[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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