[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.
                                 ______