[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 20, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3616-S3618]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Healthcare Legislation

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, we continue to make progress on 
legislation to clean up the mess left by the meltdown of ObamaCare, at 
least insofar as it affects the lives of millions of people who buy 
their insurance on the individual markets. These are individuals and 
small businesses that don't have the benefit of large employer 
healthcare plans, and they have been devastated by ObamaCare.
  This is a rescue mission. ObamaCare is collapsing for millions of 
people, and we have to act in the interest of countless families and 
small businesses that are suffering tremendous harm.
  I have told the stories myself; others have likewise told the 
stories. We have seen those reported in the media. For many people, 
healthcare costs, their insurance premiums are skyrocketing. We also 
know that because of the distortion in the insurance markets, many 
insurance companies are simply pulling out of counties and States 
around the country, so people have no choices when it comes to 
purchasing their healthcare on the exchanges. Of course, many people 
continue to lose access to their doctors.
  We need to contrast this with what was promised when ObamaCare was 
passed. I know it sounds repetitive, but I am afraid that if we lose 
sight of what the promises were with ObamaCare, we can't actually 
calculate the tremendous harm and the deception that was involved in 
actually delivering on that promise.
  President Obama said that if you liked your policy, you could keep 
it--not true. He said if you liked your doctor, you could keep your 
doctor--also not true. He also said that a family of four could see an 
average decrease in premiums of $2,500 a year--also not true.
  What is the response of our Democratic friends? We saw last night 
that they took to the Senate floor, and they gave impassioned speeches.
  First of all, they criticized the Republicans for coming forward to 
try to rescue the people who were being hurt by the failures of 
ObamaCare. They criticized us for that. Then they said that it was a 
secret bill after they had rejected every entreaty--every request--for 
them to work with us on a bipartisan basis to rescue the people who are 
being hurt by the failures of ObamaCare. They rejected that.
  What did they do? They came to the Senate floor. They said that they 
hate the bill that they have not seen yet. Then they said: Oh, it is 
secret. So I guess it should be one or the other. Either they hate it 
because they know what is in it or it is secret. It cannot be both.
  The fact is that we are working hard to meet our own internal 
deadline because we want to make sure that the people who will be hurt 
in 2018, when the insurance companies raise their premiums by digits--
and they are in the process of getting those approved. It will occur in 
the July-August timeframe when insurance companies will have to 
calculate what the premium is that they will have to charge. Then they 
will have to go to the State regulators and get approval for that 
premium increase. What we are being told is that the 105-percent 
increase in premiums on the exchanges since 2013--that is right, a 105-
percent increase--is going to go up 20 percent or more next year unless 
we come to the rescue of those who are being harmed by ObamaCare.
  We would say to our Democratic colleagues: Please do not wear 
yourselves out by doing something that is going to accomplish nothing. 
Channel all of that energy and that passion into trying to do something 
that will actually help the people who are being hurt today by the 
failures of ObamaCare.
  They went even further. They said, well, they may decide just to 
obstruct the Senate's business on other matters that are not healthcare 
related until they can see the bill, which they will get to see soon.
  As soon as we see the final product, we will get it scored by the 
Congressional Budget Office. Then we will have, literally, a vote-
arama, where there will be an opportunity to debate in a fulsome and 
comprehensive sort of way and an opportunity to offer dozens--if not 
hundreds--of amendments to the bill, and we will vote. We will vote, as 
that is what we do.
  There is nothing happening in secret here. In the fullness of time, 
we will all see the product we have been working on. As a result of 
their refusal to work with us, we have been working on it the best we 
can to try to accomplish something better than the failed status quo of 
ObamaCare.
  We are told that they may obstruct the Senate's other business, 
including committee work. That is unrelated to the healthcare debate 
but, I guess, is just their lashing out in trying to find some way that 
they can make life a little more difficult here in the Senate with 
regard to our accomplishing other important work as well.
  I happen to serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee. One of the 
things that we are doing is a comprehensive investigation of Russia's 
active measures undertaken during the last election. We have a 
committee meeting this afternoon.
  Are Democrats really going to obstruct the Senate Intelligence 
Committee's work in conducting and completing its investigation into 
Russian activities in the 2016 election? Are they really going to do 
that? It strikes me as nuts.
  On Thursday, for example, we also have a Judiciary Committee meeting 
that is scheduled to consider a critically important bill that I 
introduced with my colleague from Minnesota, Senator Klobuchar, to help 
fight human trafficking.
  Are Democrats going to obstruct our ability to conduct our business 
and block our consideration of bills involving human trafficking and 
providing relief for the victims?
  This bill reauthorizes key programs that support survivors, and it 
provides

[[Page S3617]]

additional resources to Federal, State, and local law enforcement 
officials who are on the frontlines of fighting this heinous crime.
  Will the Democratic leader from New York jeopardize the committee's 
ability to actually consider and pass this law? Does he plan to block a 
Member of his own political party from advancing her bill to fight 
human trafficking as well?
  This strikes me as wrong for a number of reasons, and I think it 
would actually be appalling if our Democratic colleagues, out of their 
frustration--frankly, borne out of their failure to do their job and 
work with us to find a solution to the meltdown of ObamaCare--lashed 
out in a way that affected victims of human trafficking and affected 
the Senate's ability to conduct its investigation into the Russian 
activities involved in our election.
  Now is not the time to grandstand and make damaging, symbolic 
gestures like this because, while our Democratic colleagues talked a 
lot last night, we did not hear anything from them about the current 
realities of ObamaCare and how it has failed the American people. They 
seem to be whistling by the graveyard. We did not hear anything about 
rising costs or the lack of choices.
  I talked to one of my Democratic colleagues this morning. He told me 
that his own son was looking at $7,500 premiums a year and at a $5,000 
deductible. This friend, a Democrat--and I will not reveal his name 
because I do not think it would be appropriate to do so--told me that 
his own son had to spend $12,500 out of pocket before his insurance 
actually kicked in. That is a disaster, not just for his son but for 
millions of people who are negatively affected by ObamaCare. Yet our 
friends across the aisle want to flail about and threaten to block 
trafficking legislation or an investigation into the Russian 
involvement in the election.
  The only thing they have not done is offer a constructive 
alternative. That is the only thing they have not done. They have tried 
about everything else. You know why, of course. It is that we know what 
the alternative is.
  Basically, they did ObamaCare all by themselves. I remember. I was 
here on the Senate floor, in 2010, on Christmas Eve. I think it was at 
about 7:30 in the morning when we had the vote out of the Senate that 
passed ObamaCare. It was a pure party-line vote. So the Democrats have 
had it all to themselves--the ability to design a healthcare system 
that they thought America should have. It has failed time and again.
  Do you know what their current proposal is right now? It is a single-
payer option that puts our country even more in debt and that we know 
does not work.
  The reason we know it does not work is that it will, no doubt, 
emulate things like the British National Health Service, which has 
resulted in two-tiered healthcare--healthcare for people who cannot 
otherwise afford to pay out of their pockets to get better healthcare, 
with all of the problems of government-run healthcare added to it, but 
far-left elements of the Democratic Party want a plan that goes even 
further than ObamaCare. That, I believe, could ultimately be their 
goal--one that would increase government spending on healthcare by 
$518.9 billion just this year, ballooning to $6.6 trillion between 2017 
and 2026, according to the Urban Institute.
  Take a look at the State of California, where a similar proposal--a 
single-payer system--was pushed at the State level there to enact a 
single-payer system that would add $400 billion each year to the 
California State budget. I think that is roughly double the amount of 
the whole budget for the State of California--$400 billion each year.
  It strikes me that at least one conclusion you might draw from this 
is that our Democratic friends' solution, rather than trying to work 
with us in a bipartisan way to save people who are being hurt from the 
failures of ObamaCare, is to say: Let's throw more money at it. That is 
not going to work. What it will do is add to our national debt without 
solving the healthcare problem, and it will further burden future 
generations who will have to pay that money back at some point.
  We already have about $20 trillion in national debt. These young 
people up here who are serving as pages are going to have to deal with 
that, I guess, unless we have the courage to do it ourselves. It 
strikes me as profoundly immoral for us to spend the money today and 
say: Well, our kids and grandkids are going to have to pay it back 
later. That is immoral.
  If we thought ObamaCare crushed any semblance of competition in the 
healthcare marketplace, the single-payer plan from our friend Senator 
Bernie Sanders, from Vermont, who is the chief spokesman for the 
Democrats in the Senate on what an alternative might look like, removes 
competition completely because it is a government takeover. It takes 
away even more authority from State and local governments, and it takes 
away choices from individuals. Forget ``if you like your doctor, you 
can keep your doctor. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.'' 
Forget all of that because it is the opposite of what American families 
have repeatedly asked for.
  This is what the extreme factions in the Democratic Party want. They 
want to expand government. They want an even larger takeover of 
healthcare, and they want to simply throw more money at it--as if we 
are not spending enough money already. Throwing more money at the 
problem certainly will not fix it. I suggest that it will only make 
things worse.
  We need to be realistic about what it will take to rework our 
healthcare system and put patients first. I am under no illusion as to 
what Republicans are going to be able to come up with on our own, given 
the constraints of the fact that the Democrats will not work with us at 
all and appear not to be in the business of lifting a finger to help 
the millions of people who are being hurt. I am not under any illusion 
that what we are going to be able to come up with--and it is an interim 
step--is going to be perfect, as no legislation ever is, but I think we 
are obligated to do our best. The fact that our Democratic friends will 
not help at all makes it a lot harder, but I do not think we can say: 
It is too hard. We cannot do it. We give up.
  We are committed on this side of the aisle and invite our colleagues 
on that side of the aisle to work with us to fix the problems that are 
caused by ObamaCare and to implement real healthcare reforms that will 
work.
  First of all, we need to stabilize the market--I mentioned this 
earlier--and rescue millions of folks who are losing all of their 
access to coverage because insurance companies are simply quitting 
because they are bleeding money. They cannot charge a high enough 
premium that somebody will actually pay, so they leave the market. In 
Texas, alone, there are dozens of counties that have only one insurance 
marketplace option. If we do nothing, I fear there will be no choices. 
When there is only one choice, the economic backlash is pretty simple. 
There is no competition to drive down costs and improve the quality of 
coverage.
  I think this is, really, in some ways, a test of our convictions. If 
you really do believe that competition in the marketplace improves 
quality and cost for the consumer, as I do, then going to a single-
payer system or even trying to repair ObamaCare is the opposite of what 
we should do. We need to return the market to a competitive one so that 
families can have the ability to make choices about their healthcare, 
what suits their needs, not what government is going to force you to 
buy, and if you do not buy the government-approved plan, it is going to 
punish you by fining you. That is what the status quo is like under 
ObamaCare.
  ObamaCare is so bad that, currently, we have almost 30 million people 
who are still uninsured. About 6.5 million of them simply pay the 
penalty--I think it is $695 a year now--instead of buying the 
government-approved healthcare plan. They figure that paying the 
penalty is better than buying the insurance for them. Then there are 
others--millions more--who simply opt out because of hardship. If the 
goal of ObamaCare were universal coverage, it has failed that goal as 
well. So we need to stabilize the market.
  Secondly, we need to address ObamaCare's skyrocketing premium 
increases. We all know that if ObamaCare stays in place, premiums will 
stand only to rise for consumers. That is something I think our friends 
across the aisle are missing as well. 

[[Page S3618]]

Doing nothing is not an option because people are going to be even more 
priced out of the marketplace, assuming they can find an insurance 
company to sell them healthcare.

  In Texas, a Houston-area insurer has asked for a 16-percent annual 
rate hike for its 2018 ObamaCare coverage--a 16-percent increase over 
this year they want for next year. That is what doing nothing will do. 
It warns it might even need a greater increase just to cover its costs.
  Private businesses can't actually operate in the red like the Federal 
Government does. Private businesses can't just print more money or run 
up $20 trillion in debt. So when they can't make money, they simply 
have to raise premiums or they have to quit the market.
  The third thing we need to do is this. Remember, the first thing I 
said is stabilize the market. The second is attack premiums to bring 
them down, and the third thing we need to do is make sure we continue 
to protect American citizens from preexisting conditions. This is 
something I think everybody believes that needs to happen, without 
regard to political or ideological affiliation. No one should be denied 
basic healthcare because they have a preexisting condition, and we want 
to preserve those protections. That is the third goal.
  The fourth goal is to make Medicaid, which is the medical safety net 
for millions of people, sustainable into the future. Right now we know 
it is not sustainable, like our other entitlement programs. The way we 
want to do that is by giving States more flexibility. We want to make 
sure that those who rely on the program don't have the rug pulled out 
from under them, and we want to make sure that it continues to grow 
year after year, but at a sustainable rate.
  Right now, there is no cap, no rate of increase provided. So it is an 
unlimited entitlement. One of the suggestions from the House bill is to 
grow it each year at the rate of the consumer price index for medical 
costs; that is, medical inflation plus 1 percent. In other words, more 
money would be spent next year than this year. Even more money than 
next year will be spent the following year and so on, but it will be 
done at a sustainable rate.
  Finally, we want to free the American people from the onerous 
ObamaCare mandates that require them to purchase insurance they don't 
want and can't afford. It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody that if 
you take the penalty away and don't force the American people to buy 
insurance they don't want, many of them--the younger, healthy ones, in 
particular--will decide not to buy it. That is called freedom of 
choice. That is not what ObamaCare did. ObamaCare forced people to buy 
something they didn't want and penalized them if they didn't. So many 
people will choose not to purchase it and decide to handle their 
healthcare in other ways--perhaps, at the emergency room, where under 
Federal law everybody who comes in as a medical emergency is entitled 
to be treated. It is not what I would tell my daughters. It is not what 
I would recommend for anybody, but if somebody wants to make that 
choice, it is certainly their right.
  So I would just conclude by observing that it is shameful that 
Members on the other side of the aisle sit on their hands and do 
nothing to fix a law that continues to hurt American families. We know 
that regardless of who won the last election--whether it was Hillary 
Clinton or whether it was Donald Trump--we would have to take steps to 
address this failed law. So I would implore our Democratic friends to 
listen to their own stories, which some have recounted to me in 
confidence. So I won't repeat their names here, but they know this is a 
problem. They have heard from their constituents just like we have. So 
we would implore them to work with us to try to help us help our 
constituents. That is what I thought we were here for.
  Americans are ready for healthcare reform that actually works, and it 
is our responsibility to do our very best to provide that to them, and 
that is what we intend to do.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.