[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 20, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3169-S3171]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, this week President Obama told a group 
of campaign donors that people who still

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talk about his health care law are ``not speaking to the real concerns 
that people have.'' The President still does not seem to understand 
that Americans do have real concerns about his health care law. They 
are not partisan concerns, they are practical concerns. The reason 
Americans are worried is because the law directly impacts their 
personal lives, their personal health, and their personal pocketbooks.
  That is why I have come to the floor week after week to talk about 
some of the alarming side effects of the President's health care law, 
and there are many alarming side effects related to the law that people 
are seeing and dealing with in their everyday lives. I have talked 
about how this law has increased premiums, how it has cut paychecks for 
many families, how week after week more people are realizing that they 
are suffering as a result of the law. They are not helped by the law 
but are suffering as victims of the President's law.
  Today I wish to talk about another costly side effect of the law: the 
massive amount of taxpayer dollars that continues to be wasted under 
the law. For example, KMOV, a television station in St. Louis, recently 
reported about a call center in Missouri that processes paper 
applications for insurance in the State exchanges. Remember, the 
applications were supposed to be handled on a Web site, so they should 
not need a call center handling very many paper applications, but it 
doesn't seem to matter.
  The company got a contract for $1.2 billion. According to the report, 
there are 1,800 employees. What are these people doing who are taking 
all of this money? It turns out a lot of them are not doing very much. 
They are being paid with hard-earned taxpayer dollars and they are not 
doing very much. One employee said, ``There are some weeks that a data 
entry person would not process an application''--weeks, and not a 
single application. They are just sitting there and looking at their 
computers. The report says some of them are playing Pictionary or 20 
Questions and collecting paychecks funded by the taxpayers. Another 
former employee told the Associated Press: ``It was like stealing money 
from people.'' It was like stealing money from people.
  It is not just happening in Missouri. Another TV station, KOLR, found 
a call center run by the same company--this one is in Arkansas--and 
reported that the same thing that is happening in St. Louis, MO, is 
happening in Arkansas. One employee told the station that he has been 
there 6 months--6 months and getting paid for full-time work--and has 
processed a total of 40 applications.
  To make matters worse, we have learned of another clear way 
Washington is wasting taxpayer dollars while implementing the law. Over 
the weekend the Washington Post reported that Federal health care 
subsidies may be too high or to low for 1 million people. The headline 
says: ``Health payouts may be wrong. Subsidies too high or [too] low 
for 1 million. Government flags errors but can't fix them yet.'' 
Incredible incompetence on the part of this administration. There is 
mismanagement like people have never seen before in this country.
  The Post reported:

       The problem means that potentially hundreds of thousands of 
     people are receiving bigger subsidies than they deserve.

  These are the subsidies some people get to help pay for their 
insurance in the government exchanges. It turns out that the computer 
system Washington built to make sure it gave the right subsidies--well, 
guess what. It doesn't work.
  When the healthcare.gov Web site crashed last fall, the Obama 
administration scrambled to patch and duct tape it back together. But 
according to the article, behind the scenes, important aspects of the 
Web site remain defective or unfinished.
  The article goes on:

       The government may be paying incorrect subsidies to more 
     than 1 million Americans in the new federal insurance 
     marketplace and has been unable so far to fix the errors, 
     according to internal documents and three people familiar 
     with the situation.
       The problem means that potentially hundreds of thousands of 
     people are receiving bigger subsidies than they deserve.

  Apparently the government can't fix it and the Web site can't be 
fixed. So what do they do? These people are sending in information, 
and, according to this article, ``piles of unprocessed `proof' 
documents are sitting in a federal contractor's Kentucky office, and 
the government continues to pay insurance subsidies that may be too 
generous . . .''

       The inability to make certain the government is paying 
     correct subsidies is a legacy of computer troubles that 
     crippled last fall's launch of the Obama health care law.

  So again we see more waste of taxpayer dollars and more reasons for 
Americans to have very real concerns about the law.
  Just this past week the President of the United States told donors: 
Oh, not speaking to the real concerns that people have.
  The President of the United States is wrong. The American people have 
real concerns about these components of the health care law. President 
Obama said to the Democrats in this very body: Democrats should 
forcefully defend and be proud of the health care law. I want to see 
one of the Democrats stand and defend what I have just talked about and 
be proud of what I just talked about. The President says you should, so 
where are you right now? Not one of them is here to make that defense 
or to stand proud about this law.
  It is hard to imagine that my colleagues can possibly be proud of a 
law that pays people to do nothing all day long. Can they possibly be 
proud of a law that awards large subsidies for people who don't qualify 
for them? Are the Democrats who voted for this health care law ready to 
forcefully defend all the taxpayer dollars that continue to be wasted 
every day?
  There is no end in sight and there is no effort to stop this. After 
all, how does that provide a fair shot for everyone? Isn't that what 
the promises of the President are? He said: I want a fair shot for 
everyone. How does all of this actually help with this wasted money? 
How does that help anybody get better health care? Millions and 
millions of dollars are being wasted to pay people to sit around and 
play computer games. Millions more are on Web sites designed in States 
that have been basically called broken, dysfunctional, crippled--you 
name it, they are not working.
  The FBI is doing an investigation about some of these reports. How 
does that give anybody better health care--all these wasted taxpayer 
dollars.

  The people know what they wanted with health care reform. They wanted 
better access to quality, affordable care. Let's think about what 
people want with health care reform. They want access, they want 
affordable care, they want choices--which they have been denied under 
this President's health care law--and they want quality. That is the 
kind of fair shot they wanted, but it is not what they got from the 
President's health care law.
  Republicans have offered a patient-centered approach that would solve 
the biggest problems families face, such as access to care, cost of 
care, quality of care, and choice. That means ideas such as allowing 
small businesses to pool together in order to buy insurance more 
cheaply for their employees. That gives small businesses and the 
employees working there a fair shot. It means letting people shop for 
health insurance that actually works for them and their families, not 
what President Obama says is best for them. If I had to say who has the 
best chance of knowing what is best for a family, I would say it is 
likely the family and not President Obama and the Democrats who passed 
this law. People deserve a fair shot at buying a plan that is best for 
them and best for their families.
  These are just a couple of the solutions Republicans have offered to 
give Americans real health care reform and a real fair shot--health 
care reform that gives patients the care they need from a doctor they 
choose at lower costs, without the ongoing harmful, expensive side 
effects we are seeing every day with the President's health care law.
  Thank you. I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.

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  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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