[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 129 (Thursday, September 26, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H5839]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Colorado (Mr. Gardner) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GARDNER. Mr. Speaker, when the President began his push to pass 
the partisan Affordable Care Act, he did so with two primary promises: 
the promise that if you like your health care plan, you will be able to 
keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away. That was 
the plan that this Chamber voted for when they passed the so-called 
Affordable Care Act. That was the plan the United States Senate voted 
for when they passed the so-called Affordable Care Act: If you like 
your health care, you can keep it.
  In 2011, Richard Foster, the Chief Actuary of Medicare, testified 
before Congress that this promise would not come true, the promise that 
if you liked your health care, if you liked your health insurance plan, 
you would get to keep it. The Chief Actuary of Medicare--he is not a 
Democrat or Republican appointee--said that this promise, the promise 
that was made when this bill passed, won't come true.
  Over the past several months, my office has received countless 
letters, emails, tweets and Facebook comments from people around this 
country and around my district in Colorado who have said thanks to 
ObamaCare they are losing their health insurance, they are losing their 
family's plan. This promise for them is not coming true.
  When I first got elected to Congress, I made a decision that I would 
reject congressional health insurance, that I would reject the Federal 
health care plan, because I wanted to be in the same boat as my 
constituents. Just a couple of weeks ago, I too received a letter in 
the mail from our insurance plan, our private provider, in Colorado for 
our family, and it said this: We notify you about the upcoming 
discontinuation of your plan. This letter right here that says my 
family's plan is being canceled.
  Mr. President, where is the promise? Mr. President, if you like your 
health care plan you'll be able to keep it--tell that to the thousands 
of people in my district who are losing their health insurance, to my 
family, to millions of people around this country for whom this promise 
that you made when you sold this bill is not coming true.
  The plan that my family had was an affordable plan. We shopped for 
it. We worked hard to find a plan that met our needs in rural Colorado. 
We found a plan that is now being canceled. The plan that replaces it--
the plan that replaces it--now increases in cost by over 100 percent. 
In fact, the plan that is most similar to the one we had is now going 
up to $1,480 a month. It is a 100 percent increase from the plan that 
we had.
  But the President said if you had your health insurance that you 
liked, you would get to keep it. The President also said the second 
primary promise, though, was that if you had your plan and you got to 
keep it, we're going to make sure that this bill, the Affordable Care 
Act, brings down your cost. Yet we know that that's not coming true 
either, as people around this country are facing higher insurance 
costs, higher plan costs, canceling their plans, forcing them to go to 
other alternatives.
  In the letter that we received canceling my family's plan it said 
this: that I have options, I have options to purchase another 
individual health plan from us, purchase a plan from another carrier, 
or go through the health care exchange in Colorado, an exchange that 
was just reported in the newspaper to have significant computer 
glitches even though it is supposed to be up and running on October 1. 
But not one of these options, not a single one of these options include 
being able to keep the plan that my family had, despite the President's 
promise, the promise that if you liked your insurance you would be able 
to keep it.
  Mr. President, where is your promise today? Will you explain to the 
American people that neither of those promises--the primary reasons you 
pushed the health care bill--are untrue. Explain that to the American 
people.
  In recent reports we've seen from Forbes an analysis that ObamaCare 
will increase underlying insurance rates for younger men by an average 
of 97 to 99 percent and for women by an average of 55 to 62 percent. 
HHS compared what the Congressional Budget Office projected rates might 
look like in 2016 to its own findings. What happened, of course, in 
this analysis was that premiums, according to Forbes, nationwide will 
be around 16 percent lower. That's what they said. But after the 
analysis, after the analysis by CBO, which looked at the projected 
rates in 2016 compared to its own findings, neither of those numbers 
tell you the statistic that really matters: how much rates will go up 
next year under ObamaCare relative to this year, prior to the law 
taking effect. Looking at families like mine, a 100 percent increase.
  We've received stories from around the district--people who have seen 
their costs increase, people who have seen their insurance canceled. We 
received a message over Twitter that said: I lost my insurance because 
I can't afford the 100 percent cost increase. For the first time in 47 
years I will have to depend on the government for health insurance. 
Another gentleman said he will be dependent on the taxpayers as well 
for the first time in his life.
  Mr. President, explain to the American people why the promises that 
you made, the promises you made to the American people, are simply not 
true.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks 
to the Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.

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