[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 165 (Tuesday, November 19, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8189-S8190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
By Mr. THUNE (for himself, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Hatch, Mr. Inhofe,
Mr. Vitter, Mr. Enzi, Mr. Johnson of Wisconsin, Mr. Barrasso,
Mr. Scott, Mr. Chambliss, Mr. Coburn, Mr. Boozman, and Mr.
Roberts):
S. 1724. A bill to provide that the reinsurance fee for the
transitional reinsurance program under the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act be applied equally to all health insurance issuers
and group health plans; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I come to the floor to discuss again how
ObamaCare is negatively impacting American families.
NBC News is reporting that 5 million Americans have received
cancellation notices from health insurers. In my home State of South
Dakota, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader is reporting that nearly 3,000
people have lost the plan they had. Yet this administration is merely
pursuing political bandaids for the problem created by the President's
health care law. The President is trying to fix this problem of
canceled plans, but his solution is a politically motivated bandaid in
response to pressure from Members of his own party who are nervous
about the next election. The unfortunate reality of his bandaid is that
it won't work.
Instead of taking responsibility for his failed policies and broken
promises, he is changing his mind about how he wants his law to work at
the eleventh hour. He is kicking the can to State insurance regulators
to determine whether, in 48 days--which is from the date of his
announcement on Thursday--they can reverse a train wreck that has been
barreling down the tracks for nearly 4 years.
The President's health care law told the entire country that
compliance with the President's law must occur on January 1, 2014. In
response, industry and State regulators complied. Now, after
relentlessly pushing a law that is fundamentally flawed, the President
is changing his mind. He is expecting the State insurance commissioners
to bail him out, to allow Americans to keep the plans they were
promised they could keep.
Since passage of his health care law, the President has continued to
tout his law and has continued to make promises to the American people
that he knowingly cannot keep. While I agree that Americans should be
able to keep the plans they have and like, this eleventh-hour attempt
at a fix is an indication that the underpinnings of this law are
irreversibly flawed.
The administration is now trying to live up to a promise it made
despite the fact that they knew the promise wasn't true. In fact, the
President repeated and reiterated that promise as recently as September
26 despite the fact that the administration knew it wasn't true. In
2010 the administration knew that up to 93 million Americans in the
private market were in danger of losing their current health care plan.
But the deeper problem with the President's fix is that it is merely a
bandaid. By this time next year Americans will be in this exact same
situation all over again.
The President is not focused on finding a good permanent solution but
a good political solution. Putting this bandaid on the problem now may
get him and his party past next year's elections. He seems more
interested in preserving that power than creating real solutions to the
underlying issues. In fact, the President is so concerned about the
politics of his actions that he is considering yet again a way to bail
out his union friends. As part of the health care law, unions agree to
pay a tax to help pay for the cost of expanding coverage. This tax,
known as the reinsurance tax, is scheduled to be paid by self-insured
plans, including plans administered by unions and many of the largest
businesses in America. But the unions are unhappy that they have to pay
money into a fund to help fund a benefit for someone other than their
dues-paying members. They took their complaints to the administration,
and, buried in a regulation issued last month, the administration
announced they intend to exempt unions from paying this tax.
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal editorial page articulated exactly
why the unions should not be exempt from this tax. The editorial,
called ``ObamaCare's Union Favor,'' argues that ``the unions ought to
consider this tax a civic obligation in solidarity with the (uninsured)
working folk they claim to support.'' It further states that ``there's
no conceivable rationale--other than politics--for releasing union-only
plans from a tax.'' As the editorial pointed out, exempting unions from
this tax will only mean increased taxes on nonunionized Americans in
self-insured plans since the tax is structured in a way that it must
raise a total of $25 billion and isn't structured as a straight
percentage like most taxes.
Granting this political deal to unions is why I am introducing the
Union Tax Fairness Act. This bill would ensure that unions live up to
the commitments they made when they put their political weight behind
the health care law. It is political deals such as this that highlight
how this law is failing the average American.
This reinsurance fee exemption isn't the only backroom deal the
administration is trying to grant unions. Earlier this fall the
administration tried to find a way to provide ObamaCare subsidies to
ineligible union employees. I introduced a bill called the Union
Bailout Prevention Act which was aimed at ensuring the administration
could not make that special deal either.
It is clear that this President--President Obama--is trying to fix
problems in his health care law by making decisions and exemptions
based on favors to his political allies.
Democrats are on the run from the law they once championed. They
recognize this law is sagging under its own weight. Last week there
were 39 House Democrats who voted against the Obama administration by
supporting the Upton bill that provides a better solution to allowing
Americans to keep plans they like than what the President proposed.
Even former President Bill Clinton said President Obama should keep his
word when it comes to allowing Americans to keep the plans they have
and like. In this Chamber, several Senate Democrats are running for the
exits and looking for a legislative escape hatch of their own.
Unfortunately, the solutions proposed by this administration to fix
problems in the health care law are only temporary solutions. Their
solutions to problems are either temporary delays--as they did with the
employer mandate and the 1-year extension of 2013 plans--or political
favors to their friends and allies. Instead, this administration should
agree to delay this entire law for all Americans.
Americans are deeply skeptical of the Affordable Care Act. According
to last week's Gallup poll, 55 percent of Americans now disapprove of
the health care law. There is a more recent poll this morning in which
ABC News and the Washington Post have that number at 57 percent
disapproving.
The time to act is now to ensure Americans can keep the plans they
have and like. This ``fix'' won't prevent Americans from losing their
coverage, facing sticker shock and premium increases, or losing their
doctors. This law is fundamentally broken, and we need to start over
and enact real reforms that decrease costs and improve access to care.
As do so many of us in this Chamber, I hear on a daily basis from my
constituents in South Dakota about the very real impact this is having
on middle-income Americans. This is an email I received last week:
My wife just received our health care insurance policy
renewals for 2014 and we are in shock!
Our monthly premiums increased from $400 per month to
$1,000, or over $7,000 more per year. My wife age 59 and me
age 60 now receive maternity benefits and some other very
limited coverage. We lost our prescription drug co-pay and
doctor visits co-pay. These expenses will now be included in
our $6,300 deductible. I will have no option for any subsidy
to offset these increases in premiums.
He goes on to say:
Please, please push for a reversal of this horrible health
care plan.
[[Page S8190]]
My wife and I are physically ill after receiving this
letter from our insurance carrier. Again, the government is
destroying our lives and we need you to stop this madness.
This is just one example of many that I have heard from my State of
South Dakota and many that my colleagues here in the Senate are hearing
from all across this country. It is clear this program, this health
insurance law, is not ready for prime time. It is time for us to take a
timeout and to go back to the drawing board and construct a plan, an
insurance program for this country, legislation that will help reduce
the costs for working-class Americans, give them access to better
quality of care, and allow them to keep the doctor they choose, which
is very much in jeopardy as well as a result of this takeover,
literally, of one-sixth of our economy.
There is a better way, as I think countless--millions--Americans are
finding out through canceled coverages, sticker shock from skyrocketing
premiums, and the new knowledge that they may not be able to keep not
only their health insurance plan but also the doctors they like. This
is a grim reality for way too many Americans, and it is time for us to
step forward and do something about it.
The President's proposal is a bandaid. It is a political solution. It
is not a permanent solution; it is temporary. We need long-term fixes
put in place that will address the health care concerns people have.
The way to do that isn't to have the Federal Government literally
assume control of one-sixth of the American economy and all the
decisionmaking that takes out of the hands of ordinary, middle-class
families--people across this country who are working hard to take care
of their families.
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