WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, late last night during the debate surrounding the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) took to the Senate floor to share his personal story of how having health insurance saved his life. In his remarks, Senator King emphasized how having health insurance can mean the difference between life and death, as it did for him when he was a young Senate staffer forty-three years ago.

“It has haunted me since that day that I was treated and my life saved because I had health insurance. I know to a certainty that had I not had that coverage, had I not had that free checkup, I would not be here today,” Senator King said. “It has always stayed with me that somewhere in America that week, that month, that year, there was a young man or a young woman who had a mole on their arm or their back or their neck, couldn't do anything about it, didn't really think about it, didn't do anything about it until it was too late, and they are gone. And I am here. I don't know why I was saved. Maybe I was saved in order to be here tonight. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out why anyone would want to take health insurance away from millions of people.”

Senator King is a strong proponent of the Affordable Care Act’s aim to provide as many people with health insurance as possible and he opposes its repeal, which would strip health care away from tens of millions of Americans, including more than 75,000 in Maine. Last week, he cosponsored an amendment that would stop efforts to dismantle the law, and he joined with several of his centrist colleagues in urging Senate leadership to discuss meaningful improvements to the law before rushing to fast-track a repeal of it.

“I know there are lots of problems with the Affordable Care Act,” continued Senator King. “I am ready to sit down with anybody who wants to talk about finding a solution, but let's not talk about the solution being ripping coverage away from people who desperately need it. It is just wrong. […] This isn't rhetoric anymore. This isn't a bumper sticker anymore. This isn't a rally anymore. This is real people's lives.”

“If people want to come up with a different solution, if they want to modify the current system, if they want to try to make changes that make it easier for small businesses and change the hours of work and the definition of full time – all of those things can be discussed. I don't care who leads it. I don't care whether we call it TrumpCare, McConnellCare, or RyanCare. We can call it whatever we want, but the fundamental principle here is that health insurance is a life or death matter, and we should honor the commitment that has been made to those millions of people – including over 80,000 people in Maine – who have taken advantage of this program, many of whom have never had health care before,” he said.

At the age of 29, Senator King, then a staffer for Maine U.S. Senator William Hathaway, successfully fought a serious and aggressive form of skin cancer called malignant melanoma. The cancer, was discovered during a routine check-up, which Senator King says he otherwise would not have had had he not had health insurance. 

Video of Senator King’s floor speech is available HERE, and his full remarks are below:

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Mr. President, my colleagues have spoken tonight eloquently about a number of consequences that would follow from the repeal of the Affordable Care Act: increasing of drug costs for seniors, a devastating impact on rural hospitals, elimination of consumer protection in everybody's health insurance – not just those on the Affordable Care Act – limitations on mental health coverage and substance abuse. All of those issues have been presented eloquently and passionately.

I want to do something a little different. This isn't easy for me, but I want to tell my own story and why I feel so strongly about the issue of health insurance for all of our people.

Forty-three years ago – I think it was just about this week – I was a young staff member here in the United States Senate. I was a junior staff member who was covered by health insurance provided by my employer, the U.S. Senate. I paid a share, and the Senate paid a share. But the health insurance that I had, as part of it, had free preventive care – exactly like that required by the Affordable Care Act.

The other thing the plan I chose had was a Wednesday night doctor's session. So because I had a free checkup and because it was on Wednesday night and I didn't have to miss any work, in late January or early February of 1974, I went in for a checkup – the first one I had had in eight or nine years. Everything looked fine. As I was putting my shirt back on, the doctor said, ‘Well, you have a mole on your back, Angus, and I think you ought to keep an eye on it.’

That night, I went home and mentioned it to my wife. The next morning, she said, ‘I don't like the looks of that thing. Let's have it taken off.’

I went back in the following Wednesday night because they had Wednesday night hours and I didn't have to take off from work. I had coverage so I didn't have to worry about what it was going to cost me, and the mole was removed. When they called me to come back in – I will never forget this moment as long as I live--the doctor said, ‘Angus, I think you had better sit down.’ And he told me that I had what was called malignant melanoma.

At the time, I didn't know what it meant. I thought it was simply a skin cancer. You hear about those all the time. You have them taken off, and it is no big deal. No, malignant melanoma is one of the most virulent forms of cancer. One of its characteristics is that it starts with a mole, but if you don't treat it, it then gets into your system and goes somewhere else. And if you don't catch it in time, you will die.

I caught it in time. I had surgery. They took out a big hunk of my back in surgery and up under my arm. To this day, my shoulder is still numb from that surgery, but here I am.

It has haunted me since that day that I was treated and my life saved because I had health insurance. I know to a certainty that had I not had that coverage, had I not had that free checkup, I would not be here today. It has always stayed with me that somewhere in America that week, that month, that year, there was a young man or a young woman who had a mole on their arm or their back or their neck, couldn't do anything about it, didn't really think about it, didn't do anything about it until it was too late, and they are gone. And I am here. I don't know why I was saved. Maybe I was saved in order to be here tonight. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out why anyone would want to take health insurance away from millions of people. It is a death sentence for some significant percentage of those people.

 In 2009, the American Journal of Public Health did a study – a comprehensive study. What they concluded was, that for every million people who are uninsured, you can predict about 1,000 premature unnecessary deaths. So the math is pretty simple. Right now, we are talking about over 20 million people who have been afforded health insurance, either through the exchanges or through the expansion of Medicaid, who didn't have it before. If we take that away, that is 22,000 deaths a year. How can we do that with good conscience? How can we sentence people to death? We are talking about bankruptcies. We are talking about all the kinds of stories we have heard. They are all valid. They are all important. But for me, this is personal. This is about life itself. It is about our ethics, our morality, and our obligation to our fellow citizens.

 Like all the other speakers, I know there are lots of problems with the Affordable Care Act. I wasn't here when it passed. It isn't exactly the way I would have worked on it or written it. I am ready to sit down with anybody who wants to talk about finding a solution, but let's not talk about the solution being ripping coverage away from people who desperately need it. It is just wrong.

 I understand the political impulse. Folks on the other side of the aisle have been talking about this for six years, and, by golly, they are going to repeal it and get rid of it, and people cheer and all of that kind of thing. But now it is real. This isn't rhetoric anymore. This isn't a bumper sticker anymore. This isn't a rally anymore. This is real people's lives.

 So let's just slow down. If people want to come up with a different solution, if they want to modify the current system, if they want to try to make changes that make it easier for small businesses and change the hours of work and the definition of full time – all of those things can be discussed. I don't care who leads it. I don't care whether we call it TrumpCare, McConnellCare, or RyanCare. We can call it whatever we want, but the fundamental principle here is that health insurance is a life or death matter, and we should honor the commitment that has been made to those millions of people – including over 80,000 people in Maine – who have taken advantage of this program, many of whom have never had health care before, many of whom have had tragic stories that we have heard all night about children born with birth defects or children that had some disease at a young age or an adult who, as we just heard a few minutes ago, finds they had cancer and if they hadn't had the coverage and gone in, they wouldn't be here.

This isn't politics. This is people's lives. I can't believe that the good people that I know in this body on both sides of the aisle can't figure out a way to say: Let's slow down. Let's slow down, and talk about how to fix it, how to change it, how to replace it. But put that before repeal, because once repeal occurs, there are all kinds of bad results, even if they are grandfathered.

People say we are going to repeal and delay. That is repeal and chaos. The insurance industry is going to start to pull back. The health care industry is going to say, ‘Well, we don't know what the situation is going to be. We are going to have to slow down. We are going to stop hiring. We are going to lay people off.’

All those changes are going to start happening right away. They can't be prevented. To tell people, ‘Don't worry, we are going to cover you,” that is cruel. I don't think my colleagues intend to be cruel. There is not a mean-spirited person in this body. We just have a different view of how to achieve these results. But the fundamental results should be people have health insurance so they don't have to risk their lives every day and live under that threat. That is what this discussion is all about. That is why I am here.

I view this as much more than a political issue. I understand the differences, I understand the history, and I understand the politics of it, but I just think that now that it is real, let's slow down and find another way to solve this problem that protects the gains that have been made, and sands off the rough edges of the law, but allows us to protect the fundamental idea of helping people to find health insurance they can afford and keep them from being denied health insurance for reasons through no fault of their own.

I think this is a moral and ethical issue, and I go back, and I feel so strongly about this because of my own experience. I feel I owe it to that young man in 1974 who didn't have insurance, who didn't have the checkup, who had melanoma, and who died. I have an obligation to that young man to see that doesn't continue to happen in the wealthiest, most developed society on Earth.

This is something we have within our power to do. I deeply hope that we can take a deep breath, back away from this idea that we have to repeal, and talk about fundamental principles of helping people to cope with this most serious and personal of issues.

Mr. President, I have confidence in this body. I have confidence in the good will of this body and of the American people. If we can get away from talking about it in the abstract as a political issue, we can talk about real people. That is what I hope we can do over the next weeks and months, and I am convinced we can come to a solution ­– not that will make everybody happy, but will save lives and make our country a better place.

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