[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 42 (Thursday, March 13, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1599-S1601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, tomorrow President Obama is scheduled to 
sit down for an interview with a health care Web site called WebMD. The 
President will take questions about his health care law, and he is 
going to try one more time to convince people across the country that 
his health care law hasn't really been a complete disaster.

[[Page S1600]]

  It is a little bit ironic that the President will be doing this 
interview because under his health care law, before we know it, 
healthcare.gov is going to be linking directly to WebMD. People are 
going to have to spend a lot more time on Web sites like that one 
because the President's health care law is going to make it tougher for 
many of them to see a real health care provider.
  America is facing a looming shortage of doctors, nurses, and 
physician assistants. When President Obama and Democrats were ramming 
ObamaCare through this Congress, they focused on hiring IRS agents--
agents to force Americans to buy expensive coverage--instead of 
training more doctors and nurses to deliver care to patients.
  Now, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, we 
are looking at a shortage of 90,000 physicians by the end of this 
decade. About half of those are family physicians, primary care 
providers, and about half of them specialists. We see the same numbers, 
if not even higher shortages, in terms of nurses.
  There is an old proverb: ``Physician, heal thyself.'' Well, 
apparently the slogan of ObamaCare is now going to be ``Patient, heal 
thyself.''
  The old doctor-patient relationship is going to be gone. Medicine as 
we know it is going to continue to change. Even when you can get time 
with your doctor, there is going to be a lot more of that time spent 
with the doctor looking not at you but at a computer screen because of 
the law, and that is because of the burdensome new rules and the 
recordkeeping requirements under the law.
  As more people try to get appointments with fewer doctors, some 
Americans are going to start seeing actual rationing of care. Here is 
how one economist described it in a blog post for the New York Times. 
He talked about the health care law's limits on payments to doctors and 
other providers, and he wrote:

       If patients are lucky, the demand for doctors will be low 
     enough that the limits will not matter. But if the new law 
     results in a significant net increase in physician demand, 
     the payment limits will help remind us of Soviet-era limits 
     on the price of bread, with queues and black markets to 
     follow.

  We know the President's Web site back this past fall was a complete 
failure. Four days before it was unveiled the President said: Oh, it is 
going to be easier to use than Amazon. The rates will be cheaper than 
your cell phone bill. You will be able to keep your doctor.
  But the Web site was just the tip of the iceberg. People are seeing 
higher premiums.
  It is interesting, Mr. President, as I was putting this together and 
thinking about what remarks I would make, I hadn't even seen this 
morning's newspaper. Today in the Wall Street Journal--Thursday, March 
13--Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius says: 
Higher premiums likely in 2015.
  Higher premiums. What did the President promise? He said premiums 
would go down by $2,500 per family.
  So the Web site is just the tip of the iceberg. People are seeing 
higher premiums now, and now the Secretary of HHS says there will be 
higher premiums again in 2015.
  People have received notices of cancellation--over 5 million across 
the country. Many people can't keep their doctor and are worried about 
fraud and identity theft which has been reported as a result of the Web 
site and is ongoing. Then, of course, there are higher copays and 
higher deductibles--more money out of patients' pockets.
  There is a report which brings this additionally to the fore in terms 
of concerns the people are having from people who supported the health 
care law originally. This report was put out last week by a major labor 
union discussing how badly this health care law is hurting its members.
  To put this into perspective, this is a labor union which actually 
supported then-Senator Obama and endorsed him when he was running for 
President a number of years ago, and they supported the health care 
law. Now this union has come out with a report which says: The law's 
unintended consequences will hit the average hard-working American 
where it hurts--in the wallet.
  We can go through this report called ``The Irony of ObamaCare Making 
Inequality Worse.'' To read from this:

       The ACA threatens the middle class with higher premiums, 
     loss of hours, and a shift to part-time work and less 
     comprehensive coverage.

  It goes on with examples of various individuals who are members of 
this labor union whose lives are being hurt by the President's health 
care law. One, a woman from the majority leader's home State, talks 
about her job as a housekeeper and how, if she tries to buy the Obama 
health care program, the Web site says she would have to pay $8,057 a 
year more to keep the insurance she has now--which is a $3.87 per hour 
pay cut for her. She said, ``We work hard for our insurance. Why should 
we have to take a cut in pay for it?''
  This is not what the President promised. So it is not a surprise that 
even the unions that had endorsed the President and supported the law 
are unhappy with what they see as the true results of the health care 
law.
  The Democrat majority leader has said all the horror stories about 
the health care law are untrue. Is he also saying these union leaders 
and the people who have been made reference to in the union report are 
lying? Is this what the majority leader is saying? Is that what he is 
saying about this woman from his own State?
  According to the media report, the union said the law ``will 
inevitably lead to the destruction of the health care plans we were 
promised we could keep.''
  Everybody remembers the President's promises. They remember what the 
President said. Everybody remembers the President's statement: ``If you 
like what you have, you can keep it.'' The press has called it ``The 
Lie of the Year.''
  More than 5 million Americans received cancellation letters from 
their insurance companies. It turned out to be so embarrassing that 
President Obama had to delay the rules which caused it. It has 
continued to be a big problem, so the administration is delaying the 
rule again--not just until after the 2014 election but with the 
potential of going beyond the 2016 election as well.
  Here we go, dozens of delays. This is a calendar of 2013 and 2014. 
There are more delays to come--another delay, another lawless ObamaCare 
rewrite.
  The Obama administration continues to announce delays. We have seen 
one change after another to major parts of the law which are now 
``politically inconvenient'' for the President.
  Republicans warned that these were real problems and that they would 
hurt hardworking Americans all across the country. I was on the floor 
during all of the debates, talking about the problems to come with the 
health care law, offering solutions, offering suggestions--every one of 
them rejected because Democrats just didn't care.
  They only cared the second they realized that all their grandiose 
plans were actually causing more problems than they ever anticipated 
because they didn't listen.
  The President had an event last week where he said that the law is 
``working the way it should.'' This is what he said--``working the way 
it should.'' Is it working the way it should after he made all of these 
changes? Is that what he means--``working the way it should.''
  So if it is working the way it should, why has the President had to 
change it so many times? Does he not know what the rest of his 
administration is doing? Does he not know what the rest of this country 
is seeing? Is the President delusional or is he just in denial?
  The American people want to know, and they deserve to hear from the 
President when he does this WebMD interview. When President Obama sits 
down to talk with WebMD on Friday, I hope they ask him about all of 
these delays and the changes he is making to the law. I hope they ask 
him whether he believes it is really working the way it should, which 
is what he said last week. I hope they ask him about how his health 
care law is going to reduce the time people get to spend with their 
doctors--if they can even keep their doctors. I hope they ask him about 
some of the ways the law is hurting Americans and America.
  I hope the President answers that he is finally ready to make some of 
these delays permanent, to start over again, to work in a bipartisan 
way, to try to help patients get the care they need

[[Page S1601]]

from a doctor they choose at a lower cost. This is what health care 
reform was supposed to be about in the first place.
  It is so interesting. Just pick up the papers. Yesterday, March 12, 
the Washington Post: ``Health Exchange Signups Slowed in Past Month.'' 
The New York Times: ``Health Care Enrollment Falls Short of Goal, With 
Deadline Approaching. Signing Up for Insurance, But Well Below 
Targets.''
  Then, so many questions are asked of the White House and the 
Secretary of Health and Human Services. The headline in Politico today: 
``W.H. Playing Dumb on ACA Enrollments, Insurers Say.''
  I think the President needs to come clean with the American people 
and tell them about what a disaster his health care law has become, how 
it has impacted their lives, how few people have actually been able to 
sign up--or have been able to but have found the cost is too high for 
them to sign up--and admit to the American people that when they talk 
about some of these numbers of sign-ups, many of those are people who 
got cancellation notices. They are not newly-insured individuals.
  A study out last week shows that only about one in four people who 
have actually signed up on the Web site didn't have insurance before. 
So the people this was intended to help are not being helped. Many 
people are being harmed.
  It is time to work together to help patients get the care they need 
from the doctor they choose at lower costs.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The assistant majority leader.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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