[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 165 (Tuesday, November 19, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8144-S8145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, over the past few weeks, we have seen 
vivid, painful confirmation of the predictions that many of us made 
about ObamaCare. Most notable among them, perhaps, was the President's 
often repeated promise: ``If you like your plan, you can keep it.'' 
``If you like your plan, you can keep it,'' he said. But we were always 
doubtful that could possibly be true.
  This was always what Democrats thought they had to tell the American 
people in order to muscle ObamaCare into law. They knew it wouldn't 
work otherwise. They knew the truth would not sell and, of course, that 
is all coming out now.
  But we are also learning a lot of other very unsettling things about 
this law, such as the fact that a lot of things that were working well 
in our health care system are now being thrown out for no good reason 
by the same people who brought us the ObamaCare Web site.
  High-risk pools are a good example. About three dozen States set up 
these kinds of pools to ensure Americans with serious medical 
conditions, such as those suffering from diabetes and heart disease, 
would have a place to turn. High-risk pools have often proved 
successful and popular among the communities they serve. They currently 
provide insurance to hundreds of thousands of Americans, including 
thousands of Kentuckians, nearly all of them with preexisting 
conditions--the very people the law was supposed to help. These folks 
benefit from this coverage and many want to keep it. Unfortunately, 
that would no longer be possible under ObamaCare. Nearly all of them 
will lose their coverage at the end of the year.
  Just as millions of other Americans across the country, folks who 
like the coverage they have in these high-risk pools--and remember, I 
am talking about some of the most vulnerable people in our society--are 
now discovering they won't be able to keep it, either, despite what the 
President told us again and again. As it turns out, the folks who ran 
this law through Congress think people in these high-risk pools belong 
in ObamaCare instead. They don't think it matters whether my 
constituents want to get dumped into ObamaCare or not; they made that 
decision for them.
  A lot of folks in Kentucky don't think this is right and they are 
upset, and not just because they are losing their plan and all the 
hassle and complication that involves. For many of these folks, the 
plans they are being forced into have more limited hospital and doctor 
networks than the plans they currently have. As one State official 
recently put it, ``If you're in the middle of chemotherapy, the last 
thing you want to do is switch oncologists.''
  We seem to see these kinds of stories just about every day now. There 
is the North Carolina woman with a severe heart condition who said she 
didn't know if her cardiologist and her procedures would be covered 
under ObamaCare. Here is what she said: ``It's . . . the uncertainty 
that gets to me.''
  There is the breast cancer survivor and her husband who have been 
paying about $800 a month for premiums in a high-risk pool. After that 
policy was canceled, they expected lower rates under ObamaCare. 
Instead, they found their premium and deductibles could actually be 
going up.
  This is scary stuff. But these are the real-life consequences of 
ObamaCare. This is no longer some theoretical policy discussion. I 
would suggest that as we contemplate the future of this law, our 
Democratic friends should start paying closer attention to stories such 
as these because it is not enough to have a messaging strategy and to 
play the old Washington game by trying to weather the PR storm until 
folks move on.
  These stories we are hearing from our constituents are literally 
heartbreaking. This is not some hassle to move past. It is a problem to 
solve. It is what we were sent here for, and it is what health care 
reform should be about--about helping folks, not hurting them.
  We do not need to get past this news cycle, as some of the White 
House spinners seem to think. What we need to get past is a White House 
mentality that told us last week that passing a bill to codify the very 
promise the President made to sell the bill would gut ObamaCare. We 
need to get past a mentality that caused the President to issue a veto 
threat on a law that would let him keep his promise to the American 
people about keeping the health care plans they have and like.
  It is almost comical watching the contortions the administration is 
making trying to explain this fiasco away. Over the weekend we learned 
through a White House leak to the Washington Post that the President's 
new definition of success for the ObamaCare Web site is four out of 
five users making it through the checkout line--four out of five users 
making it through the checkout line. Who thinks that is acceptable? I 
certainly do not, and I cannot think of anybody outside the White House 
compound who will think that is acceptable either.
  Frankly, if this is the President's way of restoring credibility on 
this law, by leaking that the Web site will not even work for one out 
of five users just a few days after vowing it would soon be up and 
running like a top, well, he has some work to do. The bar for clarity, 
honesty, and success under ObamaCare has sunk to new lows.
  Look, if you are being treated for cancer and about to be dumped into 
ObamaCare, the last thing you want to hear is that leaving one out of 
five people behind is now considered an ObamaCare win. We are talking 
about people's lives here. This kind of mindset--whether we are talking 
about a Web site or anything else--is deeply worrying.
  But then again this has always been the problem with blind faith in 
massive government programs. It is the old idea that we should not let 
the evidence get in the way of a good theory. That is the mindset the 
supporters of this law are stuck in right now--just blindly adhering to 
the hope that this program will work against all the evidence. It is 
pretty distressing. It is going to have to change if we are going to 
get anywhere.

[[Page S8145]]

  The real question right now should be obvious: What is the 
administration's plan to turn all this around? We know they have a 
press plan. What is the policy plan? What is the policy plan? Does the 
administration have anything of substance to tell folks who are losing 
their plans? Does it have anything to tell folks in these high-risk 
pools who could be losing their doctors? Does anyone over there know--
anyone?
  I have said this before and I will say it again: These are people's 
lives we are talking about. So it is time for a reality check. The 
defenders of ObamaCare have a choice: Stand up for your constituents or 
defend a law that is falling apart before our very eyes, a law that 
threatens to drag down the quality and affordability of care for 
millions--literally millions--of Americans who need it, including those 
most in need.
  I yield the floor.

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