[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 153 (Wednesday, October 30, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7675-S7677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. JOHNSON of Wisconsin (for himself, Ms. Ayotte, Mr. 
        Barrasso, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Chambliss, Mr. Chiesa, 
        Mr. Coburn, Mr. Cochran, Ms. Collins, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Crapo, 
        Mr. Enzi, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. Flake, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Hatch, Mr. 
        Hoeven, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Isakson, Mr. Johanns, Mr. Kirk, Mr. 
        McCain, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Moran, Mr. Paul, Mr. Portman, Mr. 
        Risch, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Scott, Mr. Sessions, Mr. 
        Thune, Mr. Toomey, Mr. Vitter, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Graham, and Mr. 
        Corker):
  S. 1617. A bill to amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care 
Act to ensure that individuals can keep their health insurance 
coverage; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Wisconsin. Mr. President, I come before you today to 
introduce a piece of legislation which is timely and very much needed.
  One of the reasons I decided to run for the Senate was the passage of 
the health care law. The reason I thought it was pretty important is 
because I said at the time that passage of the

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health care law represented the greatest assault on our freedoms in my 
lifetime. I believe that is true, and I believe that is being borne out 
today. We are witnessing it today.
  The passage of the health care law resonated with me. It made such an 
impact on me because my wife and I are beneficiaries of the freedom 
that we had with our current health care system. Our first child, our 
daughter Carey was born with a very serious congenital heart defect. 
Her aorta and pulmonary arteries were reversed. Her first day of life, 
our daughter Carey was rushed down to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin 
in Milwaukee, where a wonderful man, Dr. John Thomas, came in at 1:30 
in the morning and did a procedure and saved her life.
  Eight months later, when her heart was the size of a small plum, 
another incredibly dedicated team of medical professionals in 7 hours 
of open-heart surgery totally reconstructed the upper chamber of her 
heart. Her heart operates backwards today. She is 30 years old and a 
nurse practitioner practicing at that same hospital in which her life 
was saved. She married about 3 weeks ago.
  Our story has a happy ending because my wife Jane and I had that 
freedom. I was able to call Boston Children's and Chicago children's 
hospitals and talk to the preeminent surgeons in the world--which means 
in America--and find out what is the most advanced medical treatment, 
the most advanced surgical technique at the time. We were able to avail 
ourselves of that, and now I have a beautiful daughter who is 30 years 
old. She is also taking care of those little babies in a neonatal 
intensive care unit.
  I decided to file this piece of legislation today because as a 
Senator from the State of Wisconsin we have been getting a number of 
phone calls in our office from Wisconsinites who are getting letters of 
cancellation from their insurance companies. In particular, one couple 
touched my heart and gave me a great cause for concern.
  This couple--who do not want to be identified because they fear IRS 
retribution, which is a little different story and a little off topic, 
but I think it is worth pointing out--both have cancer. The wife has 
stage IV lung cancer. The husband is recovering from prostate cancer. 
It is in remission.
  This couple had availed themselves and are currently covered under 
the Wisconsin high-risk insurance pool. It is a high-risk pool that 
works. I know in my business, when we had individuals who were lasered 
off of our insurance policy, those individuals were able to avail 
themselves of this sharing-of-the-risk pool in the high-risk pool. It 
works and it is affordable.
  This couple received their notice of cancellation from the high-risk 
pool, and they panicked. They were in a panic.
  When one has stage IV lung cancer, the last thing one needs is 
stress. ObamaCare caused them a great deal of stress. It is causing 
them a great deal of stress.
  They tried to get on healthcare.gov almost 40 times without success. 
They contacted our office. We have done everything we can to help them.
  They have been in touch with some of the insurance carriers that will 
be part of the exchange participating in Wisconsin. They have received 
quotes. This was preliminary. This isn't final, but under the high-risk 
pool their maximum out-of-pocket exposure, including the cost of their 
premiums, is about $20,000 per year. He is working and has a good job. 
They can barely afford that.
  Preliminary indications show that exposure will double to $40,000. 
The only reason they might remain whole is they may qualify for a 
subsidy. Nobody can calculate it yet. They have received three 
different answers. It is like taking a tax return to 100 different 
preparers and getting 100 different results of what tax is owed. But 
based on those preliminary estimates it is looking as though their 
total exposure won't be $20,000, it will be more like $40,000, and 
their subsidy might cover half of that. So their health care expense 
didn't decline, as President Obama promised, by $2,500 per year. It is 
going to virtually double. And if it doesn't double, it is because the 
American taxpayer will be picking up that other half.

  So one of the primary promises made by President Obama--that if we 
passed a health care law, the cost to a family health care plan would 
decline by $2,500 a year by the end of his first term--has been broken. 
That was not true.
  Of course, the other very famous promise the President made 
repeatedly was: If you like your health care plan, you can keep your 
health care plan. I would like to go through a number of times 
President Obama actually made that statement. He looked the American 
people in the eye, trying to sell his health care plan, and guaranteed 
them if they liked their health care plan they would be able to keep 
it.
  On March 6, 2009, he said:

       If somebody has insurance they like, they should be able to 
     keep that insurance. If they have a doctor they like, they 
     should be able to keep their doctor.

  On May 11, 2009:

       Americans must have the freedom to keep whatever doctor and 
     health care plan they have.

  On June 2, 2009:

       If they like the coverage they have now, they can keep it.

  That was from a letter to Senate Democratic leaders.
  On June 11, 2009, President Obama said:

       Americans must have the freedom to keep whatever doctor and 
     health care plan they have.

  On June 15, 2009--and this is probably the most famous one I 
remember--in an address to the American Medical Association, President 
Obama said:

       If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your 
     doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will 
     be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will 
     take it away. No matter what.

  I think I have made my point, but I have another 13 quotes I can 
continue reading that basically make the same point with the same 
promise and the same guarantee.
  As recently as the beginning of this month, on the White House Web 
site it says:

       We've got some good news for you. If you currently have 
     private health insurance, you should be able to keep it, and 
     that's exactly what the health care law says.

  Unfortunately, today over 2 million Americans have received 
cancellation notices of their insurance policies--the policies they 
chose, and that for just a little more time they will have the freedom 
to choose. They won't have that freedom come January 1.
  So one of two possibilities is true. Either President Obama was being 
entirely dishonest with the American public when he made those repeated 
promises, those repeated guarantees or he was totally disengaged from 
the process, did not have a clue what was in his own health care plan 
or did not understand the incredibly negative consequences of that 
health care plan.
  That brings me to my bill. The reason President Obama can claim if 
you like your health care plan you can keep it is that within the 
health care bill there actually is a grandfather clause. The first two 
paragraphs of that grandfather clause actually would work. The problem 
is those first two paragraphs or sections are followed by an 
evisceration of the grandfather clause. So basically what we have is a 
phony grandfather clause contained within the Patient Protection and 
Affordable Care Act.
  My piece of legislation--the If You Like Your Health Plan You Can 
Keep it Act--actually is a real grandfather clause and it uses 
President Obama's exact language. All my bill does is it simply strikes 
the phony grandfather clause and inserts basically the exact same 
language that was there, although we remove those exceptions, those 
mandates. In other words, we eviscerate the evisceration of the 
grandfather clause.
  I am here today to announce I have filed that bill. We have at least 
35 Republican cosponsors of the bill. I know the House is moving a 
similar piece of legislation. I know there is talk, and hopefully we 
will be joined by our Democratic colleagues. It is a simple 
proposition. I am asking every Senator to join me in passing this bill, 
the true grandfather clause, to help President Obama keep his promise 
to the American people.
  I have to say that, unfortunately, this bill won't help the Wisconsin 
couple I would so like to help, so like to guarantee they can keep 
their health care coverage. The only way we can help that couple is if 
we repeal the entire law, because the guaranteed issue,

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high-risk pools are extinct. They do not exist. That coverage is gone. 
But if my Democratic Senate colleagues will join me in passing this 
bill--the If You Like Your Health Plan You Can Keep it Act--we can keep 
President Obama's promise to millions of Americans. I think it is worth 
it, and I ask all my Senate colleagues to join me in this effort.
                                 ______