Jim Cooper Quotes

The Affordable Care Act has been designed to provide health security by driving competition, lowering premiums, and protecting families.

We have a duty to ensure that patients don't have to worry whether they'll be dropped from their coverage if they get sick. Small business owners shouldn't have to break the bank to provide coverage to their employees. And families should not be forced into bankruptcy because of a medical crisis.

I say that Medicaid isn't the only vehicle to be able to purchase coverage or be able to have coverage.

Like millions of other Americans, I receive health insurance through my employer.

Quite honestly, one of the unavoidable considerations in going exclusive with any company is being put on a company's medical insurance program.

In my case, I pay a standard premium to participate in the Federal Employees' Health Benefits Plan for my wife and myself out of each month's paycheck.

When I came to Congress, like our first panel, small business people, 64 percent of the people had health insurance. We'd buy it. Now, we're down to about 34 percent. That's why we have to do something on health care in this country because the cost is killing us.

Having started and owned two small businesses, I know what a challenge it is to keep up with the rising costs of your employees' healthcare premiums.

The majority of Americans receive health insurance coverage through their employers, but with rising health care costs, many small businesses can no longer afford to provide coverage for their employees.

For those that are working part time, in small businesses, or who are unemployed and do not currently have health insurance, we want to make sure that you are covered.

We should work to de-link health insurance from employment so if you lose your job, your health insurance goes with you and it is personal, portable and affordable.

Well, there are about 10 million children that aren't covered by health insurance. About 3 million qualify for Medicaid but don't get it, so we're going to reach out and bring more of those kids into the Medicaid program.

Soaring prescription drug costs have placed a tremendous strain on family budgets. They have also imposed a heavy burden on employers - both public and private - who are struggling to provide affordable health insurance coverage to their workers.

It's time to level the playing field for small business owners and give them the same health care choices that large corporations have. Because they don't have as many employees, they have little ability to negotiate lower rates.

That's what the Affordable Care Act is all about. It's about filling the gaps in employer-based care so that when we lose a job, or go back to school, or start that new business, we'll still have coverage.

Small businesses are seeing huge rate increases every year, and more and more of them are saying they just can't afford to provide coverage. That's part of the reason more than 45 million Americans are now uninsured.

Everyone should have health insurance? I say everyone should have health care. I'm not selling insurance.

With the loss of Free Choice Vouchers, hundreds of thousands of workers will now be forced to choose between their employers' unaffordable insurance or going without health care.

If you like the health insurance that you have you should be able to keep it, but if you don't like the health insurance you have, you should be able to choose something else.

If your grocery store owner provided your health care plan, I can guarantee you that it would be cheaper for him and inconvenient for you.

The small businesses that I've talked to have consistently said that the cost of health care is one of the things that they need the most help with.

Age is the thing that correlates best to what health coverage costs.

We're underscoring to everybody the promise at the heart of the Affordable Care Act, which is quality, affordable health care coverage available in a transparent marketplace for the first time ever.

As a member of Congress, I participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program under the same rules as millions of other federal employees.

Since Obamacare was enacted, affordable, individualized health care coverage choices have all but disappeared for many Americans.