[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 84 (Tuesday, May 16, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2937-S2938]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, as ObamaCare continues to collapse, a 
new Gallup poll out last week showed ``Healthcare Surges as Top Problem 
in US.''
  It is not hard to see why so many Americans feel this way. They turn 
on the TV and hear there will be even fewer options on the ObamaCare 
marketplaces in State after State. They pick up the newspaper and see 
that even more double-digit premium increases are being proposed for 
too many of the ObamaCare plan options that still remain. They know 
what these stories mean for their families: They will be left to pick 
up the pieces as ObamaCare continues to crumble all across the country. 
Unless we act, ObamaCare premiums will keep skyrocketing across the 
Nation, pushing the financial burden of this broken law onto the backs 
of more hard-working Americans.
  We have seen the result of this already with last year's rate 
filings, which left many States with double-digit premium increases as 
even more insurance options left the market. Premium price hikes for 
some ObamaCare plans reached startling levels, averaging 53 percent in 
Pennsylvania, 63 percent in Tennessee, and a shocking 116 percent in 
Arizona, just to name a few.
  Families are again awaiting projections for this year's filings and 
once again bracing for the very worst. In the coming weeks and months, 
proposed rate increases under ObamaCare will roll in across the Nation, 
and already ObamaCare customers in a handful of States have learned 
just how high their premiums could rise in 2018.
  For example, consumers in Vermont just learned that premiums on the 
exchanges could increase by double digits next year. In Connecticut, 
requested premium rate increases are as high as 52 percent on the 
exchanges. In Maryland, one major insurer is asking for an average rate 
increase of nearly 60 percent. ObamaCare's marketplaces, that insurer 
warned, are in the ``early stages of a death spiral.''
  Are our Democratic friends who promised to lower costs under 
ObamaCare OK with what looks to be yet another year of massive 
ObamaCare premium increases? This news is alarming not only for the 
families on the exchanges in the States I just named but for the 
thousands more across the Nation who may be hit with similar reports in 
coming weeks.
  As one recent AP story, titled ``More price hikes likely for 
government insurance markets,'' observed: ``Early moves by insurers 
suggest that another round of price hikes and limited choices will 
greet insurance shoppers around the country when they start searching 
for next year's coverage on the public markets established by the 
Affordable Care Act.''
  Moreover, as the story went on to say, over 40 percent of counties 
could have just a single insurer to choose from on the exchanges next 
year. It is troubling news, especially given that so many States, like 
mine, have already experienced insurers fleeing the ObamaCare 
marketplace leaving families with limited options.
  Let's just look at the chart behind me. In Kentucky, under ObamaCare, 
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percent of counties have only one insurer this year in 2017. Forty-nine 
percent of our counties, nearly half the counties in Kentucky, have 
only one insurer to choose from, and of course having one option is 
really no choice at all. It is a harsh reality facing more and more 
Americans, and these ObamaCare failures have real consequences for the 
men and women whom we all represent.
  As one of our Democratic friends commented just last week on news 
that his State will be left with only a single insurer next year under 
ObamaCare, ``This will mean that more than 12,000 Delawareans will have 
to find a new insurance plan and [that] our hardworking families will 
have fewer options and harder choices to make about their health 
insurance coverage.''
  Can our Democratic colleagues who promised more choice under 
ObamaCare really be OK with the continuing failures of ObamaCare?
  The status quo under ObamaCare is simply unsustainable and 
unacceptable. That is why the entire Senate Republican conference is 
working together on the best way forward to bring much needed relief to 
the families who have been left behind by ObamaCare's continuing 
failures.
  I hope our Democratic colleagues will join us in working on this. 
They just sent me a letter last week where they acknowledged that 
ObamaCare hasn't lived up to its promises and where they effectively 
conceded that the status quo is unsustainable. I hope it means they are 
finally ready to join us in moving away from ObamaCare and supporting 
smarter healthcare policies. After years of defending a system that 
isn't working for far too many Americans, it is time that Senate 
Democrats finally face the reality of this flawed ObamaCare law.
  The failures of ObamaCare aren't just isolated to one region of the 
country either. They are affecting people from the east coast to the 
west coast, from the North to the South, and things are likely to get 
even worse, unless we work to finally move beyond the failures of this 
law.

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