[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 195 (Tuesday, November 17, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7033-S7034]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Healthcare
Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk
about the work of my good friend and colleague, the junior Senator from
Georgia, Senator Kelly Loeffler. Republicans, including the Senator
from Georgia, continue to put forward solutions to address one of our
country's most pressing problems, and that, of course, is healthcare.
As a doctor, I recognize that healthcare remains a top priority for
families all across this great country.
Senator Loeffler also knows how important healthcare is to families,
not just across her State of Georgia but to families all around
America. She has a proposal. It is called Modernizing Americans' Health
Care. It is a plan, and this plan is another example of the important
contribution that she is making here in the Senate to the well-being of
the entire Nation.
Her plan emphasizes that Americans with preexisting conditions must
be protected. My colleague is absolutely right: Everyone knows someone
with a preexisting condition. My own wife Bobbi is a breast cancer
survivor. She has had three operations. She has had chemotherapy twice,
and she has now survived that cancer by over 15 years. That is a
preexisting condition.
Let there be no doubt: Republicans will always make sure that
patients are able to get insurance regardless of their medical
condition.
Senator Loeffler's plan also recognizes the need for more insurance
choices. Americans need the coverage that works for them and their
families. It should be available, affordable, and appropriate for
them--what they need, not what the government says they have to have.
Families need more options.
Association health plans let small businesses and community
organizations come together with the buying power of large
corporations. This helps lower the cost of care. Main Street, I
believe, deserves the same opportunity to buy insurance as Wall Street,
and that is what Senator Loeffler is proposing.
Her plan also lets consumers save more of their own money to pay for
healthcare. Right now, as a result of the Obama healthcare law,
Americans can only use a health savings account when it is tied to a
high deductible healthcare plan. My colleague from Georgia wants to
expand these accounts for anyone with health insurance coverage
regardless of their type of insurance plan.
Everyone knows over the last year--since the Obama healthcare law was
passed--that deductibles have continued to keep climbing. We need to
give families relief by letting them save more of their own money tax-
free through a health savings account. That way, families could use
their money to pay for deductibles and other kinds of healthcare
expenses that right now they are not allowed to do.
As a doctor, one thing in particular that I strongly support, of
course, is direct primary care. We have it running successfully in my
home State of Wyoming. That is when someone pays your healthcare
provider a flat monthly fee instead of a fee every time you visit the
doctor or the nurse or the nurse practitioner.
Consumers like this arrangement. They like it because it takes the
uncertainty out of a doctor's visit. They always know what they are
going to pay month to month to month. Providers like it because they
get to focus on patients over all of the paperwork that is so often
required by insurance companies.
I talk to doctors who are tired of practicing medicine and want to
retire: What is it you don't like? They love taking care of patients,
but they hate the paperwork that comes with it, so often related to the
law, the mandates, and the things that happen with trying to comply
with the insurance paperwork.
A lot more can be done, and we know this as a result of coronavirus
in terms of providing healthcare using telemedicine. Especially, Madam
President, in your home State and mine, where there are great distances
and lots of rural communities, it is a great opportunity for people to
receive healthcare from a distance, using the newest technology of the
day.
I think we have seen much more about telemedicine due to the COVID-19
pandemic. Patients have tried it. They like it. The providers I have
talked to around the State of Wyoming like it a lot.
There have been issues in the past, though--the issues of how to
reimburse and how many visits and the distance. And did they need to
come into the office? Would it be covered by insurance? Would it be
covered by Medicare? Would it be covered by Medicaid? All of these are
issues--hassles--for the patient and the provider, but, to me,
telemedicine is now here to stay.
These direct primary care practices truly have been on the leading
edge of telemedicine because they didn't have to worry about insurance
company reimbursements based on the number of face-to-face visits. They
could just visit and talk to the patient using telemedicine.
Speaking of COVID-19, this plan also ensures that we continue
fighting back against this virus. There is tremendous news today about
the vaccines--two vaccines, one that is 90 percent effective and one
that is 94 percent effective.
As a doctor, I will tell you, these are breakthroughs. These are
modern-day miracles of medicine. If you think about it, not that long
ago Dr. Fauci said that if we could get a vaccine that was 50 percent
effective, that would be tremendous. But we are talking much, much
higher rates of effectiveness than that.
My colleague in her proposal also calls for focus on something we can
all support, and that is making drugs and personal protective equipment
here in the United States--producing here at home in America. We need
to bring the manufacturing of these critical supplies back to our own
communities, certainly back to our country. Never again--never again--
should our patients and healthcare workers be held hostage by China or
any other nation.
Senator Loeffler knows that Americans should not be the sole payers
for the innovation that supports the rest
[[Page S7034]]
of the world. My colleague's plan reinforces the fact that our trade
policies must reflect when countries freeload off of American
innovation.
Finally, she wants to make sure that pharmacy discounts benefit the
patients, not large pharmacies' so-called benefit managers. This is a
commonsense legislative proposal that will mean lower drug prices for
patients who have to take expensive medications. When discounts go
directly to patients, Americans will see much lower costs when they pay
at the pharmacy counter.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of what is in Senator
Loeffler's proposal. But I am sure that in the days ahead, the Senate
will have a chance to hear more about her important work on healthcare.
I look forward to continuing to work with her and all of my colleagues
as Republicans get these important policies enacted into law
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. BARRASSO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BARRASSO. I yield back the rest of our time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. All postcloture time has expired.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the
nomination of Toby Crouse, of Kansas, to be United States District
Judge for the District of Kansas, shall be brought to a close?
Mr. JOHNSON. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator
from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr.
Graham), the Senator from Iowa (Mr. Grassley), and the Senator from
Florida (Mr. Scott).
Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Tennessee (Mr.
Alexander) would have voted ``yea,'' and the Senator from Iowa (Mr.
Grassley) would have voted ``yea.''
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Carper),
the Senator from California (Mrs. Feinstein), and the Senator from
California (Ms. Harris) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 50, nays 43, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 235 Ex.]
YEAS--50
Barrasso
Blackburn
Blunt
Boozman
Braun
Burr
Capito
Cassidy
Collins
Cornyn
Cotton
Cramer
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Enzi
Ernst
Fischer
Gardner
Hawley
Hoeven
Hyde-Smith
Inhofe
Johnson
Kennedy
Lankford
Lee
Loeffler
Manchin
McConnell
McSally
Moran
Murkowski
Paul
Perdue
Portman
Risch
Roberts
Romney
Rounds
Rubio
Sasse
Scott (SC)
Shelby
Sullivan
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Wicker
Young
NAYS--43
Baldwin
Bennet
Blumenthal
Booker
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Casey
Coons
Cortez Masto
Duckworth
Durbin
Gillibrand
Hassan
Heinrich
Hirono
Jones
Kaine
King
Klobuchar
Leahy
Markey
Menendez
Merkley
Murphy
Murray
Peters
Reed
Rosen
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Shaheen
Sinema
Smith
Stabenow
Tester
Udall
Van Hollen
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--7
Alexander
Carper
Feinstein
Graham
Grassley
Harris
Scott (FL)
The nomination was confirmed
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
Mr. LEE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President
be immediately notified of the Senate's action in relation to the
Crouse nomination.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________