[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 110 (Thursday, July 21, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4803-S4804]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BARRASSO (for himself, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Kyl, Mr. Wicker, 
        Mr. Roberts, Mr. Inhofe, Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. Cornyn, and Mr. 
        Grassley):
  S. 1395. A bill to ensure that all Americans have access to waivers 
from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; to the Committee 
on Finance.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor, as I have just 
about every week since the health care law has been passed, with a 
doctor's second opinion about the health care law. I have great 
concerns about the law that was forced through this Senate.
  I come to the floor because it seems that the more Americans find out 
and learn about this health care law, the less they like it. A majority 
of Americans now in national polls say they want out. They absolutely 
want out.
  Since October of 2010, the administration has granted waivers--
waivers--to unions, businesses, insurers, and actually to whole States 
because they cannot afford the health care law's burdensome mandates.
  The Secretary of Health and Human Services continues to release more 
waivers and did so again last Friday. They have now granted a total of 
1,471 annual benefit limit waivers, and this has covered 3.2 million 
Americans.
  That is why I come to the floor to introduce a bill that will allow 
every American--every American--to apply for a waiver from the 
President's health care law.
  Under my bill, any American can submit a waiver application seeking 
relief from any or all of the health care law's mandates. All those 
Americans will have to do is simply show what unions and corporations 
have shown in order to get their waivers--nothing more, nothing less.
  Waivers will be granted to individuals who show that the health care 
law is either increasing their insurance premiums or decreasing their 
access to benefits. That is all they have to show.
  So far, this administration has ignored most Americans demand for a 
way out of the health care law, and Americans are looking for a way out 
of it. Instead, this administration has granted half the waivers--half 
the waivers--to people who get their health coverage through unions. 
Although those people represent a very small percentage of the workers 
in America, they got half of all the waivers. It is neither fair nor is 
it reasonable.

[[Page S4804]]

  These are the same unions--the same unions--that lobbied for and 
supported the health care law. But now that they have actually read it 
and found out what is in it, even though it has been passed--too late 
now; we thought too late--but they have been getting waivers so they do 
not have to live under the mandates of the health care law.
  We are talking about unions such as the Service Employees 
International Union. This is what they said about the health care law. 
These are people who lobbied for the health care law. Now they have 
found out what is in it, and they say to live under it would be 
financially impossible. A union that lobbied for the health care law 
now says it would be financially impossible to live under it.
  It does not just apply to that union; it applies to Americans all 
across this great land. So I do not think any Americans should have to 
bear financially impossible costs because of the law.
  The financially impossible mandates and elements of this bill have 
absolutely become more obvious to more Americans as they have taken the 
time to look at the rules and the regulations. That is why, frankly, 
this steady drip of waivers coming out of Health and Human Services--
giving waivers to many of their friends--has become such an 
embarrassment for this administration and why they actually recently 
abruptly changed the rules.
  In June, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced 
that all employees and organizations that cannot afford the law's 
crushing mandates--and there are many--must jump through a new set of 
hoops. It used to be that they would get a 1-year waiver. Now all 
employers and organizations, even those that have already gotten a 
waiver, must apply for long-term waivers by September of this year. The 
long-term waivers will last all the way until 2014.
  Instead of ending the waiver process, the administration should 
extend the waiver process to include all Americans. That is what my 
bill does. If not, families, companies, and organizations of all sizes 
will soon be hit with these crushing mandates.
  Under the administration's current plan, employers will be forced to 
provide $750,000 worth of coverage to every employee this year. By next 
September, that number balloons to $2 million. Beyond that, there is no 
limit--it continues to go higher and higher. So if you are an employer 
and you cannot afford $2 million in coverage next year, well, you 
better apply for your waiver now, that long-term waiver, before 
September of this year; otherwise, you are going to be stuck with costs 
that only get higher and higher. This, to me, is what the 
administration wants to do because they do not want to put out waivers 
in 2012, an election year, which is going to cause additional attention 
to how unpopular this health care law continues to be.
  Let's talk about some Americans who get together--people in any 
community, in my State, in your State, Mr. President--and want to start 
a new business. They are thinking about starting a new business after 
September, thinking about, Do we do it this summer? Do we wait until 
the fall? If these people want to start a new business and hire people 
and they want to start that business after September, they are going to 
be faced with two difficult choices: They can offer high-cost, 
government-approved health insurance--that is what the health care law 
says--making it very expensive for them to try to open a new business, 
to try to hire workers, to put America back to work--we are at a time 
when there is 9.2 percent unemployment in this country--or these people 
trying to start a new business can refuse to offer coverage at all 
because they can't afford the health care law's sky-high mandates.
  So the incentives in the health care law will encourage businesses to 
do what? Well, to drop insurance coverage if they are providing it 
right now. Under the law, businesses are permitted to drop out of 
paying for employer-provided coverage as long as they pay a fine. The 
fine is going to be $2,000 per employee. The fine is far smaller than 
the exploding costs imposed by the health care law. So I think this 
explains why McKinsey & Company recently reported that up to 50 percent 
of employers are expected to stop offering employer-provided health 
care coverage.
  The employees who are dumped--what happens to them? Well, they will 
be forced to get their insurance through a government exchange, an 
exchange run by Washington, which is heavily subsidized by the American 
taxpayers. They are going to be dumped into the exchange. The annual 
cost of subsidizing these ballooning numbers of insurance policies, by 
my calculation, is about $900 billion. Well, that is nine times higher 
than what the White House has claimed. In short, the taxpayers of this 
country will be stuck with a bill of nearly $1 trillion every year.
  Well, I am going to continue to come to the floor week after week, 
continue to fight to repeal and replace this health care law with 
patient-centered care--patient-centered care--that lowers costs for all 
Americans and improves their care. So I will continue with the second 
opinions because until we are able to repeal and replace the health 
care law, I am going to move forward with what is now the Waive Act. 
This bill offers all Americans the freedom to choose--the freedom that 
has been taken away from them by the President's health care law. It 
gives them the right to seek and be granted a waiver out of the 
President's health care law. It is time to transfer power from 
Washington back to the American people. This will ensure they can get 
the care they need from the doctor they want at a price they can 
afford.
                                 ______