[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 79 (Thursday, May 21, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3220-S3221]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor noting that my 
friend and colleague from Connecticut was just on the floor talking 
about the President's health care law. It is interesting that he would 
do so at a time when we are seeing headline after headline about 
ObamaCare plan premiums increasing again all over the country.
  Remember what the President said. He said: If you like your plan, you 
can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
  He said premiums would go down by $2,500 for a family of four. What 
we have seen is premiums go up across the country. Now my colleague 
from Connecticut says--in spite of all the money being spent on the 
President's health care law, premiums are still going up. In his home 
State of Connecticut, they are going up, and they are going up across 
the country.
  There is a headline in the Connecticut Mirror: ``Insurers seek rate 
hikes for 2016 ObamaCare plans.'' That is in Connecticut.
  You know, it is interesting. I heard my colleague talking about the 
upcoming Supreme Court case of King v. Burwell, the implications of 
that case. He said the Republicans did not have a plan. Where is the 
President's plan? He is the guy who made this mess. This is the 
President's law. This is the law the Democrats voted for.
  You know, there is that old sign in the Pottery Barn: If you break 
it, you bought it. The President broke the health care system in this 
country. If the Supreme Court rules that he has acted illegally--he is 
the one who made the mess; he is the one who created the problem.
  When my colleague from Connecticut says ``Where is the Republicans' 
plan?'' I say ``Where is the President's plan?'' It is interesting. The 
President does have a plan to protect the insurance companies, but he 
has no plans to protect the American public, the American taxpayers. He 
has a built-in plan for the insurance companies so that when they wrote 
the policies this year, there was a decision made by the White House 
that those policies could be canceled by the insurance companies if the 
Supreme Court ruled that the President acted illegally. Yet, there is 
no path, no safe path for those American taxpayers who thought they 
were obeying the law if the court rules the way I believe they should 
based on the reading of the law.
  So of course people around the country are very concerned when they 
see once again that the insurance they are mandated to buy by President 
Obama and the Democrats, the insurance they are mandated to buy by the 
health care law is going to be even more expensive next year than this 
year.
  In Connecticut--the first paragraph of this article: ``Insurance 
companies selling health plans through the state's health insurance 
exchange are seeking to raise rates next year. . . .''
  It goes on to say: ``Despite that, the carriers projected increased 
costs, citing rising claims expenses and a planned reduction in 
protection against high-cost claims. . . .'' Reduction in protection 
against high-cost claims. Why? Well, it says ``from a temporary federal 
program intended to provide stability for insurers during the initial 
years of the health law.'' This was the bailout of the insurance 
companies that President Obama and the Democrats built into the 
President's health care law to get them to go along.
  It says, ``The rate filings are proposals, not actual changes.'' 
Proposals, not changes. It says, ``The insurance department will now 
analyze the proposals, accept public comments. . . .'' This is the 
Connecticut Insurance Department. Well, you know, a lot of members of 
the public in Connecticut filed comments. I have them to share with the 
Presiding Officer and with our listeners today. These are the 
constituents of the Senator from Connecticut, who comes here to the 
floor and says things are working great in Connecticut. These are his 
constituents who say:

       I am barely making ends meet as it is. I was under the 
     understanding that this was to be AFFORDABLE--

  With all the letters of ``affordable'' in capital letters--

     --healthcare. So far it has been nothing but a burden.

  This is a constituent in Connecticut--``nothing but a burden.''
  He said:

       I was happy with my previous plan. . . .

  Weren't so many Americans happy with their previous plan before the 
President, who told them if they liked it, they could keep it--well, 
that is why there is so much disappointment out there. And the 
President's statement was called ``the lie of the year.''
  This person was happy with his previous plan, but it was eliminated 
as of January 1, 2015. ``My health care,'' he says, ``went up $100 for 
less coverage.''
  People are paying more and getting less, and Democrats wonder why 
this health care law is not popular. All across the country, people are 
paying more, getting less, and the Democrats are clueless as to why 
this is so unpopular.
  ``Please do not allow this increase.''
  That is just one of the constituents who wrote to the Connecticut 
Insurance Department, a public comment. Here is another:

       Please no rate increase. I cannot afford the insurance now. 
     I pay $594.00 a month for myself, a 60 year old female in 
     relatively good health. I have a $5,500 deductible. I cannot 
     afford to have some testing done because I don't have the 
     deductible amount.

  But we heard the Senator come to the floor and say all of these 
people have insurance. This person figures--well, she has insurance, 
but it is of no value to her with her $5,500 deductible. She can't 
afford to have testing because of the deductible. She says:

       It is bad enough we have the big security breach and we 
     have to worry about our personal info stolen in the years to 
     come and you now want to increase our rates.

  That is what we are seeing happening across the country, that is what 
we are seeing happening in Connecticut, and that is what the public is 
telling the Connecticut Insurance Department dealing with these 
proposed health rate increases.
  This is another:

       I am writing to you regarding the . . . rate increase 
     filing in particular and the health insurance filings in 
     general. I am an individual buyer who does not qualify for 
     federal subsidies due to my income level. I have been buying 
     my family plan since before the Affordable Care Act has been 
     passed and implemented.

  They had insurance and do not qualify for a subsidy. Continuing:

       Since then--

  Since the Affordable Care Act was passed--

     buying a family health plan in CT has become almost 
     financially impossible for me to buy as it has become a real 
     financial burden for me. Currently, I am paying some 22% of 
     my Federal AGI for a high deductible (family deductible of 
     $11,000) HSA plan.

  Now, the Senator from Connecticut may say: Hey, great. This person 
has insurance, insurance they can't afford and they cannot use because 
of the deductible.
  It says:

       As you are certainly well aware before the passing of the 
     Care Act my premium for health care was much more affordable.

  Why is it? Well, it is because the President decided he wanted to 
transfer money from one group to another, and this individual who had 
insurance that he liked, the family liked, worked for them, they could 
afford, now cannot afford, cannot use because of the deductible. They 
are still insured, so I guess the Senator from Connecticut would call 
that a big win for one of his constituents who is clearly being hurt.
  This is another one that has come in from Connecticut:


[[Page S3221]]


       Are you nuts? This cannot go on. My ``affordable'' 
     insurance has already increased $200/mo and now you want 
     more? My income doesn't even increase this much.
       Paying the penalty for no insurance is a better option than 
     this.
       DO NOT INCREASE! Learn how to live within your means like 
     the rest of us do.

  This is what we are seeing. Is this a surprise that this continues to 
be a very unpopular law. Should it surprise?
  It surprises the Democrats, obviously, when they see that in poll 
after poll, month after month, the health care law is more unpopular 
than it is popular, and the reason is people don't see it as good deal 
for them. They feel, in terms of their own health, their own families, 
their own communities, this health care law has been a burden on them, 
in their lives, and has impacted them as a family.
  There is another one from Connecticut:

       The ACA raised our health insurance expense (both premiums 
     and deductibles) by 67% for similar coverage!

  Sixty-seven percent for similar coverage. Remember, the President 
told a lot of people that what they had coverage on wasn't any good. It 
wasn't good enough for the President--might have been good enough for 
that family but not good enough for the President.
  So they had to buy, for similar coverage, premiums and deductibles up 
67%.
  Continuing:

       Please do not approve this additional increase.

  This person says they would be fine with their own policy, but they 
weren't allowed to keep it because of the health care law.
  I could go on and on. It is astonishing what we are hearing from the 
Connecticut Insurance Department, with a response, when they were 
asked, and put out the filings of the requests for higher rates. It is 
just interesting.
  Here is one more comment from Southbury, CT:

       The alleged purpose of this pool, and the affordable care 
     act--

  Alleged purpose. Remember Nancy Pelosi: First, you have to pass it 
before you get to find out what is in it.
  Continuing:

       The alleged purpose of this pool, and the affordable care 
     act, was to get and keep health care costs under control. My 
     (subsidized) monthly premium is more than double what I paid 
     before being forced into this pool. . . . If the ACA is a 
     failure, then why am I being penalized?

  People all across the country believe they are personally being 
penalized because of the failure of the Obama health care plan and this 
administration who chose to, with one party and one party alone, force 
a very expensive, unworkable, really unaffordable, unmanageable, 
unexplainable health care system down the throats of the American 
public.
  So we will see what happens when the Supreme Court rules at the end 
of next month. Secretary of Health and Human Services Burwell said that 
the administration has no plan. The President told me personally--and 
the White House earlier this year--he had no plan to deal with the 
Supreme Court ruling that says his actions were illegal, and he has no 
plan to deal with so many people who thought they were following the 
law, who have been hurt by the law.
  But he has a plan to bail out the insurance companies and to protect 
them because we know where the President is in terms of looking at 
this. And his proposal, his quintessential piece of legislation--the 
one named after him--has clearly done a significant amount of damage to 
families all across the country.
  I believe it has harmed the health care system, which has always been 
the best in the world.
  We needed health care reform in the country. We did not need what 
President Obama forced down the throats of the American people with 
people across the country saying no.
  People knew what they wanted in health care reform. What they knew 
they wanted was the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower 
cost, and they have not received that under the President's health care 
law.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gardner). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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