, but it has not gone far enough. Rep. Deutch i would add a reminder, that this isnt the only debate in washington. It is not the only issue where there are powerful special interests at play. I serve on the judiciary committee. There is an ongoing effort that we see every time the committee meets. We have seen it in legislations, an ongoing effort to make it harder for consumers in this country to have access to the courtroom to be able to seek justice when they have been wronged. That is an effort that is undertaken at the behest of special interests who, unfortunately, exert too much power in a process that too often marginalizes the importance of consumer rights. Understand that that is happening at the same time. Also understand that for those of us who believe, among other things, in our constitution, we are fighting every day to make sure the courtroom doors are open so when terrible things happen to someone because of something that was done to them they have access to the Justice System to achieve that justice. My name is sue gilbert. I spent my time working at a school for the handicapped and dealing with medicare concerns. My concern is the overlapping trump epa, which affects our health with the poisons being put on our soil that were already in play he took away the poison im sorry, im so upset about the epa. It affects our health would you spray poisons on our food. Everything trump seems to do affects our health. That is my concern. [applause] we only have time for a few more questions. Rep. Deutch perhaps, we should schedule one of these every week. Make it a standing meeting. I am a retired federal worker. I have Health Insurance. The federal workers get really good Health Insurance. I come as a federal worker who worked for my benefits, am not eligible if i needed an abortion to have my Health Insurance pay for it because that would be federal money. That includes the military. I worked for my benefits. The second thing i wanted to raise, i will sit down. I have a chronic physical disability. I have psoriatic arthritis. In california, i was able to get medical marijuana. I was able to get creams and things that made my joints better. I moved to florida because it is cheaper to live here than california. Florida right now is negotiating what the laws will be for law that was already past, how that was already passed, how it wille imemented. It is almost impossible for a doctor to write a prescription for dedication that will help children suffering from seizures. People like me who wake up in the middle of the night with my legs in pretzel shapes. I wondering, on the federal level, what is happening with the attorney general saying he intends to block the state from implementing medical marijuana . Im wondering what your position is on that . There is one more i wanted to raise. The correlation of health care, and the Affordable Care act, and people with disabilities. What is happening is when we are losing our health care, many people with physical disabilities get medicare. It used to pay for wheelchairs and all sorts of things. They are cutting back to the point that in florida you can no longer get an electric wheelchair at all under medicare or medicaid because no provider will pay for them anymore because of the cuts in the amount of money they will receive for these services. Essentially, if you are disabled you become what i call third base. You can lie in the bed for the rest of your life and the state doesnt give a damn. The State Government cutting back on implementation, the department of justice is also no longer following lawsuits being filed by people who have been wronged under the american civil disabilities act. We are running out of time and im getting angry looks from people who want to ask questions. Now that im down here, i will probably never get up. I will leave it up to you. [laughter] rep. Deutch really quickly the same people in washington who are more than happy to tell you all of the reasons why states should be able to act on behalf of the people that live in those states ought to respect the fact that the people of florida voted to approve medical marijuana, and with the state carry it out. [laughter] [applause] good afternoon. I will be quick. I am an rn in a local hospital, and a member of 1199. I appreciate all of you, and i love this. I would not allow myself to be in a forum like this and not explain the difference before and after aca. Before, my patients would come into the hospital very sick. Their first time seeing a doctor and have to end up in icu because they waited so long without insurance. Since aca, they come in and they are not as ill. Most of them are elective. I work on the surgical floor. I know this is a fight we will always have to have as long as we have the environment in washington we do. Representative, in october there will be a bunch of sciu nurses in washington, october 2527. You can reach out to us here to we have met with nancy pelosi before. We have to continue to fix this broken system. We need to get rid of the lies being told. [applause] to spread the truth about planned parenthood. That is what we did with aca. Thank you, so much. [applause] that is a perfect way to end. Thank you all for being here. This has been very informative. My concern is that we are in the middle of an opioid catastrophe. I know they took the central things out, Substance Abuse treatment, put them out, and they want to take out other stuff, and they are monkeying around with it. Will you vote to make sure they have Substance Abuse treatment in the Health Care Bill and stop physicians from prescribing so many opioids . Rep. Deutch yes, we have to make sure Substance Abuse and access to Mental Health care continues to be a part of it. I would like to keep harping on this, but when you refuse to expand medicaid, there are people in this state that are not getting access to that kind of care because of the partisanship we have seen coming out of tallahassee. They have to act in the best interest of all floridians, not a narrow, special interest partisan view. [applause] unfortunately, we are out of time with the congressmans schedule, but folks are welcome to stay if they want to talk to the other panel members. This is an important issue. I would like to thank the congressmen, dr. Tony, and planned parenthood. Ts give them ala round of applause. [applause] get it to mayors. We know how to solve problems. We dont play politics, we just get things done. Thank you so much, thank you for coming out. [applause] [chatter] bucknight, congressman ken of colorado, also a member of the freedom caucus, discusses drain the swamp, how washington corruption is worse than you think. When you arrive in washington dc and have the surroundings described earlier, you get comfortable and dont want to give up those comforts. The way to continue to earn those is to spend more money, and to grow government and not solve problems, but to create programs and take credit for those programs, whether they are efficient or effective. Congresshe members of are here, it is the best job ive ever had, highest paying job i have ever had. It is a job that they do not want to give up. Their reelection is more important than the actual problem solving that needs to go on. Watch, afterwards, tonight at 9 00 eastern on cspan twos book tv. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Television Cable companies. That is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. With the first 100 days of the Trump Administration approaching, cspan takes a look at the president s cabinet, which includes the seniormost appointed officials. Part two of our special Program Begins with education secretary betsy devos. She was narrowly confirmed by the senate in february with Vice President mike pence casting the tiebreaking vote. The daughter of a wealthy michigan family and the wife to the heir of amway fortune, she has been a long time Publican Party activists and served at one time as state party chair. Her Education Advocacy has focused on the issue of school choice. We will show you a portion of her hearing from january, starting with questions from North Carolina republican richard burr. Thank you for agreeing to serve. I think a lot of americans watch what goes on here and say that is never me. I will never go through with it. Most of us say that after an election cycle. It is rare to find somebody who