[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 4, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3426-S3428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
By Mr. ROBERTS:
S. 2430. A bill to establish the Office of the Special Inspector
General for Monitoring the Affordable Care Act, and for other purposes;
to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I first congratulate my colleague Senator
Isakson for doing a good job of summarizing exactly where we are and
the problems we are experiencing with the complexity of the Affordable
Care Act and the hope that the new Secretary will be responsive, as the
Senator so eloquently pointed out when he questioned her when she came
before the committee. I thank the Senator for making an excellent
speech and making excellent points, and I will endeavor to do the same,
as we are talking about the same subject.
My remarks are once again on the Affordable Care Act. I know we have
other issues, many important issues--the Veterans' Administration, the
release of terrorists in an exchange--but it is equally important we
continue to shed light on the many failings of this law.
During the very first debate on the Affordable Care Act, I distinctly
remember comparing this rush to government health care as akin to
riding hell-for-leather into a box canyon to find the only alternative
would be to turn around, ride back out, and get on a more realistic,
market-oriented health reform trail.
Then I put it another way. I said: There are a lot of cactuses out
there. We didn't have to sit on every one of them.
We never even saw the bill before we voted on it. I think everybody
understands that. I voted no and so did every Republican Senator and
Member of Congress. This was not a bipartisan effort.
I regret to say to my colleagues that I told you so, and here we are
in a box canyon. Until the administration provides us more details to
the contrary, we have to assume that more Americans are losing the care
they liked,
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through cancellation notices, than they have enrolled in the exchanges.
They are in a box canyon.
It is now estimated that ObamaCare will cost the Nation nearly $2
trillion and has created higher premiums, higher taxes, less choice,
confusion, delays, and problem after problem. Unfortunately, the
President and his allies in the Congress continue to protect this law,
despite its toll on our economy, our patients, and our providers.
The President promised, as we all remember: We'll lower premiums for
a typical family by $2,500 per year.
Valerie from Wichita, KS, wrote me a letter to share her story on
this broken promise. She writes:
I wanted to let you know that I had to drop my company
health insurance due to the Affordable Care Act. My premium
before the Act was $250 a month and my employer paid $100 a
month toward the premium.
My insurance year expired April 1st and the new year is
under the ACA health insurance. The new plan is now much
higher at $565 a month and my employer can only afford to
pitch in $150 a month. I had to drop my plan due to
unaffordability. I could not pay the $415 a month.
The President also promised, highly publicized: ``If you like your
health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan,
period,'' and, ``If you like your doctor, you'll be able to keep your
doctor.''
This law has significantly disrupted the individual health insurance
market by imposing mandates and causing at least 5 million Americans to
lose the insurance they had or have.
Doug, also from Wichita, wrote to share his personal story on this
one. He said:
I am a small business owner who just got my family's health
insurance cancelled. I have talked it through with [the
insurance company] and at a minimum I will be paying 63% more
per month for coverage that has a deductible 3 times greater
than what I had and my doctor may or may not be in the
network.
Doug continues on to say:
The only topic that matters in Washington is stopping the
insanity of [ObamaCare].
Most important, the President promised, ``I will protect Medicare.''
This law cuts over $700 billion from Medicare to pay for ObamaCare.
Part of those cuts come from the establishment, the establishment of an
Independent Payment Advisory Board--what a wonderful acronym for this
board--IPAB. This Board is supposed to be made up of 15 unelected
bureaucrats who will decide which treatments in Medicare coverage
should be taken away with regard to reimbursement. As I have stated on
the Senate floor before, the IPAB has no accountability and their
decisions are practically impossible to overturn.
The administration continues to give us piecemeal data on exchange
enrollments, delays provisions of the law that they can't implement on
time or simply wants to delay--a large serving of politics involved--
and is providing exclusive waivers and special deals to unions and
others from the yoke of ObamaCare.
In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service confirmed
that the administration has missed half of the mandated deadlines of
this law. Most recently, press reports have indicated the government
may be paying incorrect subsidies to more than 1 million Americans for
their health care plans in the new Federal insurance exchanges, and
they have so far been unable to fix the errors. Obviously, this poses a
lot of problems for a lot of people.
Unfortunately, the President and his allies in Congress continue to
protect this law despite its toll on our economy, patients, and
providers.
A new Health and Human Services Secretary has been nominated, Sylvia
Mathews Burwell, as Senator Isakson referred to, but with ObamaCare,
nothing will alter. We are headed for socialized medicine. ObamaCare is
the President's legacy. The President will unilaterally change what
suits him best.
The hard-working taxpayers who are paying for this law, in large part
from the 21 tax increases contained in it, have a right to some
answers. That is right, I said 21 tax increases. Just some of these
taxes include the following: the individual mandate tax, where people
have to pay the government for not having insurance, even if they can't
afford it; the employer mandate tax, where an employer pays a tax
because they may have chosen to forgo providing insurance to their
employees instead of having to lay off workers; the health insurance
tax, which will be passed along to individuals in the form of higher
premiums; the medical device tax.
I could go on and on. Many of these taxes have bipartisan support to
be repealed, but we can't even get a vote on those.
With a $1.8 trillion pricetag, this bill is so far-reaching it is
difficult to find a Federal agency that doesn't have a hand in this
pot; from your doctor's office to your wallet, to your privacy. That is
why I am introducing today a bill to require a special inspector
general for monitoring the Affordable Care Act. We call it the SIGMA
Act. It is the Special Inspector General for Monitoring the Affordable
Health Care Act.
While all of the Federal agencies charged with implementing the
Affordable Care Act have Offices of the Inspector General--and they do,
they are all investigating this law in their own silo--where have we
heard that before with a lot of problems within the Federal
Government--the Health and Human Services inspector general isn't
talking to the Treasury IG or the Department of Labor IG or the
Homeland Security IG or any one of those with each other.
This bill would give appropriate authority to investigate and to
audit any programs or activities related to this law across the many
Federal departments, State exchanges, and private contractors.
The legislation will require a report to be submitted to Congress and
the American people 6 months after enactment and quarterly reports for
the duration of time the Affordable Care Act is on the books. They have
broad authority to review all aspects of the law. Things such as the
following:
Changes in the health insurance marketplace, the amount of folks who
have seen their premiums and out-of-pocket costs increased, shrinking
physician and other provider networks. We have a right to know that.
The employer mandate, its effect on worker hours, employers' hiring,
and the number of businesses subjected to the penalty. We have a right
to know that.
The healthcare.gov Web site, its security, functionality, and
verification systems. We have read a lot about that, but we have a
right to know.
Duties of the Internal Revenue Service, plans for calculating subsidy
overpayments and underpayments, how they will notify these individuals
and what their plans are for recapturing these overpayments.
Medicare cuts via the IPAB, they will provide an analysis of the
impact on medical outcomes for our seniors as a result of these cuts.
We should know that.
All of these questions could and should be answered by a special
inspector general. The bill would equip the special IG with the same
investigative and law enforcement authority as standing inspectors
general, including subpoena and audit powers to compel responses from
the administration.
President Obama has claimed that his--his--is ``the most transparent
administration in history'' and that his administration is committed to
creating an unprecedented level of openness in government. Given these
statements, I think the President should embrace the idea of a special
inspector general for his health care law. After all, we need to know
the outcomes of the 41 changes he has already made to the law.
It would provide increased transparency so the general public has a
better understanding about this law. It would protect taxpayer dollars,
and by providing an independent analysis of this law, it will allow the
administration and Congress to make more informed decisions and work
together on how we move forward with reforms to our health care
system. I believe we need to do everything possible to repeal and
replace this law with real health care reform--reforms that lower costs
and restore the all-important relationship between a patient and a
doctor.
However, as long as this law is on the books, we need a watchdog or a
special inspector general to investigate the implementation of this law
and ensure that our scarce taxpayer dollars are being spent in an
appropriate manner. I encourage all of my colleagues to join me in
support of this bill in calling for
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increased oversight of the affordable--or unaffordable--health care
law.
Let's ride out of the box canyon. Let's get on a better health care
reform trail, and on the way we certainly don't have to sit on every
cactus that comes along.
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