the name of the health care reform we passed two years ago. in doing so, they've reaffirmed a fundamental principle, that here in america, in the wealthiest nation on earth, no illness or accident should lead to any families' fings ruin. i know there will be a lot of discussion today about the politics of all of this, about who won and who lost. that's how these things tend to be viewed here in washington. but that discussion completely misses the point. whatever the politics, today's decision was a victory for people all over this country whose lives will be more secure because of this law and the supreme court's decision to uphold it and because this law has a direct impact on so many americans, i want to take this opportunity to talk about exactly what it means for you. first, if you're one of the more than 250 million americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.

this law will only make it more secure and more affordable. insurance companies can no longer impose lifetime limits on the amount of care you receive. they can no longer discriminate against children with pre-existing conditions. they can no longer drop your coverage if you get sick. they can no longer jack up your premiums without reason. they are required to provide free preventive care like checkups and mammograms, a provision that's already helped 54 million americans with private insurance and by this august nearly 13 million of you will receive a rebate from your insurance company because it spent too much on things like administrative costs and ceo bonuses and not enough on your healthcare. there's more. because of the affordable care act young adults under the age of 26 are able to stay on their parents' health care plans, a provision that's already helped 6 million young americans and because of the affordable care act, seniors receive a discount on the prescription drugs.

a discount that's already saved more than 5 million seniors on medicare about $600 each. all of this is happening because of the affordable care act. these provisions provide common-sense protections for middle-class families and they enjoy broad, popular support and thanks to today's decision, all of these benefits and protections will continue for americans who already have health insurance. now if you're one of the 30 million americans who don't yet have health insurance, starting in 2014 this law will offer you an array of quality, affordable, private health insurance plans to choose from. each state will take the lead in designing their own menu of options and if states can come up with better ways of covering more people at the same quality and cost, this law allows them to do that, too. and i've asked congress to speed up that process and give states that flexibility in year one.

once states set up these health insurance marketplaces known as exchanges, insurance companies will no longer be able to discriminate against any american with the pre-existing health condition. they won't be able to charge you more just because you're a woman. they won't be able to bill you into bankruptcy. if you're sick, you'll finally have the same chance to get quality, affordable healthcare as everyone else. if you can't afford the premiums you'll receive a credit that helps pay for it. today, the supreme court also upheld the principle that people who can afford health insurance should take the responsibility to buy health insurance. this is important for two reasons. first, when uninsured people who can afford coverage get sick and show up at the emergency room for care, the rest of us end up paying for their care in the form of higher premiums and second, if you ask insurance companies to cover people with preexisting conditions but don't require people who can afford it to buy their own

insurance, some folks might wait until they're sick to buy the care they need which will also drive up everybody else's premiums. that's why i knew it wouldn't be politically popular and resisted the idea when i ran for this office, we ultimately included a provision in the affordable care act that people who could afford to buy health insurance should take the responsibility to do so. in fact, this idea is enjoyed support from members of both parties including the current republican nominee for president. still, i know the debate over this law has been divisive. i respect the very real concerns that millions of americans have shared, and i know a lot of coverage through this health care debate has focused on what it means politically. well, it should be pretty clear by now that i didn't do this because it was good politics. i did it because i believed it was good for the country. i did it because i believed it was good for the american people. you know, there's a framed letter that hangs in my office right now.

it was sent to me during the health care debate by a woman named natoma canfield. for years and years natoma did everything right. she bought health insurance, paid her premiums on time, but 18 years ago she was diagnosed with cancer and even though she'd been cancer-free for more than a decade her insurance company kept jacking up her rates year after year and despite her desire to keep her coverage, despite her fears that she would get sick again, she had to surrender her health insurance and was forced to hang her fortunes on chance. i carried natoma's story with me every day of the fight to pass this law. it reminded me of all of the americans all across the country who have had to worry, not only about getting sick, but about the cost of getting well. natoma is well today and because of this law there are other americans and other sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers who will

not have to hang their fortunes on chance. these are the americans for whom we pass this law. the highest court in the land has now spoken. we will continue to implement this law and we'll work together to improve on it where we can, but what we won't do, and the country can't afford to do is re-fight the political battles of two years ago or go back to the way things were. with today's announcement, it's time for us to move forward, to implement and where necessary improve on this law, and now is the time to keep our focus on the most urgent challenge of our time, putting people back to work, paying down our debt and building an economy where people can have confidence that if they work hard they can get ahead, but today, i'm as confident as ever that when we look back five years from now or ten years from now or 20 years from now, we'll be better off because we have

the courage to pass this law and keep moving forward. thank you. god bless you and god bless america. >> president obama in the noon hour today, shortly after the supreme court why up held the health care reform law. he wasn't the only presidential candidate to give a statement after the court's decision. here is a look at a statement by mitt romney. he spoke shortly before the president. >> as you might imagine, i disagree with the supreme court's decision. and i agree with the dissent. what the court did not do on its last day in session i will do on my first day if elected the president of the united states, i will act to repeal obama care.

let's make clear that we understand what the court did and did not do. what the court did today was say that obama care does not violate the constitution. what they did not do is say it's good law or good policy. obama care was bad policy yesterday, it's bad policy today. obamacare was bad law yesterday. it's bad law today. let me tell you why i say that, obamacare raises taxes on american people by approximately $500 billion, obamacare cuts medicare -- cuts medicare by approximately $500 billion and even with those tax increases obamacare adds trillions to the national debt and pushes those obligations on to coming generations. obamacare means that for up to 20 million americans they will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance

that they like and want to keep. obamacare is a job killer. businesses across the country have been asked what the impact is of obamacare. three-quarters of those surveyed by the chamber of commerce says it makes it less likely for them to hire people and most troubling of all, obamacare puts the federal government between you and your doctor. for all those reasons it's important for us to repeal and replace obamacare. what are some of the things that will keep in place and must be in place, a reform, a real reform of the health care system. one, we have to make sure that people that want to keep their current insurance will be able to do so. having 20 million people up to that number of people lose the insurance they want is simply unacceptable. number two, got to make sure that those people that have pre-existing conditions know that they will be able to be insured and they will not lose their insurance.

we also have to assure that we do our very best to help each state in their effort to make sure that every american has access to affordable health care and something that obamacare does not do and must be done in real reform is helping lower the cost of health care and health insurance. it's becoming prohibitively expensive. and so this is now a time for the american people to make a choice. you can choose whether you want to have a larger and larger government, more and more intrusive in your life, separating you and your doctor, whether you're comfortable with more deficits, higher debt to be passed on to the coming generations, whether you're willing to have the government put in place a plan that potentially causes you to lose the insurance that you like or whether, instead, you want to return to a time when the american people will have their own choice in health care, where consumers will be able to make their choices as to what kind of health insurance they want. this is a time of choice for the american people. our mission is clear.

if we want to get rid of obamacare we will have to replace president obama. my mission is to make sure we do exactly that. that we return to the american people the privilege they've always had to live their lives in the way they feel most appropriate, where we don't pass on to coming generations massive deficits or debt. where we don't have a setting where jobs are lost. if we want good jobs and a bright, economic future for ourselves and for our kids we must replace obamacare. that is my mission. that is our work, and i'm asking the people of america to join me. if you don't want the course that president obama has put us on, if you want instead the course that the founders envisioned and then join me in this effort, help us. help us defeat obamacare. help us defeat the liberal agenda that makes government too big, too intrusive and killing jobs across this great country. thank you so much.

>> and we've been broadcasting reaction to the supreme court decision upholding the health care law with some limits on the medicaid portion of the bill. chief justice john roberts was the crucial fifth vote of the majority opinion. more reaction now from senate majority leader harry reid and minority leader mitch mcconnell. >> i'm happy, i'm pleased, the supreme court put the rule of law ahead of partisanship and ruled that affordable care act as constitutional. mr. president, long opinion, and we know that when we come back here after the elections there may be some things we need to do to improve the law and we'll do that working together, but today, millionses of americans are already seeing the benefits of the law we passed. seniors are saving money on their prescriptions and checkups. children can no longer be denied insurance because they have a

preexisting condition. protection that will soon extend to every american. no longer will american families be a car accident or heart attack away from bankruptcy. every thursday i have a welcome to washington. today a group of people from nevada who have or have relatives that have cystic fibrosis. it's been so hard for these young people to get insurance. not going to be that way anymore, mr. president. no longer will americans live in fear of losing their health insurance because they lose a job. no longer will tens of millions of americans rely on emergency room care or go without care entirely because they have no insurance at all. soon, virtually every man, woman and child in america will have access to health care they can afford and the vital care they need. passing the affordable care act

was the greatest single step in generations toward ensuring access to affordable, quality health care for every person in america regardless of where they live, how much money they make. mr. president, unfortunately, republicans in congress continue to target the rights and benefits guaranteed under this law. they'd like to give the power back to the insurance companies, the power of life and death back to the insurance companies, but our supreme court has spoken. the matter is is settled. no one thinks this law is perfect. presiding officer doesn't. i don't. but democrats have proven we're willing to work with republicans to improve whatever problems that exist in this law or in fact any other law. millions of americans are struggling to find work today and we know that. our first priority must be to improve the economy. it's time though for republicans to stop refighting yesterday's battles. now that this matter is settled,

let's move on to other things. like jos. >> mr. president, 2 1/2 years ago a democratic president teamed up with a democrat led congress to force a piece of legislation on the american people that they never asked for, and that has turned out to be just as disastrous as many of us predicted. amid economic recession, a spiraling federal debt, and accelerated increases in government health spending they proposed a bill that made all of those problems worse. americans were promised lower health care costs. they're going up. americans were promised lower premiums. they're going up. most americans were promised their taxes wouldn't change. and they're going up. seniors were promised medicare would be protected. it was raided to pay for a new

entitlement instead. americans were promised it would create jobs. the cbo predicts it will lead to nearly a million fewer jobs. americans were promised they could keep their health plans if they liked it, yet millions have learned they can't. and the president of the united states himself promised up and down that this bill was not a tax. this is one of the democrats top selling points because they knew it would never have passed if they said it was a tax. the supreme court has spoken. this law is a tax. the bill was sold to the american people on a deception. but it's not just that the

promises about this law weren't kept. it's that it made the problems it was meant to solve even worse. the supposed cure has proven to be worse than the disease. so the pundits will talk a lot today about what they think today's ruling means and what it doesn't mean, but i can assure you this. republicans won't let up whatsoever in our determination to repeal this terrible law and replace it with the kind of reforms that will truly address the problems it was meant to solve. now, look, we passed plenty of terrible laws around here that the court finds constitutional. constitutionality was never an argument to keep this law in place and it certainly is not one you hear from republicans in congress. there is only one way to truly

fix obama care. only one way. that's a full repeal. a full repeal that clears the way for common sense step by step reforms that protect americans access to the care they need from the doctor they choose at a lower cost. that's precisely what republicans are committed to doing. and the american people weren't waiting on the supreme court to tell them whether they supported this law. that question was settled 2 1/2 years ago. the more the american people have learned about this law, the less they have liked it. so now the court has ruled it's time to move beyond the constitutional debate and focus on the primary reason this law should be fully repealed and replaced. because of the colossal damage it has already done to our

health care system, to the economy and to the job market. the democrat health care law has made things worse. americans want it repealed. that's precisely what we intend to do. americans want us to start over and today's decision does nothing to change that. the court's ruling doesn't mark the end of the debate. it marks a fresh start on the road to repeal. that's been our goal from the start. that's our goal now. and we plan to achieve it. the president has done nothing to address the problems of cost, care and access. we will. mr. president, i yield the floor.

>> more reaction coming your way now from supporters of the tea party. as the supreme court released its decision upholding the affordable care act with some limits on the medicaid portion of the bill. chief justice john roberts was the crucial fifth vote of the majority opinion. >> on their way. okay. thank you all for coming. my name is michelle bachmann. a member of congress and proud to respect the six congressional district of minnesota. i was just seated in the supreme court chamber as i heard the decision come down. we had a brief reaction before. we invited members of the tea party caucus to give your thoughts today. others are making their way over from the capitol and we'll begin with the first reaction from sandy adams from florida. if you would introduce yourself

and district. >> i'm from florida's 24th district, the florida area, and while i'm very disappointed it just makes me more resolved to continue the fight to repeal, repeal this legislation. this has done nothing more to raise your health care costs put government in between you and your doctors and impeding our businesses from hiring people. this legislation must be repealed and i am committed to doing just that. >> good morning. my name is jeff landry. i represent louisiana's third congressional district. and i can echo, i'm proud to be here with representative michelle bachmann, blake and sandy and i will tell you that at the end of the day our founders relied on one group to solve our problems. it wasn't the supreme court, it was we, the people. and the people, it's time for the people to speak up and

demand that congress repeal this law, limit this federal government, and solve the problems that have been ailing this country over the last 30 years. so my commitment to you, and to the people is i will continue the fight and ensure that we repeal this damaging legislation that now knows no limit to the federal government's power. thank you. >> thank you very much. i'm blake from texas. i think jeff had it exactly right. the final check on the power of the government is the people. if you object to this law, if you object to the continuing overreach of the federal government as we take more of your money away, take more of your rights away it is up to you to elect the people to put a stop to it. people like the representatives you have here, people throughout this country who are committed

to less taxes and more freedom. our forum for the readdress of our grieve anns is the ballot box. up to each and every one of you in november to go out and exercise your right to vote and say no to laws like this take over of health care, this invasion of the doctor/patient and this new tax that has been mysteriously created by the supreme court. thank you very much. >> this is a congressman from louisiana's first district. one thing they did we said all along the video mandate was not constitutional under the commerce clause and limited congress's ability there. they went further and allowed it to stand under the tax laws. one thing that the supreme court did confirm today is that president obama broke his word to the american people because consistently for years now, he has said that this was not a

tax. the supreme court today confirmed, in fact, this is a tax, a massive tax increase, on american families, middle class family, the very people president obama said he wouldn't tax. it confirms that. i'm more resolved than ever to go back and go to work to repeal this entire law. i'm on the house energy and commerce committee. we'll be having hearings starting next week to go back to repeal this law, to fix the the things that are broken and remember, obama care promised to lower health care costs. it's been confirmed now to increase health care costs. it's actually made problems worse. we need to fix the real problems in health care, to lower costs, to increase access and obama care made that worse. and the final thing i'll say is look, the u.s. supreme court had their say here on the last thursday in june. the american people are going to have their say on the first tuesday in november and that -- [ applause ] >> [ inaudible ].

>> support sunglasses for dogs. >> i'm congressman john my ka for florida. it's been said the power to tax is the power to destroy. and today a lot of destruction was done by this decision. i'm concerned about two things. first the impact on our senior citizens. this is probably the most devastating blow to american senior citizens who will have a half a trillion dollars cut from medicaid. medicare. and they will also limit the choices of our seniors, both for care and also their choices as far as freedom in this country which individual freedom is being destroyed not only for our seniors but also for our citizens under this decision. the second thing is a business person, this is a [ inaudible ] for business in this country.

small business has been reeling from just the thought of this going into effect. today's decision will do more to hurt our economy than anything we could do in washington, and the statehouses or across this country. so this is a bad day for business and it's a bad day for our senior citizens and it's a bad day for america and congress needs to repeal this now! >> i want to thank the members who are just a small sample of the tea party caucus in congress. we have a very large contingent of members of congress and they're all engaged in many things and they're all reacting to this unprecedented decision, but there are just a few things that we want to say. as a result of the president's trillion-dollar stimulus program and as a result of obamacare, all across the united states spontaneously, you saw americans

attending, some for the first time, town hall meetings of their member of congress. that was in august of 2009. they stood up, and they held their member of congress, their senator accountable for what happened with obamacare and the people were not happy. we saw a revolt happen in 2010 where the american people did come to the ballot box, and we saw nancy pelosi lose the gavel to her hand as a direct result of -- [ inaudible ] and because of that we saw a new majority in congress that did pass the repeal of obamacare. the members of the tea party caucus that have spoken to you this morning and the other members of the tea party caucus did vote to repeal obamacare. you see, we have the job one-third done. now we have to complete the job in the senate and also in the white house.

it's imperative. we don't have a choice because our legal remedies have now concluded at the supreme court today. as inexplicable as this decision is, with no foundation in our constitution for upholding the individual mandate, this court has ruled today, and this has meant a turning point in american history. we're the largest expansion of government power over our liberties and over even our very lives so that now government for the first time in the history of the country has power to force every one of you to buy -- to force you to purchase whatever product or service government tells you to buy just because you breathe. that's never happened before in the history of the united states and add to that, john fleming, also a member of the tea party caucus from the

great state of louisiana, dr. john fleming. [ applause ] >> four more years of michele bachmann! >> look, folks, it's kind of hard to follow michele bachmann, don't you think? she's doing a wonderful job for us. >> strong conservative women. >> absolutely. strong conservative woman for strong conservative women and america in general. >> my name is john fleming, and i'm congressman from the fourth district in louisiana. i'm a physician and have been a doctor for 36 years ask still practice medicine when i get the opportunity and also a small business owner. so i've been tasked for years to not only provide health care, but to provide health care benefits to my employees and so i have an understanding of the microcosm of that economy. look, folks, obamacare, we all know is desp b