[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 208 (Wednesday, December 10, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8588-S8589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               HEALTHCARE

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I just heard the minority leader come to 
the floor and talk about our Republican plan for healthcare, and he 
called it ``insulting.''
  What is insulting is that the minority leader and the Democrats want 
to send $83 billion of taxpayer money directly from the Treasury of the 
United States to health insurance corporations that continue to get 
rich off of ObamaCare. That is insulting to the American people.
  That is a program that is riddled--riddled--with fraud. That is what 
they want, these COVID bonus programs put forth by Joe Biden. They want 
to just--3 more years, more direct checks to insurance companies, 
taxpayer money with no accountability.
  So how bad are these programs? Well, let's just take a look at the 
headlines.
  Monday's Wall Street Journal: ``ObamaCare Is a Mecca for Fraud.''
  The Democrats must be in favor of all this fraud because that is what 
they want to do. They want to continue it for 83 billion more dollars.
  What about the Washington Post? This is yesterday's Washington Post: 
``Obamacare subsidies make it too easy to scam the system.''
  That is what the Democrats appear to be wanting to do, continuing to 
put money--$83 billion--into a system that even the Washington Post 
said is easy to scam.
  Is that what the American people want? That is insulting to the 
American people.
  So tomorrow the Democrats are going to come here, and they are going 
to line up, one after another, and vote to send another $83 billion 
directly from the Federal Treasury of the United States to insurance 
companies--$83 billion to a program that is designed to be defrauded.
  So how bad is the fraud?
  Well, the Government Accountability Office tested whether the 
ObamaCare system would catch fraud.
  Good for them.
  So they made up and submitted 24 fake applications for ObamaCare. 
Yes. That is right--fake applications, fake information, make it up, 
make all the information up, and 23 of the 24 of the ObamaCare 
applications were approved. They were accepted and qualified to receive 
the subsidies.
  They were fake. That is why even the Washington Post says that fraud 
is on the way.
  They all received taxpayer-funded healthcare subsidies paid by the 
Federal Government. It is insulting to taxpayers that that is the best 
the Democrats can do, that that is what the Democrats offer.
  Eighteen of the twenty-four fake enrollees--this is even worse--were 
still receiving taxpayer-funded subsidies as recently as September.
  Now, remember, September--the month of September, end of September--
that is when the Democrats shut down the government of the United 
States. Why? Because of these COVID bonus payments from the Biden 
administration.
  That is insulting.
  Those subsidies were paid directly from the government to the 
insurance companies. The insurance companies, just for those 18 of the 
24, received over $100,000 for these 18 fake applications--right from 
the government, not to the people, not so the people can see, did this 
go to a real person. No. Government. Insurance company. Insurance 
companies get rich. Democrats love it. Nobody gets to see what is going 
on, and premiums have gone up 221 percent since ObamaCare passed.
  And remember Obama saying your premiums would go down by $2,500 if 
you just passed his law?
  I just told you what happened with 18 of 24 for $100,000. Remember, 
there are 20 million people on ObamaCare today receiving government 
subsidies. When you take a look at that level of fraud happening across 
the board, imagine how much taxpayer money is being wasted or stolen.
  The losses to the taxpayers is staggering. And that, I would say to 
the minority leader who came here and talked about the Republican 
proposal being insulting, is insulting.
  And then these fake applications that were approved without any 
income verification--the law says you have got to verify somebody's 
income. Under the law, the amount of money that a person would get, in 
terms of bonuses, is supposed to be based on income. In one case, the 
fake applicant's income, according to ObamaCare officials who worked 
out the system, it was confirmed, they said, because of documentation. 
That is what they said: Based on documentation, it was approved. The 
people that made up the fake applications never provided any 
documentation at all.

  That is insulting to taxpayers.
  In another case, the system never requested proof of citizenship. 
That is how we know, for a fact, that ObamaCare subsidies go to illegal 
immigrants. They don't ask if you are a citizen. It is easy for 
noncitizens to apply.
  Oh, investigators also found out that dead people were getting 
ObamaCare subsidies. The Democrats don't care about any of that.
  That is insulting to taxpayers.
  Mr. President, 58,000 Social Security numbers that were linked to 
death records were used to receive subsidies. More than 7,000 Social 
Security numbers were used in enrollments after the date of that 
person's death, signing them up after they were dead.
  It is OK with the Democrats and the ObamaCare people, but not a 
single Republican voted for it.
  One Social Security number was used repeatedly to enroll people into 
ObamaCare policies, and the fraudsters used it 125 times.
  All together, investigators, through the Government Accountability 
Office, discovered $21 billion lost to ObamaCare fraud. That is 
insulting.
  If Democrats were truly concerned about affordable healthcare, you 
would think that they would want to root out the waste and the fraud. 
Even the Washington Post says ``ObamaCare subsidies make it too easy to 
scam the system.''
  Yet, every Democrat is going to come down here to the floor tomorrow 
and vote to continue the fraud.
  The Democrat bill sends $83 billion directly from the Federal 
Treasury to insurance companies, and it fails to include a single 
reform to stop the waste, the fraud, the abuse, or the corruption 
because Democrats simply don't care.
  Their fat-cat friends at the big insurance companies don't care 
either because they get paid directly from the government either way, 
and the Democrats want to send another $83 billion their way without a 
single reform.
  The more people they enroll--either real people or fake people--the 
more money the insurance companies pocket. Oh, and their fake 
enrollees, they are not filing medical claims so that is just more 
profit for the insurance companies.
  This, of course, is money from hard-working taxpayers. Stock prices 
of health insurance companies are up 500 to 1,000 percent since 
ObamaCare became law.

[[Page S8589]]

  Under Joe Biden, Democrats suspended ObamaCare income verification 
for 4 straight years. As a result, millionaires get subsidies. Today, 
millions pay nothing for their premiums.
  This is what is wrong with the healthcare that we have in this 
country right now under the Democrats, and they want to continue this 
without any change, without any credibility.
  In the minds of taxpayers, you say: You are going to continue to do 
this? How is that credible? It is irresponsible.
  It is insulting.
  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports 39 percent of 
the people who signed up for healthcare coverage on ObamaCare this year 
got health insurance, and they paid absolutely nothing for it--zero. 
Some of them may not even know they got it, but the money went to the 
insurance companies directly from the government. The American people 
are paying the price.
  The fraud has gotten so bad that last year, 200,000 people--
Americans--filed complaints with the Federal Government about their 
health insurance. And they filed complaints because they were 
unknowingly switched from one ObamaCare plan to another or from one 
plan to something different. They didn't even know it was happening, 
and that is the 200,000 that recognized it and complained to the 
government.
  Health insurance companies signed up these individuals for insurance 
plans they never even knew they got. But if an insurance company or 
somebody selling insurance gets a name, an identification number, 
Social Security, they can--these brokers get paid a bonus for signing 
up somebody new to the plan. The person is listed. Money goes to the 
insurance company because the person is cut out of it and doesn't know 
about.
  That is why we had 200,000 complaints to the Federal Government last 
year.
  It is fraud, plain and simple. The Democrats want to continue it for 
the next 3 years.
  Here is the truth about healthcare and insurance companies: If you 
don't stop fraud, the chronic high costs will never be cured. In fact, 
they are going to get worse. That is why Republicans passed this past 
summer strong, anti-fraud protections as part of our Working Families 
Tax Cut bill.
  Our reforms make it harder to cheat the system. Democrats don't like 
that. Every one of them voted against our bill this past summer to put 
in protections for taxpayers. Every Democrat voted no.
  What Republicans did was restored income verification. Democrats: 
Nope. We don't want to verify income. Send these subsidies to 
millionaires. You hear the Senator from New Hampshire--I am sorry--the 
Senator from Vermont down here talking about tax cuts for millionaires 
and billionaires. They want to send subsidies for healthcare for 
millionaires and billionaires. He could make that much money this year. 
Keep sending them the subsidies.
  Now, people are going to need to verify their income when they 
reenroll, and we are going to require a full repayment when individuals 
have underreported their income in an effort to get higher subsidies 
because it is fraud.
  Every single Democrat voted against the fraud provisions. They voted 
against these protections that we had against the fraud. And now 
Democrats, with what they want to do for the next 3 years, want to make 
the fraud dramatically worse.
  This needs to end. The American people deserve the care they need 
from a doctor that they choose at a price they can afford. ObamaCare 
absolutely failed to deliver that.
  Republicans are committed to protecting taxpayers, committed to 
rooting out the waste, the fraud, the abuse, and the corruption that 
has become epidemic in ObamaCare.
  So when the minority leader comes to the floor and makes his 
statements and talks about the Republican proposal being insulting, I 
would tell you what the Democrats have foisted on the American people 
has been insulting; and the waste, fraud, and abuse that continues is a 
continued insult to American taxpayers.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority whip.

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