[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.
______