[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 139 (Wednesday, September 14, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5687-S5688]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, let me start by stating the obvious: 
ObamaCare is a direct attack on the middle class. Premiums are shooting 
up by double digits, copays are spiking, and deductibles are 
skyrocketing. Co-ops are collapsing and insurers are withdrawing.
  We all know the statistics, and they are literally shocking. Yet they 
still do not truly capture the toll this partisan law is taking on 
America's middle class, because behind every premium increase headline 
is a family budget stretched to its limits, and beyond every co-op 
collapse is an agonizing uncertainty about where a family will find 
insurance. This is what too often gets lost in the debate over 
ObamaCare, especially amongst our Democratic friends, perhaps because 
it helps them rationalize away the pain of this law. But this is not 
some theoretical discussion; these are people's lives this law is 
hurting.
  That is why I shared the story of a mom in Louisville who said her 
family's health care costs would consume nearly a fifth of their budget 
this year. ``I wish somebody would explain to us,'' she wrote, ``how a 
hard working middle class family paying this much for health insurance 
became a loser under Obamacare.''
  That is why I shared the story of the Campbellsburg man who had just 
lost the health insurance he had had for many years. ``Instead of 
something affordable,'' he wrote, ``I [now] face the possibility of 
struggling to purchase an Obama[care] health plan that costs two to 
three times what I had been paying.''
  That is why I shared the story of a small business man in Lexington 
who may have to end his decades-long practice of providing insurance to 
his employees at no cost thanks to, as he wrote, ``the cynically named 
Affordable Care Act.''
  I shared stories from other States too. There is the New Jersey man 
with chronic health issues who lost access to his doctor the moment 
ObamaCare placed him on Medicaid. ``You have a card saying you have 
health insurance,'' he said, ``but if no doctors take it, it's almost 
like having one of those

[[Page S5688]]

fake IDs.'' He reminded us that having health insurance under ObamaCare 
is not the same thing as actually having health coverage.
  There is a woman from Ohio who lost her plan after ObamaCare forced 
out her insurer. ``They fine you if you don't have insurance,'' she 
said, ``then they take your options away.'' She put words to the 
frustration of literally millions.
  I explained how ObamaCare is chasing out insurers in States such as 
Ohio, Arizona, and Alabama, throwing thousands off their plans all over 
again. I explained how ObamaCare's co-ops are failing in States such as 
New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Connecticut, massively disrupting 
coverage for thousands more. I explained how ObamaCare is shooting up 
premiums by almost unimaginable amounts in States such as Minnesota, 
Illinois, and Montana, forcing more Americans to make impossible 
financial decisions.
  I invite Democrats to recognize that ObamaCare's human toll is 
evident from north to south, from east to west. That includes States 
such as California, where, according to what the Democratic leader told 
us yesterday, ObamaCare is supposedly ``working wonderfully.'' Really? 
Is it wonderful that premiums in California are set to spike by more 
than three times the average of recent years? Is it wonderful that 
ObamaCare is causing huge, double-digit increases in the Golden State, 
while reducing access to doctors and hospitals at the same time?
  The Los Angeles Times quoted a leftwing activist summarizing the 
situation this way. This is a leftwing activist: ``We're paying more 
for less.'' Indeed, before these massive increases had even been 
announced, polling showed Californians more concerned about the cost of 
health care than whether they even had insurance. Two thirds reported 
they worried ``very much'' about rising health costs, and a majority 
credited ObamaCare for causing costs to go up ``a lot'' for average 
Americans. It is similar to what Americans said nationwide when they 
cited health care as their biggest financial worry. That was ahead of 
wages, ahead of college costs, and even job loss--more concerned about 
health care. No wonder even some on the left have taken to calling 
ObamaCare the un-Affordable Care Act.
  What we are seeing with ObamaCare may be shocking, but it is not 
surprising because there are inevitable consequences to this partisan 
law--the partisan law littered with broken promises. Democrats said 
premiums would be lower. Remember that? Democrats said copays and 
deductibles would be affordable too. Obviously, that was wrong. 
Democrats said Americans could keep their health plans. Remember that 
promise? Democrats said Americans could keep their doctors. Of course, 
that wasn't true. Democrats said ObamaCare wouldn't touch Medicare. 
Democrats said taxes wouldn't increase on the middle class. Democrats 
said shopping for ObamaCare would be as simple as shopping for a TV on 
Amazon. Wrong, wrong, and wrong again.
  Democrats have broken one promise after the next on ObamaCare. But 
now, get this: They are asking Americans to trust them to fix--they 
want to fix the mess they created. They say they have the perfect 
solution too. It is more ObamaCare. Really. Seriously, I am not 
kidding. They actually think they can pull another fast one on the 
American people. They are actually pushing government-run ObamaCare 2.0 
as some kind of solution, and they are doing this with a straight face. 
So, look, we already know what we could expect from a Democratic-run 
Congress next year on ObamaCare: more broken promises, more 
stonewalling, more of the same.
  ObamaCare's attack against the middle class is a nationwide 
phenomenon. It is hurting the very people we were sent here to 
represent. The only way to deliver true relief for the middle class is 
to finally build a bridge away from ObamaCare. That is why we passed a 
bill to repeal this partisan law and sent it to the President--because 
the middle class deserves better than the pain of ObamaCare.
  I think even President Obama, if he is being honest with himself, 
should be able to recognize that as well. Here is what he himself said 
last month: ``Too many Americans still strain to pay for their 
physician visits and prescriptions, cover their deductibles, or pay 
their monthly insurance bills; struggle to navigate a complex, 
sometimes bewildering system; and remain uninsured.'' That is from the 
President himself. That is not the description of a law that is 
working. It is time to leave this failed experiment in the past and 
move toward the real care that Americans deserve.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.

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