[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 41 (Wednesday, March 12, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1534-S1536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I rise to talk about the new numbers that 
have been released on the President's health care plan. Yesterday the 
administration announced that slightly more than 4.2 million people 
have signed up for health plans through the exchanges. As we all know, 
that is substantially below their first goal and substantially below 
their adjusted goal just a few weeks ago.
  One of the things, in an effort by the Washington Post to find out 
how many of those people hadn't had insurance before--the group that 
was supposed to be served well by this--their estimate was in an 
article also this week, about 1 million people--an incredible amount of 
effort to add 1 million people to the insurance rolls, particularly 
with the stories from the millions of people who were on the insurance 
rolls that come to our offices every day; stories that clearly reflect 
problems with this law and problems, more importantly, for the American 
families who are impacted.
  I brought a few of them with me today--since I was talking about this 
topic last week--that have come to our office. These are stories where 
we reached back, contacted these people, said I was going to come to 
the floor with their story. I mentioned their first name and where they 
are from, are they concerned with that. Time after time people say, oh, 
no, we want this story told, which is why we reached out to you.
  Gary in Lake Ozark, MO, says what so many people are saying--that his 
deductible is now the problem. In fact, his deductible on the policy he 
can now have--let me just read what he said:

       Before I knew I'd be able to stay on my company's plan--

  He was going to be able to stay on his company plan 1 year longer 
than he thought he was just a few months ago--

       Before I knew I'd be able to stay on my company's plan, I 
     went to the exchange to seek coverage. I found a plan 
     available to me but was shocked to learn that my deductible 
     was going to be over $8,000 per family member.

  This is quickly becoming the new group of people who aren't able to 
meet their health care costs. I met with a number of health care 
administrators, hospital administrators from Missouri recently. They 
said their fastest growing category of unpaid bills, of unpaid debt, is 
from people who have insurance. So many people with insurance now have 
a deductible that is a deductible they believe they cannot pay, and 
because they believe they cannot pay it, they simply do not pay it. So 
whether it is the $8,000 on Gary's policy or the other lower amounts--
hopefully, I will find some lower amounts here.
  Here is one from another Gary. This Gary is in southeast Missouri. 
His wife's deductible went from $500 to $1,800--story after story. What 
happens when you have that growing deductible, whether it is the $1,800 
or the $3,000 or the $8,000, if it was $500 and that was all you were 
going to have to pay, you might figure out how to put together $500 or 
maybe even more than that, but when you see $1,800 or $3,000

[[Page S1535]]

or $8,000, apparently people who used to pay their $500 deductible say 
they can't possibly pay that, so the hospital needs to write that off, 
I guess, as bad debt. They are going to come after me for $7,500 just 
like they would have for $8,000.
  So a deductible that used to be reasonable and was paid, now the 
family looks at that and says we cannot possibly ever get to that 
deductible, so there is no reason to even start down that path.
  I have a whole list of Gary's here on top of this. I don't think they 
are all making up the name Gary. This Gary from Higginsville--I could 
have organized these to have a little more variety in the first three, 
but this is Gary from Higginsville, MO. They said his prescription 
costs for his premium for Humana Gold Plus Medicare Advantage and his 
copays have all gone up significantly. He is concerned about Medicare 
Advantage.
  Just a few days ago I was here--in fact, I ran into this person. 
Reading this letter:

       I am the man you spoke with outside Starbucks in 
     Independence, MO, across from the mall. You leaned down on my 
     car door of which the window was down. . . .

  He called me over to talk about ObamaCare.

       What has changed is that several of my medications have 
     gone up in price . . . my premium has gone up for Human Gold 
     Plus Medicare Advantage. My deductibles and co-pays have gone 
     up--

  Things that are the result of the cuts made to Medicare now actually 
cost him the money that used to be paid for by Medicare. When you cut 
Medicare $500 billion to start a new program, somebody who is on the 
old program is going to be impacted by that. It is not like when we 
debated this we said, well, this Medicare Program is in such great 
shape that now we can start a new program and use money from Medicare 
to do that. That was done in the face of the understanding that 
Medicare, one of the principal obligations the country has made to 
retired people--people over 65, going back to 1965--that this was a 
program that wasn't going to be able to support itself.

  So what do we decide to do as a Congress--and I voted against it and 
I am glad I did, but the ultimate decision was we are going to cut 
Medicare to start a new program, and we will see what happens to a 
program we already know is in trouble when we do that.
  Frank from Kansas City's policy was canceled for not meeting the 
Affordable Care Act requirements. So he was forced to sign up on the 
exchange for himself, his wife, his 22-year-old daughter, his 19-year-
old son, his 11-year-old daughter.
  Frank was told that his 11-year-old daughter would qualify for 
Medicaid. He submitted three applications that they said they never 
received. After 2 months they asked him for additional information 
about his daughter, including tax information not available until April 
1. Because of all this the Affordable Care Act is causing his daughter 
to go uninsured, according to Frank, until at least June.
  This is one of those States that has an exchange the States have set 
up. A couple of places have never been able to sign up one single 
person. It is not October 1, it is now much closer to April 1, and this 
system is just not meeting the needs of families or meeting the goals 
that clearly it set for itself.
  Farrell from Versailles, MO, says he is facing financial hardship 
because his employer cut his hours to avoid covering his health 
insurance. The employer told him ObamaCare was the reason they were 
cutting his hours. He was teaching at a community college as an adjunct 
professor for 8 years. He said he quit his full-time job because, 
according to him, he was teaching four courses each semester and a 
course over the summer and that appeared to be meeting his needs.
  Suddenly the new law comes along and his employer says: If you work 
as much as you have been working, we will have to provide health 
insurance.
  Something that you and I would both be interested in too, having 
worked together for a long time, is seeing the response that even local 
governments and State governments have had for people they always--
because they thought it was the right thing to do--provided health 
care. But sadly when the Federal Government said here is what you have 
to do, then that drew an interesting line across our society. It also 
means if you have to do this, you do not have to do anything for people 
who do not meet the requirement--the 30-hour workweek, the impact it 
has had on people.
  I was in a location the other day, and I said to the manager of the 
store: How are you doing, meaning I thought this would be a skill 
discussion; how are you doing with the skill levels you may need to 
find here for people who are dealing with customers. He said it is 
harder all the time because now we have to hire four people, where we 
used to have to hire three people because nobody new whom we are hiring 
is working more than 29 hours a week. So instead of finding three 
people to do that job to work 40 hours a week, now we are having to 
find four people who work less than 30 hours a week.
  He went on to say managers and people who were already working, 
nobody's getting their hours cut, but he said: When we are hiring new 
people, we are doing what our competitors are doing, which is hiring 
part-time people who do not have benefits.
  Emmett at Lake Ozark, despite the fact that he was paying all his 
premiums through his employer, his employer dropped early retirees from 
the company policy.
  He did not feel comfortable submitting his information to 
healthcare.gov, he says, for security reasons. By the way, nobody 
contends that this Web site is secure or that the information people 
put on it is secure. In fact, it is just the opposite. Every indication 
has been it is not secure. He did say he used ``the website to find a 
plan, but three months later, when I finally got a quote, it was 
unaffordable, and much higher than the quotes I was able to find'' 
outside of the exchange.
  Bob from Wentzville, MO, said he has seen his insurance increase by 
15 percent over the past 3 years. I feel like writing back to Bob, 
saying, based on all the other letters, with 15 percent you should be 
feeling pretty good about that, but nobody feels good about a 15-
percent increase. It is just that so many people are seeing an increase 
that is so much higher than that.
  On the other hand, his insurance premiums have increased by 15 
percent, but--back to the earlier discussion--his deductible has gone 
from $500 annually to $4,000 annually or $8,000 for the family.
  Is this the kind of insurance families need? They used to pay a 
premium that was just a little bit less, 15 percent less, but they had 
a $500 annual deductible, not a $4,000 annual deductible.
  Beverly from Potosi, MO, went to her doctor for her annual screening 
and was told she could only have one now every 2 years because of the 
Affordable Care Act. Although her risk of cancer increases with age, 
she believes she is getting less care than she got before.
  Holly from Jefferson County, MO, is a registered nurse who is now 
working two part-time jobs. She is living paycheck to paycheck. Here is 
what she says in her letter:

       I am a registered nurse that is only working part-time at 2 
     jobs. I live paycheck to paycheck like most people since the 
     economic crisis. I am barely able to keep my bills paid much 
     less able to add another one. I am upset that my right as a 
     US citizen has been taken away from me to decide for myself 
     if I want health insurance or not.

  I think she could have added to that, to decide for herself whether 
she wanted it and what she wanted. I cannot tell what the President's 
latest announcement was, but it appears to be if you had insurance, 
even if it has been canceled because it didn't meet the qualifications, 
now somehow it is not canceled--and how you deal with that as someone 
who has maybe gotten another policy or maybe moved beyond the insurance 
you had and do not qualify to go back.
  I don't know how many times we can change this law without finally 
admitting the law is not working. Let's take everything we know now, 
which is so much more than the country knew and most Members of 
Congress knew when the law passed--let's take everything we know now 
and go back and do this the right way.
  Jason from Pleasant Hill and his wife purchased plans through their 
employer. Again, they experienced price increases without added 
benefits and in fact with less benefits than they had before.

[[Page S1536]]

  There is one letter after another coming to our office in various 
ways every day. I could stand here and read them for a long time, but 
if I read the clock correctly, I think my time is out and we are ready 
to move on to other business.

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