Scalise on Morning Joe: 'Help is on the way'

“We have multiple layers of protection in our bill for people with pre-existing conditions. What I'm hearing from my constituents, especially with pre-existing conditions, one, they're paying more than before Obamacare. But the law doesn't work for them. They're utilizing the health care system more than most people. The massively high deductibles in Obamacare, in some cases over $10,000 a year, are really what's creaming them. They're going to the doctor and they're paying everything out of pocket even though they've got a very expensive insurance plan. They've got insurance that doesn't really work for them. They have to have it, according to the law. Yet they're paying for everything out of pocket anyway. They're saying give me some relief from this. That's what this bill does, provides relief with multiple layers of protection for people with pre-existing conditions and a real focus on lowering premiums for all Americans…

“Even if you lose your job and, let's say you go on COBRA or Medicaid. You are still continuously covered. The bill ensures that anybody who is continuously covered gets priced like anybody, whether you have a pre-existing condition or not. If a state wants to have some kind of waiver to have more flexibility -- in our bill we give states flexibility to do an even better job rather than some one-size-fits-all. They can't waive your continuous coverage provision and you have that same protection. They have to put in place a high-risk pool to lower costs even more for people with pre-existing conditions.

“If you have continuing -- if you have a plan today and you have a pre-existing condition, under our bill you'll be protected forever, as long as you want. You can move around from one plan to another. In Obamacare, you don't really have choices. We saw in Iowa, just two days ago, in 94 out of 99 counties, you won't have anybody that will sell you insurance in Obamacare. That's how bad this law is. We need to change it and give people real choices and lower premiums. In our bill, we have multiple layers of protection for people with pre-existing conditions.”

“People on Medicaid that are concerned today, I can say help is on the way. Anybody in America on Medicaid knows it's the most broken form of health care. In many cases, it might be a free insurance card but very few doctors take you. In fact, I don't know of many doctors that take new Medicaid patients. You have an insurance card that's free but you can't go see anybody, so you're seeing emergency room visits are going up.

“For decades, we've been wanting to reform Medicaid so that states can run the program. It's run out of Washington right now. if you have an innovative idea in a state you can't even change the program to help low-income people…We actually give governors and states the ability to run their program with flexibility, with the same dollars they have."

“Obamacare’s taxes were focused on going out and punishing anybody in the insurance marketplace. It's one of the reasons you saw insurance costs spike dramatically under Obamacare. All these people defending Obamacare, that's their prerogative. What are you saying to the millions of people paying 25% increases? In Maryland next year they're expected to pay 50% more for their health care. In Iowa, Virginia, the largest provider is pulling out of Virginia. They're just going to sit on the sidelines and watch that happen.

“The law doesn't work. You can criticize it, but those families have been waiting for relief for seven years. We campaigned on this. We got elected on the promise of gutting Obamacare and replacing it with reforms that actually put you back in charge of your health care decisions and lower premiums.”

“We put 217 votes on the board and it took weeks and weeks to do it because everybody's got good ideas. Some of them don't work for other people. If [in the Senate] you have a good idea you need to find 50 other people that share your good idea, and the focus needs to be on lowering premiums and putting families back in charge of their health care. That's what we did. We put a really good bill together that will achieve those goals.”

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