[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 120 (Monday, July 17, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S4010]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, ObamaCare has been hurting the people 
we represent for many years now. That is why the Senate has been 
working hard to move beyond its failures. Costs were supposed to go 
down under ObamaCare, but they skyrocketed. Premiums have already 
increased by an average of more than 100 percent on the Federal 
exchange. Next year, they could rise by as much as 50 percent or more 
in States as diverse as Georgia, New Mexico, and Maryland.
  Look, we need to tackle this problem. The revised discussion draft we 
released last week contains many different reforms designed to make 
insurance more affordable and more flexible so it is something 
Americans actually want to buy. It gives Americans more choices for 
managing their care. It also takes aim at ObamaCare's taxes that target 
the middle class and drive up premiums--taxes on everything from health 
insurance to over-the-counter medication.
  Choice was supposed to go up under ObamaCare, but of course it 
plummeted. Americans living in 70 percent of counties have little to no 
options for ObamaCare insurance today. Next year, nearly 40 percent 
fewer insurers have filed to offer plans. Many Americans face the real 
possibility of having no options at all and could find themselves 
trapped, forced by law to purchase ObamaCare insurance but left by 
ObamaCare without any means to do so.
  We need to tackle this problem. The revised discussion draft is 
designed to stabilize the collapsing insurance markets and encourage 
more insurers to participate. It will transfer many healthcare 
decisions away from Washington bureaucrats and politicians and put them 
back with Americans and their doctors. It will also give Americans the 
freedom to decide their own healthcare, allowing them to purchase the 
insurance they actually want, rather than just forcing Americans to buy 
what ObamaCare is selling.
  There are other healthcare problems that need to be tackled as well. 
We need to strengthen Medicaid, for instance, so it can deliver better 
care at a better cost today and remain available to future generations 
tomorrow.
  Our legislation contains important reforms to move our country 
forward in all of these areas. These are the kinds of reforms Americans 
deserve--not the status quo of ObamaCare, not a multibillion-dollar 
bandaid, not a piling on of even more ObamaCare, but real, patient-
centered reforms that can finally move us beyond the pain of this law. 
The only way we will get there is with continued hard work. That is 
just what we intend to do.

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