[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 157 (Wednesday, November 6, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7838-S7839]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, nearly every day we see evidence of 
more Americans losing their health coverage. Just take a look at this 
map right here to my right--105,000 losing their coverage in Idaho; 
215,000 in Pennsylvania; 330,000 in Florida. Out in California it is 
getting close to 1 million. All of these people have lost their health 
coverage.
  In my home State of Kentucky, which has been frequently referred to 
by some as a success story, let's get the facts straight: 280,000 
people--probably on a per capita basis more than any other State in 
America--280,000 folks are losing their private insurance as a result 
of ObamaCare, despite the President's repeated promises that such a 
thing could not possibly happen. That compares, by the way, with only 
about 5,000 who have been able to sign up for new private care on the 
Kentucky exchange.
  Let's go over that again. In my State, 280,000 people have lost their 
health care policies while 5,000 have signed up on the exchange. Most 
of the people in Kentucky who are signing up for something new are 
signing up for Medicaid, for free health care. I think we can stipulate 
that if you are giving out free health care, you are going to have more 
people sign up. But on the exchanges in Kentucky, 5,000 have signed up, 
and 280,000 have lost their policies. In other words, so far about 56 
times as many Kentuckians have lost their private insurance plans as 
have gotten new ones on the State exchange. That is hardly what most 
people would define as a success.
  But, if ObamaCare has gotten off to a troubled start in Kentucky, the 
same is also true in many other parts of the country. That is why one 
of the most senior Democrats just said that ObamaCare is facing ``a 
crisis of confidence.'' I certainly agree with her.
  She cited the ``dysfunctional nature of the Web site'' as just one 
reason for the ebbing confidence. She also pointed to the 
``cancellation of policies'' and ``sticker shock'' as two additional 
points of concern--cancellation of policies and sticker shock.
  She is right. Americans are far less concerned about a Web site than 
they are about the availability and affordability of their health care. 
The White House has tried to dismiss stories about folks losing 
insurance by saying they had lousy plans to begin with and that those 
Americans should be happy--they should be happy that the government is 
now forcing them to get a different one. In other words, the government 
is smarter than they are. You had a lousy plan to begin with, so I am 
going to make you get a different one.
  But what so many have discovered is that ObamaCare is actually worse. 
Take Matthew Fleischer. He is 34 and recently wrote to the Los Angeles 
Times to share his experience with ObamaCare. Matthew recently found 
out he would be one of those 1 million or so Californians losing their 
health insurance. He says he is being funneled into an exchange plan 
that would drive his premiums up by more than 40 percent. Here is some 
of what he wrote:

       My old plan was as barebones as they came, so I assumed 
     that even though the new plan would cost more, my coverage 
     would improve under ObamaCare, at least marginally. It did 
     not.
       Under my old plan my maximum possible out-of-pocket expense 
     was $4,900. Under the new plan, I'm on the hook for up to 
     $6,350. Copays for my doctor visits will double. For urgent 
     care visits they will quadruple. Although slightly cheaper 
     plans exist if I tried to shop around on the exchange, I will 
     lose my dental coverage [if I choose] to switch. Needless to 
     say, I am not pleased.

  He is one of numerous people who have been blind-sided since 
ObamaCare's debut last month. Look, our constituents are worried. They 
feel deceived. They are very upset, and they should be--not only with 
the law itself but with the way the administration has basically 
brushed their concerns aside, just brushed their concerns aside, 
concerns it does not seem all that interested in solving.
  If the past 2 weeks are any indication, the administration seems far 
more concerned with shifting the blame. That is why the President's PR 
team has been scrambling to readjust his now-debunked promise, ``If you 
like your plan, you can keep it.'' How many times did we hear the 
President say that over the last 3 years? But every new variation 
basically amounts to this--this is what it really amounts to: If the 
President likes your plan, you can keep it. That is the truth. If the 
President likes your plan, you can keep it; not if you like your plan, 
you can keep it.
  The truth is, all these rhetorical adjustments only prove the point. 
They are a tacit admission that the administration did in fact mislead 
the public about ObamaCare in order to pass it. Many of our friends on 
the Democratic side are starting to realize this too, and they are 
starting to panic. We have seen some of the most vulnerable Senators 
even putting forward proposals that might allow some folks to keep 
their plan.
  From a policy perspective, we Republicans welcome that. We have long 
argued that Americans should be able to purchase the plans that suit 
their needs, not just the plans that meet with the President's 
approval. But the concern these Democrats are now showing seems hard to 
take seriously when you consider that they have continued to support 
ObamaCare for so long, even as Republicans, health officials, and 
policy experts across the country warned that exactly what is happening 
would happen. The fact is that back in 2010 the entire Democratic 
caucus voted against legislation that would have specifically allowed 
the Americans now losing their plans to keep them. I will say that 
again. Back in 2010 the entire Democratic caucus voted against 
legislation that would have specifically allowed the Americans now 
losing their plans to keep them.

  This doesn't mean Republicans won't now consider good legislative 
proposals. Of course we will. But for Senators looking to absolve 
themselves of past ObamaCare mistakes, there is only one escape, and it 
begins with repealing ObamaCare, and it ends with working together on 
bipartisan reforms that can actually work.
  The White House keeps promising Americans that once healthcare.gov is 
fixed, everybody's going to love ObamaCare, but it is hard to see how 
that could possibly happen. An IT guy is not going to give Americans 
their health care plans back. An IT guy is not going to make ObamaCare 
premiums any more affordable or its coverage any better. An IT guy is 
not going to allow Americans to keep seeing the same doctors they like 
or continue to go to hospitals that deliver the care they want. Let's 
not forget that there is no software fix for undoing the damage this 
law has already inflicted on the paychecks and lost hours of our 
constituents. There is no string of code for repairing ObamaCare's harm 
to jobs and to our country.
  The President could not be more right when he says ObamaCare is about 
more than a Web site. It sure is. I could not agree more. It is about 
people. It is about the people we represent, folks such as Matthew 
Fleischer and Edie Sundby, whom I mentioned. Edie is

[[Page S7839]]

battling stage IV gallbladder cancer and says that because of ObamaCare 
she is about to lose access to the kind of affordable care she credits 
with keeping her alive for the past several years. It is about folks 
like a 40-year-old constituent of mine named Mark. Mark owns a small 
business and thought he would be able to keep his current insurance, 
but then he got a letter from his insurer terminating the plan anyway. 
After looking at his options on the Kentucky exchange, he discovered 
that his Kentucky premiums would rise by 300 percent. It is not right, 
and it is not fair.
  Here is an important lesson: ObamaCare would not be law today if the 
President and his allies in Congress had told the truth about the 
consequences it would bring. People like Edie, Matthew, and Mark would 
not be in the troubling circumstances they are in now if the President 
had simply been honest about ObamaCare.
  The President can keep talking about a Web site if he wants, but 
Republicans are going to keep fighting for the middle-class Americans 
who are suffering under this law because that is where the focus should 
be.

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