[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 131 (Monday, September 15, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H7458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF OBAMACARE CONTINUE TO PILE UP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer half a cheer for the 
recent news that the benchmark price for a ``silver'' level ObamaCare 
plan will drop very slightly in FY 2015. Why only half a cheer? As 
economics writer Megan McCardle recently noted:

       Contrary to optimistic early reports, that doesn't mean 
     that everyone's costs are falling. Consumers will have to be 
     attentive to make sure that their costs don't go up. The 
     worse news: we won't actually know what effect the Affordable 
     Care Act is having on insurance prices until 2017, when a 
     bunch of temporary subsidies for insurers expire.

  She goes on to note that the various ``risk corridors'' and other 
incentives which the Obama administration created to get insurers to 
participate in ObamaCare are preventing us from knowing the real cost 
of the President's disastrous health care law. McCardle writes:

       Right now, it's just not very risky for insurers to write a 
     policy that loses a bunch of money because your losses are 
     capped at a few percent. Starting in 2017, all that changes. 
     Insurers are going to need to price policies with the 
     expectation of making money and the fear of losing it.

  Mr. Speaker, I will pause for a moment to note that socialized losses 
combined with private profits are a hallmark of the crony capitalism of 
the ObamaCare era. Sadly, even in these heavily subsidized years, 
Americans are still suffering from price shock on their health 
insurance plan. As a constituent recently wrote to me:

       Virginia, here we go again. I just received a letter from 
     my health insurance carrier that my policy will no longer be 
     available after December 31, 2014, due to not being ACA 
     compliant. I will now be looking at $600-a-month premiums as 
     I am not eligible for a subsidy because I could go on my 
     wife's policy for $650 a month. $600 would be over 20 percent 
     of my take-home pay. We need your help to keep our current 
     plan as promised or change the ACA.

  ObamaCare's problems extend beyond high prices. I recently received a 
letter from a constituent--a middle-aged woman recovering from breast 
cancer--who was simultaneously dealing with the consequences of 
ObamaCare and the Obama economy.

       In 2013, I was laid off from a job I had for almost 8 
     years. I opened a business instead of drawing unemployment. 
     This year, the building I was leasing was sold and the new 
     owners would not let me stay. My life savings went into 
     building this and now it was gone. No money to start over 
     about the same time I find I had breast cancer. I had tried 
     to sign up for ObamaCare months before, but because my 
     husband and I file our taxes separately, I did not qualify 
     for subsidies regardless of my income. So here I am, no 
     insurance, no income, with breast cancer. I do not qualify 
     for disability because I don't expect to be disabled for at 
     least 12 months. I do not qualify for Medicaid because of the 
     guidelines for that.
       I have paid my taxes and worked hard all my life and my 
     government does not care about that.
       Is this messed up or what?

  Mr. Speaker, the law is messed up. The unintended consequences of 
ObamaCare continue to pile up for hardworking Americans across the 
country. When will this administration learn that it does not have the 
knowledge or ability to effectively, efficiently, and fairly manage the 
economic and health care choices of over 300 million Americans from 
Washington?

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