[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.

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