[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 105 (Tuesday, July 8, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4246-S4248]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. BARRASSO. I come to the floor today because it seems day after 
day there is another story or two in the paper about what is happening 
with the President's health care law. As I go home to Wyoming each 
week, I go through Denver and the airport there. Today the headline in 
the Denver Post has to do with the Colorado health exchanges. The first 
line says: ``Colorado's health care exchange is expecting nearly twice 
as many people to drop or to decline to pay for their policies.'' You 
know, they predicted how many people would continue to make payments if 
they had signed up under the President's health care law. Today they 
are predicting that twice as many as they anticipated would be either 
dropping or failing to pay for their health care premiums.
  The Wall Street Journal today, above the fold, front page, ``Newly 
Insured Face Coverage Gaps.'' So you get people who may have signed up 
under the President's health care law, coverage gaps, not paying, 
dropping, truly not the deal the President has said was something he 
felt would be helpful to Americans. More and more people are finding 
out they are having bigger problems under the President's health care 
law, problems with the promises that were made by this President, by 
this administration, and by those who voted for the health care law.
  I get home just about every weekend in Wyoming to talk with people, 
to listen to them, to hear what they have to say. But also as chairman 
of the Republican Policy Committee, one of my responsibilities is also 
to see how policies such as the President's health care law come out 
across the country, what happens in other States, how policies out of 
Washington affect people all across America.
  Today I wish to talk a little about how the health care law is 
impacting people not just in my home State of Wyoming but all across 
the country. In addition to being in Wyoming last week, I had a chance 
to visit Alaska. What I heard from people there as well as people in 
Wyoming is that people

[[Page S4247]]

have been hurt by the President's health care law. They are anxious 
about it in terms of their own health care, and they are angry about 
insurance they have had that they have lost, and the implications of 
the President's health care law where many promises were made and now 
people are finding out the President's promises, in terms of their own 
lives, their own health and their own families, have not actually been 
kept.
  The President, Democrats here in the Senate, promised their law was 
going to be great for the American people. That is the promise. Well, I 
can tell you the people I talk to in Wyoming, people I heard from in 
Alaska, are very worried about the terrible side effects they are 
feeling specifically as a result of this awful health care law.
  Small businesses--and small businesses are a major part of the 
economy in rural States. Small businesses and the people who 
specifically work in those small businesses are the backbone of the 
economy for so many of our communities. So it is very troubling when I 
read about something in the health care law that threatens the very 
health of the people who work in these small businesses.
  When Democrats were trying to sell their health care law, they 
bragged. They bragged about something called the SHOP program. That is 
the exchange where small businesses in a State were supposed to be able 
to buy insurance for their workers, to be able to shop for it, be able 
to get something that is affordable. That is the promise made by 
Democrats who voted for this health care law.
  Democrats actually gave speeches on the floor about small businesses 
being able to find affordable insurance. This program was supposed to 
open last year, but just like the failed exchanges the President set 
up, when the exchanges opened October 1, this was not ready to go. So 
what the Obama administration did is they said: We will delay it for a 
year, because the program was not ready. So they left all of the 
businesses kind of in a lurch. Now they say it might be ready this 
fall. Well, time will tell.

  Here is what the Wall Street Journal found in an article last month, 
June 10. They ran a headline that said, ``Some small business employees 
to have only one health plan choice: 18 states will offer only one plan 
when small-business exchanges open.''
  The Democrats promised a lot more than that. Those who voted for that 
promised a lot more. Those who gave speeches promised a lot more. But 
in 18 States, there will be only one plan when they finally get it 
open, 18 States where workers and small businesses will not have any 
choice among insurance plans and no competition, and Alaska is one of 
them. Less choice, less competition, and of course that means higher 
premiums.
  People all across the country are experiencing higher premiums. That 
is the thing that causes so much anger and anxiety among families all 
across the country. When that letter comes--and the newspaper stories 
are already starting to get out there, as well as television, radio, 
reading about it on the Internet--the question is: How much higher?
  The President promised $2,500 lower premiums. Nobody believes that. 
Nobody in America believes the President of the United States and the 
promise he made. It is a sad situation when the President is not 
believed by anyone. But yet that is what we have. He made a promise: 
$2,500 per family lower. People all know that prices are going higher. 
The question is: How much higher?
  This is what an article said in the Alaska Dispatch: ``Alaska's small 
businesses feel pinch of rising health care costs.'' The article tells 
a story of a restaurant owner with 24 employees. He is paying about 
$5,000 a month more than he paid last year for his share of his 
workers' insurance. That is about a 40-percent increase over last 
year--40 percent. The President said it was going to go down. This is a 
40-percent increase. This small business owner in Alaska says the costs 
are ``crippling'' and he said it is like meeting another payroll every 
month. This small business owner says:

       It's killing me. I just don't know how long we can keep 
     absorbing these costs.

  Those costs are a devastating side effect of the health care law. 
Democrats voted for it. Every Democrat in the Senate voted for that. 
There was a story on television up there, channel 13, a television 
station in Anchorage, KYUR. They aired a story last month about Linda 
Peters. She is another local business owner. She had 14 employees. She 
pays for the health insurance for her employees. Her share of the 
premium has gone up, gone up from $600 per person 2 years ago to $950 
today. She says it has gotten so expensive that she has had to shift 
the cost of employees' dependents back to her workers.
  So she was providing insurance for the dependents of the employees, 
but now she is not able to do that. Why? Because of the President's 
health care law. She told the TV station, ``It was really tragic, it's 
enraging in fact, as employers who care about our employees. `` Tragic 
and enraging.
  But the President forced this on her and every Democrat in this body, 
every Democratic Senator who voted for this.
  This woman in Alaska: Tragic and enraging. She is looking into 
dropping insurance coverage altogether. She pays her employees well so 
they will not get a subsidy in the State exchange. So here is a small 
business owner who can speak personally about the expensive, the 
tragic, and the enraging side effects of the Obama health care law on 
her employees.
  Of course, there is a lot of uncertainty about what happens next and 
how much rates might continue to go up. Of course, that makes it even 
worse. The business owner said:

       I just can't penalize my employees by dropping the plan, 
     and I can't figure out: Where am I going to get the money? 
     It's frightening. What happens next year?

  That is a big concern, what happens next year. People worry about 
next year. They budget for next year. They plan for next year. They 
think about their expenses, balancing it with their income. President 
Obama says: The Democrats who voted for this law--in the President's 
own words--should forcefully defend and be proud--should forcefully 
defend and be proud--of the health care law.
  Are Democrats in this Senate who voted for this health care law 
proud? Are they proud of what the law is doing to these people in 
Alaska and other States? Are Democrats willing to come to this floor 
and forcefully defend and be proud of the extra stress, the extra costs 
they are causing for these people all across the country?
  According to a recent study by the Manhattan Institute, people in 
Alaska are paying a hospital more for their coverage. They found the 
premiums of the average 64-year-old woman in Alaska would have been 
$693 a month in 2013. That is before they were forced onto the 
ObamaCare exchange. But in 2014, buying insurance from the exchange, 
her premiums jumped to $813 a month. She is paying $1,400 more this 
year than she did last year because of the specifics of the health care 
law.
  For a 27-year-old man, he would have paid an average of $130 a month 
in 2013. But under the health care law and the exchange, he now pays 
$284 a month. That is more than double. That is an extra $1,800 more 
this year than it was last year.
  Is there a Senator in this body who will come to the floor and 
forcefully defend the fact that there are these people all across 
America who are paying twice as much for insurance because of the 
health care law?
  Democrats did not solve the problem with our health care system. They 
just mandated coverage, and mandated more expensive coverage. They made 
it more expensive and they have more mandates. People wanted reform 
that gave them access to quality affordable care, not more expensive 
coverage.
  Republicans have offered solutions, solutions for patient-centered 
care, for patient-centered health care reform. We have talked about 
things such as increasing the ability of small businesses to be able to 
join together and negotiate better rates, about expanding health 
savings accounts, and allowing people to shop for and buy health 
insurance in other States that work best for them and for their 
families.
  In 18 States, including Alaska, the small business exchange will 
offer just one choice for insurance. Shopping in other States could 
increase competition and help lower premiums for people who work for 
those small businesses.
  That would have been a simple solution that works and helps people 
actually afford coverage and care. It is not

[[Page S4248]]

what Democrats did with their health care law, but it is what 
Republicans are offering. We have suggested ideas to get people the 
care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs--not higher 
costs with a subsidy for some people, but actually lowering the cost 
for everyone.
  Republicans are going to keep coming to the floor. We are going to 
keep offering real solutions for better health care without all of 
these tragic side effects.
  I am sure that tomorrow there will be another headline and another 
one the day after that of people who have been harmed by the health 
care law as we see more and more and hear from more and more Americans 
who feel the President has not kept his promises, that the Democrats 
who voted for the health care law have failed the American people and 
have failed to answer the concerns of the American people, which was 
affordable quality care.
  Madam President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.

                          ____________________