problems and let the american people decide. what that means is, if people choose not to participate, they will not be charged the penalty for non-participation. would you support such a reasonable approach to this while we work out the problems in the system? no, sir. okay. well that is honest answer. gentleman s time is expired. thank thank you, madam secre. chair recognize the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pallone. thank you, mr. chairman. i know we re not in kansas but i do believe increasingly we re in oz because i what i see here so, this wizard of oz comment by my colleague from texas i think is particularly appropoe given what we hear on the other side of the aisle. i don t know how you keep your cool, madam secretary, with this continuous effort on the part of the gop to sabotage the aca, to scare people, and bring up red herrings and i think that this privacy issue was another red herring and i m going to ask you a question about that.
been $197 million obligated and that is to last through march of 2014 and as i said before about $104 million has been expended in that obligated amount. i m going to try to be here in 2014 to be sure that your testimony is correct, okay? i m just i m just joking with you. i hope okay. and were you born in kansas, meade, kansas? i was not. i was born in cincinnati, ohio. i married a kansan and went to kansas. i was in the third grade there and i thought i saw you on a tricycle there one day. [laughing] well, well, it was an illusion. let me ask you a question, have you ever reject ad financial bill from one of the contractors? have you ever? have i ever reject ad financial bill from one of them?
from the great state of kansas in audience, mr. slattery. we re glad to have you, madam secretary, we re glad to have you, too. thank you, sir. there is a famous movie called the wizard of oz , and in the wizard of oz , there is a great line, dorothy, at some point in the movie turns to her little dog toto, says, toto, we re not in kansas anymore. well, madam secretary, while you re from kansas and we re not in kansas anymore. some would say we re actually in the wizard of oz land given the parallel universes we appear to be habit tating. mr. waxman and most of those on the democrat side things are great. you apparently, although you did apologize and you have said it is a debacle you also seem to think that the affordable care act is great. while myself and others, have a different view. ultimately the american people
companies. we re going to create consumer protections in the marketplace they will be able to buy a policy even if they have been sick in the past. that women won t be charged more than men. that we ll not let insurance companies deny coverage because of preexisting conditions. we re not going to let them put these lifetime caps and they will be an essential benefit package so you re not just buying some things and not having other things covered. you re going to have the minimum that everybody should have, prescription drugs, mental health coverage, doctors and hospitals. are these important consumer protections? well i would say, mr. waxman, they re very important. as a former insurance commissioner i can tell thaw the individual market in kansas and anywhere in the country has never had consumer protections. people are on their own. they can be locked out, priced out, and dumped out and that happened each and every day. this will finally provide the kind of protections we all enjo
you got to use that mic. you don t know how many people want to hear you this morning. thank you, chairman upton, ranking member waxman, members of the committee. unless my position as governor of kansas four 1/2 years ago for the opportunity to continue work i ve been doing for most of my over 35 years of public service, to expand the opportunities for all americans regardless of geography or gender or income, to have a affordable health coverage. during my years as the state legislator, as an elected insurance commissioner, as head of the national association of insurance commissioners, and as a two-term governor and now as a hhs secretary, i have worked on that effort that i care deeply about. there s still millions of americans who are uninsured as well as underinsured. people who have some coverage at some price for some illness but have no real protection from