[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 129 (Thursday, September 26, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S6907]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, later this morning in Maryland, the 
President will try again to sell his namesake health care plan to an 
increasingly skeptical public. He will claim that Americans will have 
lots and lots of options under ObamaCare. Unfortunately, keeping the 
plan you have and like will not be an option for a great many 
Americans.
  It must be frustrating for the President that folks keep tuning out 
all of this happy talk. It is not hard to see, frankly, why Americans 
are not buying the spin. Over the past couple of years, I have 
participated in more than 50 health care town halls in my home State. I 
have met with health care professionals, doctors, and nurses. I have 
met with patients, and I have met with everyday Kentuckians, folks who 
are just concerned about providing health care for their families.
  Many of the Kentuckians I have met with are a lot more knowledgeable 
about ObamaCare than the Washington intelligentsia might like to 
assume. In fact, more than a few of them seem to know more about the 
law than some of my colleagues who rammed it through Congress. Let's be 
clear. A person does not need a Ph.D. to understand that a law that 
drives costs up rather than down is a bad deal.
  Kentuckians understand that the new government bureaucracies are less 
likely to lower costs and improve care than they are to just simply get 
in the way. So it is for these and so many other reasons that 
Kentuckians and people across this country are rightly concerned about 
ObamaCare.
  Two nights ago, I had another great opportunity to connect on this 
issue with Kentuckians via a tele-town hall. I will tell you, the good 
people of my State are as concerned about this law as ever. One woman 
who participated said she thought she had been making it, but reports 
that she will now be forced to get a second job due in no small part to 
ObamaCare.
  I have received more than 50,000 letters from constituents frustrated 
by ObamaCare as well. Single parents want to know what they are 
supposed to do when their hours are cut. Families want to know why 
Washington is OK with their insurance premiums going up by double 
digits. Small business owners want to know how they are ever going to 
comply with more than 20,000 pages of regulations. They want to know 
how they are going to be able to keep their employees insured, 
workforces growing, businesses expanding, and far too often, their 
doors open once this law comes on line.
  One Kentuckian from Henderson wrote to me about the small trucking 
business she and her husband own. They have got 13 employees, and they 
have always provided insurance for all of them. But their agent 
recently told them their premiums would go up, a 100-percent increase 
in premiums. Here is what she wrote to me:

       We can't afford this, even if we raise the portion the 
     employees pay. Then they wouldn't be able to afford it.

  That was the experience reported to me by a woman and her husband 
running a small business in Henderson. These are the utterly 
predictable consequences of a law rammed through by a Democratic 
majority over the objections of the American people early on a cold, 
dark, Christmas Eve morning.
  Until a few brave Democrats join our united Republican conference in 
voting to get rid of ObamaCare and starting over with a real bipartisan 
reform, we are going to continue hearing this same heart-wrenching 
stories over and over again.
  We are going to keep seeing articles like the one that appeared 
earlier this week in Politico. It is titled, ``Obamacare: One Blow 
After Another.'' I want to read the opening paragraph:

       The ObamaCare that consumers will finally be able to sign 
     up for next week is a long way from the health plan President 
     Barack Obama first pitched to the nation.

  Among other things the story notes that ``millions of low-income 
Americans will not receive coverage'' and ``a growing number of workers 
won't get to keep their employer-provided coverage.'' Just yesterday, 
we heard the District of Columbia's exchange hit a huge bump in the 
road just days before launch. I would not be surprised if we see more 
stories of these types of problems popping up all across our country.
  Let's talk about premiums too. A few weeks ago one veteran at a town 
hall wanted to know how this law could possibly be free. This veteran 
said: How can it possibly be free? Well, of course it is not free. He 
was right. Premiums are part of that story. Based on the 
administration's own data, along with some intrepid reporting, here is 
how much more a single 27-year-old can expect to pay under ObamaCare in 
Columbus, OH: 436 percent increase, for a 27-year-old under ObamaCare 
in Columbus, OH.

  In Charlotte, NC, it is 523 percent; Little Rock, 613 percent more, 
613 percent. Imagine for a moment. You are 27. You have done everything 
right. You have studied hard, graduated from college. You have student 
loan debt, car payments, car insurance payments, utility bills, rent, 
renter's insurance, 401(k) contributions, and health insurance, of 
course. Then there is gas, food, and maybe just maybe, occasionally 
having a little bit of fun.
  Then you lose your employer-sponsored health plan thanks to 
ObamaCare. You get dumped into the exchanges. So jack up those monthly 
health insurance payments by 300, 500, even 600 percent. What are you 
supposed to do now, go uninsured and pay penalty taxes? Stop 
contributing to your retirement account? You cannot very well give up 
the car you need to get to work, or food, or paying back your student 
loans.
  None of this is a good option. They are not good for our society 
either. We should not be setting up disincentives for 27-year-olds to 
insure themselves or contribute to their own retirement. But this is 
the incentive structure that ObamaCare creates. When you consider how 
hard the Obama economy has hammered millennials already, it is hardly 
fair to whack them again, especially when so many are just barely 
hanging on as it is.
  So this law is a mess. It needs to go. It is way past time to start 
over. As I have been saying all week, we need just five brave Democrats 
to join us to make that happen. So I hope some of our Democratic 
friends who voted for this law will look at themselves in the mirror 
and think, truly think, about whether protecting the President's pride 
is really more important than helping the American people, because we 
owe our constituents better than ObamaCare.
  We can do better. With your help we can do that. With your help we 
can start over with the kind of real bipartisan reform that Kentuckians 
and Americans are actually hoping for.
  I yield the floor.

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