[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 116 (Tuesday, July 11, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3889-S3890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXECUTIVE CALENDAR
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the
Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the Nye
nomination, which the clerk will report.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of David
C. Nye, of Idaho, to be United States District Judge for the District
of Idaho.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa.
healthcare legislation
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am going to speak for about 5 minutes.
Before I begin, I will reference an item that I ask unanimous consent
be printed in the Record following my speech.
I rise to share real stories of real hardships from hard-working
families in my home State of Iowa. Seven years ago, Americans were
promised that the Affordable Care Act would make health insurance
cheaper and healthcare more accessible. Well, I will not pretend to
break any news here. The facts speak for themselves: ObamaCare is not
living up to its promises. When passing the law, the other side made
promises they knew could not be kept.
The irony is, the so-called Affordable Care Act is anything but
affordable. I have heard from many Iowans who tell me, in no uncertain
terms, that they cannot afford to buy health insurance because
ObamaCare is unaffordable. In fact, 72,000 Iowans can't even get help
from the exchange because there isn't an insurance company to service
them.
One Iowan wrote to me:
I am forced to pay $230 a month for a healthcare plan that
covers nothing until I reach $11,000 in deductible. So on top
of paying 100 percent of my medical bills anyway, now I also
have to pay for insurance I can't use.
How did we get to this point?
Seven years ago, I spoke right here on the Senate floor and predicted
what would happen to the cost of insurance if ObamaCare passed. So
let's go back to that period of time when I spoke in October of 2009.
This is my own quote from that speech:
And while some of the supporters of these partisan bills
may not want to tell their constituents, we all know that as
national spending on health care insurance increases,
American families will bear the burden in the form of higher
premiums. So let me be very clear, as a result of the current
pending health care proposals, most Americans will pay higher
premiums for health insurance.
That is the end of my quote from a speech in the Senate in October of
2009.
Now, I don't have a magic crystal ball, but it was easy to read the
writing on the wall. I knew that layers of new taxes and burdensome new
mandates in ObamaCare would lead us to where we find ourselves today: a
broken healthcare system that is not better off than it was 7 years
ago, and for millions of Americans--including those 72,000 Iowans--it
is much worse.
So where do we go from here? After 7 years of rising premiums,
soaring deductibles, and climbing copays, Republicans are committed to
fixing the damage caused by the Affordable Care
[[Page S3890]]
Act. Not only is it unaffordable for too many people, it is
unsustainable. ObamaCare is unable to fulfill its promises to the
American people.
Here is what every lawmaker in Congress ought to agree on: Insurance
isn't worth having if patients can't afford to use that insurance. The
facts are clear. A one-size-fits-all, government-run plan from
Washington, DC, is driving insurers out of the exchanges, driving up
premiums, driving away customers, and driving up the tab to the tax-
paying public.
ObamaCare has overregulated, overtaxed, and oversold its promises to
the American people. ObamaCare has not healed what ails the U.S.
healthcare system. It is time to move forward.
Mr. President, I also want to speak about Medicaid for a moment.
Medicaid, as we know it, is not sustainable. The Federal Government
and States spent $553 billion on Medicaid in 2016. That amount is very
close to $593 billion spent on the No. 1 responsibility of the Federal
Government--our Nation's defense.
Every decade since Medicaid started, it has grown faster than the
economy. Medicaid is now unmatched as a driver of the deficit of our
country. We cannot sit by and leave this kind of debt to our children
and our grandchildren.
Dollars are not the only metric by which we measure Medicaid.
Medicaid is a program that should supply healthcare to diverse
populations and should have quality measured, but it does not.
Medicaid dollars should be spent efficiently, but they are not.
Activists in Washington, DC, are fighting to preserve the status quo
and, of course, in the process, scaring the daylights out of the
American people.
Yet Iowans tell me that there are waiting lists for Medicaid waivers
to obtain services for children with disabilities. Others tell me that
medicines that will cure diseases are rationed to be used only with
those with the most advanced disease. In other words, you have to get
really sick for Medicaid to cover medical expenses.
It is a fact that Medicaid is not working the way it should for
everyone. The time to act to preserve and improve Medicaid as the
safety net for the most vulnerable citizens is right now.
I am holding up a letter here because, under a Democratic President,
proposing to do what we are doing, 46 Democrat Senators wrote to
President Clinton and expressed their ``strong support'' for Medicaid
per capita caps. The letter went on to say that it would give States
the flexibility to achieve savings without cuts to essential services.
That is what the current proposal aims to do as well.
We are proposing per capita caps as a way to make sure tax dollars
are spent wisely on the most vulnerable people in our Nation. Medicaid
dollars should be spent on a child with cystic fibrosis who needs a
blockbuster drug. A person with severe mental illness should be able to
rely on Medicaid for care.
Medicaid cannot continue to be a limitless credit card for the States
to spend money without any accountability to the people who need it. I
urge my colleagues to put aside partisan dogma and work to solve this
problem for the American people.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Washington, DC,
December 13, 1995.
President William J. Clinton,
The White House,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. President: We are writing to express our strong
support for the Medicaid per-capita cap structure in your
seven-year budget. We have fought against Medicaid block
grants and cuts in the Senate, and we are glad you
acknowledge the importance of our position.
We support a balanced budget. We are glad you agree with us
that we can balance the budget without undermining the health
of children, pregnant women, the disabled, and the elderly.
The savings level of $54 billion over seven years included
in your budget will require rigorous efficiencies and
economies in the program. However, after consulting with many
Medicaid Directors and service providers across the country,
we believe a reduction of this level is possible to achieve
without dramatic limits on eligibility or cuts to essential
services. States will need flexibility to achieve these
savings, and you have taken steps toward granting it in your
bill.
We were encouraged that your Medicaid proposal does not pit
Medicaid populations against one another in a fight over a
limited pot of federal resources.
We were further encouraged to hear Chief of Staff Panetta
relay your commitment to veto any budget not containing a
fundamental guarantee to Medicaid for eligible Americans.
We commend you on the courage you have exercised in making
these commitments to Americans eligible for Medicaid. There
is a bottom line when it comes to people's health; do not
allow the current Congressional leadership to further reduce
our commitment to Medicaid beneficiaries.
Your current proposal is fair and reasonable, and is
consistent with what we have advocated on the Senate floor.
We urge you in the strongest possible terms to hold fast to
these commitments in further negotiations. We are prepared to
offer any assistance you may need in this regard.
Sincerely,
Bob Graham; John Breaux; Jay Rockefeller; Herb Kohl;
Patrick Leahy; Frank R. Lautenberg; Ted Kennedy; Tom Daschle;
Patty Murray; Barbara Boxer; David Pryor; Barbara A.
Mikulski; Max Baucus; Paul Simon; Kent Conrad; Wendell Ford;
Harry Reid; Paul Wellstone; Richard H. Bryan; Ernest
Hollings; Dianne Feinstein; Tom Harkin; Byron L. Dorgan;
Chris Dodd; J. Bennett Johnston; Joe Lieberman; Paul
Sarbanes; Carol Mosely-Braun; John Glenn; Jeff Bingaman; Carl
Levin; Bill Bradley; John F. Kerry; Bob Kerrey; Joe Biden;
Daniel K. Akaka; Dale Bumpers; Daniel Inouye; Chuck Robb; J.
James Exon; Howell Heflin; Claiborne Pell; Russ Feingold;
Daniel P. Moynihan; Sam Nunn; Robert C. Byrd.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I yield the floor.