[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 166 (Wednesday, November 20, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H7262]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IMPACTS OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. LaMalfa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LaMALFA Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share some of the stories 
that fellow Californians in my district are having with the impact 
under the ACA, the ObamaCare plan.
  A funny thing happened on the way to government-run health care 
nirvana. 1.1 million Californians have lost their health care coverage. 
In fact, for every one person who has selected a new ACA ObamaCare 
plan, 40 people have received cancellation notices. They find that 
their costs are going to increase, especially in rural California, 
where choices are more limited of plans, of places to seek health care. 
Their access to health care is being jeopardized. The law is creating a 
huge burden for rural health care, where, again, you have to travel 
maybe several hours, many miles, to seek the kind of health care you 
need.
  Despite the President's promise to the public on this issue, ``If you 
like your plan, you can keep it. Period,'' we heard; ``If you like your 
doctor, you can keep your doctor. Period,'' we heard, this is clearly 
not the case. Less access, fewer choices, skyrocketing premiums, it is 
the wrong direction from the President's health care plan as promised.
  I would like to share, again, some of the people from our district.
  Bill and Corina Eiler from Fort Jones, California, they write, I 
received a letter from Anthem Blue Cross notifying me that, due to the 
Affordable Care Act, my plan had been canceled. My new monthly premium 
of $919, it used to be $480 a month, a 192 percent increase, which Bill 
finds absurd. They have two daughters in college and one more at home. 
How are they supposed to come up with that kind of money?
  Tricia Plass of Tulelake writes that she and her husband, they are 
business owners. They are self-employed. They have always purchased 
their own health insurance. Their monthly premium has been around $800 
a month for both of them. Their monthly premium will now jump to over 
$1,000 for just one of them. They still have to determine what the 
other one is going to do. It now appears they will be forced into 
California's insurance coverage, known as Covered California, where 
there are no plans with coverage for their doctor that they use now. 
Since they live near the State line of Oregon, they get their health 
care on the other side in Oregon. Their facility is there. Their doctor 
is there. They will no longer be able to see that doctor. They are 
going to have to drive maybe 2 or 3 hours to Redding or somewhere else 
to find new physicians. So they live with the constant fear that their 
new policy will not even provide coverage when they need it.
  Janice Marquis from Redding writes:

       I recently received a letter from Aetna stating that my 
     medical care coverage policy would be canceled at the end of 
     the year.

  She is 62 and must wait 2\1/2\ years before she is eligible for 
Medicare. Her insurance coverage will jump from $318 a month to over 
$500 a month. The promise made by President Obama, ``if you like your 
policy, you can keep it,'' she feels, was a lie.

       This entire program is a nightmare.

  Lastly, this one is really disturbing. A lady named Ramona Larramendy 
from Redding, California, says she was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian 
cancer in July. With her current plan she was able to get the surgery 
and treatment she needed. A very large hospital bill of $128,000 was 
covered. Her insurance paid all but $700 of that because she had good 
coverage. Now, because she is going to be canceled, she doesn't know 
what is going to happen to her. She still needs a lot more treatment in 
this crisis moment of her life, and yet, for her Christmas present, she 
is going to get uncertainty. She is going to get the worry, at a time 
where she is being treated for stage 3 cancer, what is the health care 
plan that, for political purposes, it appears, since we have done 
everything else to try and point out to the American people and to the 
politicians in this building that it needs to be fixed or changed, that 
we are not getting it right here.
  So what are we going to do? Again, these Californians are not alone. 
These Americans are not alone. Millions are paying the price for the 
President's broken promises.
  It should not be a political issue. It should be us serving the 
public. We cannot continue to stand by and watch as millions are losing 
their coverage that they want, that they shopped for, that they were 
diligent about, with people that are professionals that know what they 
are doing, unlike what we see with the people running the Web sites, 
which is only a small part of the whole big picture of what is wrong 
with this system.
  We need to set the egos aside, go back to the drawing board--at the 
very least, set this aside for a year. I believe we should repeal it 
and go back to targeting the people that really do need the help and 
let the folks in this country that are already reasonably happy with 
their plan, have done the diligence, have made the efforts to get the 
coverage and be responsible Americans, they don't need to be bothered 
in this scenario. Let's help the people that need the help. The 
American Health Care Reform Act, as put over by the Republican Study 
Committee, is one way to do that.
  So let's look for alternatives. We have alternatives. We have had 
them all along, as Republicans, as conservatives, as people that 
understand business. And so let's make these choices available to the 
American public, not force them into something that they never asked 
for other than for political purposes.

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