[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 132 (Tuesday, September 16, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5605-S5606]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today, as 
Republicans have come to the floor week after week ever since the 
President's health care law was passed. I have many concerns about the 
way this health care law is impacting families in my home State of 
Wyoming as well as families all across the country. In one State after 
another, people are feeling the devastating side effects of the health 
care law.
  President Obama says Democrats who voted for the health care law 
should, as he said, ``forcefully defend and be proud of the law.''
  I heard earlier today the Kaiser Family Foundation's report being 
quoted. What they said is that premiums have gone up, on average, 
$3,500 from 2009 for family workplace coverage, plus the deductibles 
are higher. So premiums are up $3,500 since 2009 for family workplace 
coverage, and the deductibles are higher--higher money paid out-of-
pocket.
  The President of the United States said they would go down by $2,500 
per family. Nancy Pelosi said they would go down for everyone. She was 
the Speaker of the House. She was the one who said: First you have to 
pass it before you get to find out what is in it. Americans have found 
out what is in it, and they don't like it. People do not like what they 
see with the President's health care law. It continues to be very 
unpopular.
  So I ask, is the President really proud that families all across the 
country are suffering because of his health care law and the many 
dangerous side effects they are now having to live with?
  Let's look around the country a little bit and see what the new 
headlines are bringing, and there are new headlines every day. In 
Virginia a television station in Charlottesville, WVIR, reported on 
what is happening there. Last Wednesday they had a report which said 
that ``nearly a quarter million Virginians will have to change their 
insurance plans this fall.'' The President said: If you like what you 
have, you can keep it. Not in Virginia. A quarter of a million 
Virginians will have to change their insurance plans this fall. It is 
because the plans don't include all of a very long list of things 
Washington mandates have to be offered.
  Even if a person had an insurance plan that worked well for their 
family, that met their needs, the President and Democrats in this body 
say: Sorry, you can't keep it. The President said: If you like your 
plan, you can keep it. What happened there? At least 27 Democrats stood 
on the floor of the Senate and said: If you like what you have, you can 
keep it. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. That is what 
they said. What happened? Was this intentionally to deceive the 
American people? Why are nearly a quarter of a million Virginians 
losing their insurance plan?
  The head of the Virginia Association of Health Plans says it is 
simple. He told the TV station: ``We're not allowed to offer those 
plans anymore.'' The President said they could, and now these people 
are being told by the law they are not allowed to even offer the plans 
to people who want to buy them because it works for them.
  Are the Democrats in the Senate willing to forcefully defend the fact 
that 250,000 people in Virginia will have to buy new plans that they 
don't want, don't need, and many can't afford, with all of these 
additional provisions Washington says have to be included? To me, that 
is a very expensive and unnecessary side effect of the President's 
health care law.
  But it is not just people's health care plans. People are concerned 
about keeping their doctors and keeping their hospitals that they go to 
in their own communities. Let's take a look at what happened in 
Connecticut, in a report that came out. Hartford Courant: ``Five 
Connecticut Hospitals Could Leave Anthem's Network on October 1.'' What 
about the people who go to those hospitals and get their health care 
coverage that way? What are those people supposed so do? The President 
said: If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your 
doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your hospital, you can 
keep your hospital. These people may be losing their hospital come 
October 1.
  Here is another side effect of the law that is hitting middle-class 
Americans and their wallets. It is the part of the law that says the 
workweek is no longer 40 hours. Now it is just 30 hours. That is what 
the law says. People who are working part time have had their hours cut 
to below 30 hours, and they are getting lower take-home pay. I hear 
about this in Wyoming. I hear it from school district workers, from 
folks who have had their hours cut, who are having to get by with less 
pay because if they have their hours cut, their take-home pay goes 
down. It is another destructive side effect of this health care law.
  It is not just Wyoming; it is happening all around the country. In 
Louisiana there was a report by KNOE television in Monroe last Thursday 
which said that 400 employees within Lincoln Parish schools--people who 
work within the school system--are getting their hours cut in half. 
Four hundred workers, one school district, Louisiana, half

[[Page S5606]]

the hours, half the pay. Where did the school board put the blame? They 
put it directly on the President's health care law. They said they 
can't afford the Washington-mandated health insurance for all of their 
workers, so they are cutting back on the hours for substitute teachers, 
cutting the hours for cafeteria workers, cutting the hours for 
custodians, for paraprofessionals who work with the kids. Is that what 
the President envisioned? Is that what the President means when he says 
``forcefully defend and be proud''? Cutting back things for children in 
our schools, is that the President's solution for health care, making 
it harder for kids to get an education and making it harder for 
teachers to teach?
  One custodian told the paper that it is depressing knowing his pay is 
about to be cut. He said, ``It's rough the way it is. Why make it 
harder to survive?'' That is my question to the President of the United 
States and to Senators on the floor who come to talk about the health 
care law.
  Why make it harder to survive? Why, Mr. President? You said people 
should forcefully defend and be proud of this law. Are you proud of it, 
Mr. President? That is what I need to know. That is what the American 
public wants to know.
  Is the President proud that people are getting their hours cut in 
half specifically because of his law? And school districts are pointing 
to that as the cause. Is the President proud he is making it harder for 
Americans to survive?
  Now, some people aren't just getting their hours cut; they can't get 
hired in the first place because of the health care law. That is what 
one business owner said in an op-ed for the Charlotte Observer 
newspaper in Charlotte, NC. It ran September 10 and was entitled ``How 
ObamaCare jams a stick in my company's wheels.'' Rodney Pitts, who runs 
the Southern Elevator Company in North Carolina, says he wants to hire 
more elevator mechanics for his business, but he hasn't been able to 
hire anyone this year. Why? He says the main reason is because of the 
costs associated with the health care law and all of the requirements 
of the health care law. He said, ``Thousands of businesses in Charlotte 
and in North Carolina are in the same holding pattern.''
  So people all across the country who want to work won't get that 
opportunity because businesses can't afford to take on all of the extra 
costs of the President's health care law. That is an extremely 
destructive side effect of the law. It is hurting American families.
  This health care law is hurting our economy. Every Democrat in the 
Senate voted for this health care law--every one. Where are the 
Democrats willing to forcefully defend these alarming side effects of 
this health care law? Is the President ready to go to North Carolina 
and talk to this business owner? Is the President going to say he is 
proud his health care law is keeping the businesses from hiring more 
people in North Carolina and all across the country?
  This isn't the kind of health care reform the American people needed. 
It is not the kind of health care reform the American people wanted. 
People didn't want a law that forced them to get rid of the insurance 
which they had and liked and which worked for them and for their 
families. They didn't want a law that forced their local schools to cut 
the hours of custodians and part-time teachers, cafeteria workers, and 
people who look after their children. That is not how to help people in 
a community.

  These are the tragic side effects of the President's health care law. 
Republicans are going to continue to talk good patient-centered 
reforms, reforms that get patients across the country the care they 
need from a doctor they choose and at a lower cost.
  We are going to talk about restoring people's freedom, freedom to buy 
health insurance that works for them, for their families because they 
know what works best for them, not President Obama. We are going to 
talk about giving people choices, not Washington mandates. Republicans 
are going to keep offering real solutions for better health care 
without all of these intrusive and intolerable side effects.
  I yield the floor.

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