[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 180 (Wednesday, December 18, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8977-S8978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ALEXANDER (for himself, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. Enzi, Mr. 
        Inhofe, and Mr. Isakson):
  S. 1849. A bill to amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care 
Act to provide for a fixed annual open enrollment period; to the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor, as I have 
frequently since the health care law was passed, as a doctor who has 
practiced medicine in Wyoming for a quarter of a century, taking care 
of people, providing low-cost blood screenings through the Wyoming 
Health Fair, of which I was the medical director. I was back in Wyoming 
last week talking to folks about their health care and their concerns.
  With the end of the year rapidly approaching, Americans are gathering 
with family and friends to celebrate the holidays, to count their 
blessings. But from what I heard last weekend in Wyoming and on a 
telephone townhall meeting Monday night, very few people are thankful 
for the President's health care law.
  I met yesterday with the Wyoming insurance commissioner. Fewer than 
1,000 people have been able to sign up, but thousands have had their 
insurance canceled under the law. So many more people are suffering 
because of the law than people who are potentially able to benefit. 
This law was forced down the throats of the American people, supported 
unanimously by the Democrats in this body. It is continuing to disrupt 
people's lives and to cause them very real harm.
  After a year of false starts and failures, what we have seen is that 
the

[[Page S8978]]

President's health care law is nothing more than a collection of 
deception, delays, and disappointments. If you look at the headlines, 
the biggest disappointment was the launch of the healthcare.gov Web 
site in October. It was a total disaster. But it really is just the tip 
of the iceberg. The Web site failures are what people have seen across 
the country. That is the most visible, and it has obviously been the 
cause of concerns and jokes by the late-night comedians. But the real 
damage is going to start on January 1--damage to people's lives.
  This was just about a computer screen. Below this tip of the iceberg 
is what people are actually noticing at home. They are paying higher 
premiums, and I am hearing that around the State of Wyoming; canceled 
coverage--thousands in Wyoming but over 5 million, I understand by last 
count, across the country. And we don't even know how many have been 
canceled in the States of Illinois, Texas, and Ohio. But we know that 
more than 5 million people have lost their coverage. People are finding 
out they can't keep their doctor. We are seeing that with seniors on 
Medicare, and we are seeing that with children who are going for cancer 
care. We are finding that people are having a harder time finding a 
doctor or even having to make choices as they go to the Web site: Well, 
do I want to keep my doctor or do I want to keep the hospital that I go 
to or do I want to keep the drug coverage I have? And many people are 
finding they can't find any plan that will let them keep everything 
they have now--in spite of the President's promise.
  We are hearing more and more stories about fraud and identity theft 
across the country related to the health care Web site, including a 
Senate staff member who was signing up. It asked for his bank number 
and PIN number, and he called the helpline. He had to wait a long 
period of time to get through, as has been the experience for many 
Americans, and they said: No, that is not the regular Web site. That 
must be some kind of a scam trying to fraudulently take your 
information.
  People are seeing higher copays and deductibles. The average 
deductible now is over $5,000 for people in bronze plans.
  That is what is continuing to happen with this health care law.
  October was just about the Web site. January is going to be about 
real people, their lives and their ability to get affordable quality 
care from the doctors they know and trust.
  The Obama administration made a lot of promises about this law. The 
administration has known for months--I believe the administration has 
known for years that many of the promises were not true. They knew 
people would lose their doctors, and they knew millions of people would 
lose their health insurance plans. But instead of leveling with the 
American people, the White House chose to mislead them.
  It continues to mislead them today on one important issue after 
another, and the people have seen through it. Washington Post, Tuesday, 
December 17, just yesterday: ``Obama's approval ratings plummet. Poll 
results worrisome for Democrats looking to the midterm elections.'' A 
respected group, politifacts.com, whose role is sorting out the truth 
in politics, has come up with their lie of the year, and they attribute 
their lie of the year for 2013 to President Obama: ``If you like your 
health care plan, you can keep it.'' That is the lie of the year to the 
American people. So it is no surprise, then, that the President's 
approval ratings continue to plummet.
  I looked at a decision this administration made very recently, a 
decision to delay next year's open enrollment season until after the 
midterm elections. To me, this is a blatant political move--a blatant 
political move that they snuck out the announcement just days before 
Thanksgiving.
  So what kind of announcement is the administration going to try to 
sneak out now, just before Christmas? Well, the enrollment period for 
insurance coverage in 2015 was set to begin October 15, 2014, and then 
end in December. Now it won't begin until November 15. Why in the world 
would they need to delay it for a month? Enrollment in the government 
health insurance exchange has been a disaster, but the administration 
says it has fixed all the problems. So why do they want to delay it for 
a month? What is the difference between October 15 and November 15? I 
believe it is because the administration is in a panic mode, and it 
will do anything it can to hide the cost of the health care law on the 
American people--hide the skyrocketing costs. What they have done is 
they have moved it from a couple of weeks before the election until a 
couple of weeks after election day 2014.
  The American people don't need more lies. What they need from their 
President is for the President to come clean about the terrible effects 
of the law. The fact is that many Americans can't keep their coverage, 
can't keep their doctors, and they can't afford this law.
  The Associated Press put out a poll the other day. The headline was 
``Health Law Seen as Eroding Coverage.'' The health care is eroding 
coverage. According to the poll, 69 percent of people say their 
premiums will be going up and 59 percent say their deductibles and 
copayments will be increasing. People can't afford those kinds of price 
increases--this whole redistribution of assets and wealth on the 
American people. People were told by this President that their health 
care costs were going to go down. Instead, they are seeing them go up.
  The Obama administration doesn't want people learning about their 
next increases right before the 2014 election, so they are trying to 
hide the truth. That is why today Senator Alexander, Senator Enzi, and 
I plan to introduce a bill to give the American people the transparency 
they deserve when they are making important health care decisions for 
their families. We are calling this bill the Premium Disclosure Act, 
and it will do a couple of things.
  First, the bill sets the exchange's opening date of October 15, 2014, 
in statute so that Democrats can't change it to meet their political 
goals around an election.
  Second, the bill says the Obama administration has to make premiums 
and cost-sharing requirements public 30 days before the open enrollment 
begins, so people will have this important information in mid-
September, making it easier for families to budget and to plan.
  The Department of Health and Human Services has previously said it 
did not have this authority. That is why they said we need to wait 
until October 1 to find out what premiums would be this year. This bill 
would specifically give the administration the authority, so they will 
have no more excuses for hiding health insurance cost increases from 
the American people.
  Americans wanted a few very simple things from health care reform. 
They wanted better access to care. Washington Democrats gave them less 
access. They wanted lower costs, but Washington Democrats gave them 
higher costs. They wanted help. Washington Democrats have caused them 
harm.
  This bill will help add some transparency and shed light on things 
the Obama administration does not want the American people to see. The 
President's health care law has been a failure. It cannot be fixed just 
by delaying one more part or by sending out the spin doctors one more 
time or by having one more press conference. I hope when we return 
after the New Year that President Obama and Democrats in Congress will 
be ready to sit down with Republicans to talk about real bipartisan 
solutions that put patients and families first.
                                 ______