[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14354-14355]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               HHS: A TRICKLE OF DATA, A TORRENT OF SPIN

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, once again, the President is trying to 
mislead and hide the truth from the Congress and the American people. 
The Department of Health and Human Services released a report yesterday 
on the pricing of health plans on the Federal exchanges--a perfect 
example of bureaucratic doublespeak.
  The report was quick to say that rates were 16 percent under their 
projections. Well, that sounds great, but what were their projections? 
Does that mean the rates will increase or decrease? They went to a lot 
of trouble to avoid answering that question. Some digging by Forbes 
Magazine, however,

[[Page 14355]]

uncovered the truth. For 40-year-olds, rates will increase by an 
average of 99 percent for men, and 62 percent for women. It seems that 
the truth is a lot different.
  The biggest problem, however, isn't the rate increase. With only 5 
days left until implementation, the administration is unwilling or 
incapable of answering even basic questions. The data they released was 
only partial data samples.
  It's time for the Department of Health and Human Services to stop 
playing games and hiding the truth, and time to give the American 
people the full truth about what the President's takeover of health 
care really means.

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