[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 49 (Tuesday, March 21, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S1857]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REPEALING AND REPLACING OBAMACARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last night in my home State of 
Kentucky, the President called for an end to ObamaCare as Congress 
continues working to repeal this disastrous law and replace it with 
patient-centered solutions.
  In Kentucky, just like across the country, costs are spiking, choices 
are dwindling, and insurance markets are edging closer and closer to 
collapse. Listen to this wife and small business owner who lives in 
Shelby County. She wrote to my office about her problems with 
ObamaCare. Here is what she said:

       I have seen little or no success where ObamaCare is 
     concerned. [T]he current insurance available is causing 
     working class Americans to choose between paying their bills 
     and getting needed medical care. . . . We need help.

  Kentuckians deserve better than ObamaCare. The American people 
deserve relief from ObamaCare. The law is failing right in front of us. 
It will continue to get worse unless we act. So we have to act. This 
week the House will continue working to advance ObamaCare repeal-and-
replace legislation. The House has already done some great work on the 
bill, and I look forward to taking it up in the Senate soon. We will 
have an amendment process here in the Senate. At the end of that 
process, we will send a bill to the one person who can sign it into 
law, and that is the President of the United States.
  But the legislation before the House isn't our only tool to help 
stabilize the healthcare marketplace. It is one prong of a three-part 
strategy.
  The second prong is the administration continuing to use its broad 
authority to bring relief. Officials like the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services, Tom Price, and the Administrator of the Centers for 
Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma, are already working to 
bring relief to stabilize health markets that ObamaCare has rattled.
  The third prong is further legislation to reform the healthcare 
market and make it more competitive for consumers. Taken together, 
these three prongs aim to restore power to the States and move more 
healthcare decisions out of Washington and back to the States. They 
also represent the best way to bring relief to Americans who continue 
to suffer under ObamaCare. The American people deserve better than this 
failing law. We promised we would repeal and replace it for four 
straight elections. We are working to fulfill that commitment right 
now.

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