[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2867-S2868]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Healthcare

  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, starting in January of 2017, extending to 
today, the President, often with the help of this Republican Congress, 
has engaged in a very deliberate, very purposeful campaign of sabotage 
to the American healthcare system. We are now starting to see the very 
serious consequences of this campaign of sabotage. It started on 
Inauguration Day when President Trump signed an Executive order that 
ordered all of his agencies to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. It 
found its way to the Senate floor when Republicans spent most of 2017 
trying to pass legislation that would take insurance away from 23 
million people, according to the CBO.
  The President undertook a number of steps to try to weaken the 
exchanges where millions of people get their healthcare. He cut the 
open enrollment period in half. He stopped funding advertising. He 
pulled funding for the navigators, who are the people who go out and 
try to help people sort through their healthcare options. There is no 
reason to do that, to try to stop people from being able to sign up for 
healthcare, unless your intention is sabotage. There is no public 
policy reason to give people less time to sign up or to give them less 
information about their options.
  Most recently, the Republicans finally succeeded in repealing the 
individual mandate which the Congressional Budget Office said will, by 
itself, increase premiums by 10 percent and wipe out insurance for 13 
million people. The administration is now trying to expand the sale of 
what we call junk plans, which are insurance plans that don't have to 
cover a minimum set of benefits, that don't have to protect people with 
preexisting conditions or existing sicknesses from higher premium 
rates.
  I think I came down to the floor 2 weeks ago to talk about the first 
two rate filings of the rate filing season. These were in Maryland and 
Virginia. The rate filings were, quite frankly, catastrophic. While 
these were the worst of the bunch, all of the rate filings were much 
higher than the rate of medical inflation.
  The worst requested increase was when one insurance plan in Maryland 
asked for a 91-percent increase in premiums. One insurance plan in 
Virginia asked for a 64-percent increase in premiums. In Maryland, the 
head of the insurance plan who asked for the 91-percent increase said 
the reasons for it were the continuing actions on the administration's 
part to systematically undermine the market and to make it almost 
impossible to carry out its mission. No one can afford a 91-percent 
increase in premiums, and no one can afford a 64-percent increase in 
premiums. Frankly, very few people can afford a 15- or a 20-percent 
increase in premiums.
  This week, we received the rate filings from the State of Oregon. In 
Oregon, the Providence Health Plan, with about 90,000 customers, which 
is one of the bigger plans in the State, is asking for a 14-percent 
premium increase. Now, that is not 91 or 64, but there are

[[Page S2868]]

a lot of families who simply aren't going to be able to afford a 
double-digit premium increase in Oregon. It is important to note that 
Oregon put into place a new State-based reinsurance program, and if not 
for that reinsurance program, this would have been a 20-percent 
increase.
  I am just going to keep track of all of these increases so we have a 
sense of what is happening to consumers as a result of this campaign of 
sabotage. We will add this rate increase in Oregon of 14 percent, and I 
will make sure I get it right.
  The CBO has told us, the repeal of the individual mandate is going to 
jump premiums by 10 percent. So, in Oregon, you can be relatively sure 
that had the Republicans not repealed this big part of the Affordable 
Care Act, you would have been looking at a single-digit increase, 
something that would have mirrored medical inflation. Yet, because of 
the actions that had been taken here and because of many of the actions 
that have been undertaken by this Congress, we are looking at a double-
digit increase.
  Keith Forrester, who is the head of one of Oregon's biggest insurance 
companies, said our rate increase reflects the expected costs of 
providing coverage to our members, including the impact of eliminating 
the individual mandate.
  Senate Democrats are going to be down on the floor pretty 
relentlessly over the course of the next few months to make people 
understand that as you are getting your health insurance bills, as you 
are seeing these big increases, a big reason will be due to the actions 
that your elected leaders have taken--this Republican Congress and this 
administration.
  Yet the rate increases might be getting even bigger than they already 
are today. That is because of this expected proliferation of these new 
junk plans. Again, these are called short-term plans by the 
administration because they used to be, truly, short-term options. They 
were 3 months in duration. You would pick up one of these plans in 
between coverage, and because they were short-term plans, they were not 
required to cover mental health and maternity, and they could charge 
you more if you were sick.
  This administration has decided these plans can now be sold for a 
full year, meaning they will essentially stand side by side with 
regulated plans that have minimum benefits and protect people with 
preexisting conditions. The administration said, only a couple hundred 
thousand people nationwide might sign up for these plans.
  The CMS's Chief Actuary says--this is President Trump's CMS, the 
administration's own Chief Actuary--that is wrong; that, in fact, it 
will be a million and a half people potentially signing up for these 
junk plans. It could get as big as 1.9 million by 2022.
  Who will sign up for these junk plans? It will be healthy people 
because healthy people aren't going to need all of the coverage. It 
will be people who don't have preexisting conditions, who don't have 
addictions or diagnosed mental illnesses. It will leave behind in the 
exchange plans the people who need the coverage. Those people will not 
go on the junk plans because they will need insurance plans that cover 
their illnesses or their diagnoses. What we know is that if you have a 
sicker population in the exchange-based plans, in the regulated 
individual market, those premiums will go up.
  A recent study found, the combination of the individual mandate and 
the proliferation of these new junk plans will result, on average, in 
16-percent increases in premiums all across the country. In 
Connecticut, that could mean the premiums will go up by $1,155.
  Now, that is not something the health insurance companies did. That 
is not because of rising medical costs. That is because of decisions 
that were made by this Republican Congress and this Republican 
administration--two decisions. There was one decision to repeal a big 
part of the Affordable Care Act that protected sick people, that kept 
their rates lower. Another decision by the administration was to give 
relatively healthy people access to stripped-down plans.
  Admittedly, those two changes may offer some benefit to people today 
who are healthy. I am not going to deny that those two changes may 
provide a lower insurance rate for a subset of people who are healthy, 
but we are not supposed to just represent the healthy people. Today you 
are healthy, and tomorrow you are not. We are supposed to represent all 
Americans. In fact, we probably should be going the extra mile to make 
sure people who, through no fault of their own, have serious diagnoses 
aren't paying an arm and a leg more for coverage, but we are not doing 
that because of the steps this Republican Congress and this Republican 
President have taken.
  On average, insurance rates are going to go up for everybody in 
Connecticut by $1,100, according to one study, and they are going to 
potentially skyrocket for people who can't get onto these stripped-down 
junk plans.
  I think it is really important we talk about this. As I walked across 
the State of Connecticut last summer--something I have come to do in 
the last few years; I take about 5 or 6 days and walk from one side of 
the State to the other, which is something the Presiding Officer and 
others probably can't do in States that are a little bit longer across 
than 110 miles--healthcare was the dominant theme. In their having 
heard the news that I would be in a certain town during the day, people 
waited for me who were miles ahead on the road. They waited ahead of me 
for hours and hours to talk to me about their illnesses and about their 
fears that this Congress and this President were going to take away 
their coverage.
  We were successful in defeating the full repeal of the Affordable 
Care Act, and that is great news, because the Affordable Care Act is 
more popular than ever before, but this Congress and this President are 
trying to ruin some of the most important protections in our healthcare 
system because they are mad that they lost the repeal vote by one vote.
  So it is important for us to tell Americans what the consequences of 
that sabotage campaign are. It certainly means that people are going to 
get less protection, but it also means that, over the course of the 
next few months, as rates are filed across the country, you are going 
to see some devastatingly high premium increases due to the Republican 
campaign of healthcare sabotage--this week, 14 percent in Oregon; last 
week or the week before, 91 percent in Maryland, 64 percent in 
Virginia. This is what happens when you strike blows at the American 
healthcare system, and it is important for Americans to understand what 
that means.
  With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lee). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.