[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 16444]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, each of us was sent here to serve and 
protect our constituents. That is why Republicans voted unanimously 
against ObamaCare in 2009, because we believed it was our job to stand 
for middle-class families we were sent here to represent, because we--
and not just us, but countless health care professionals, policy 
experts, and citizens across the country--saw this train wreck coming 
literally years ago, knew the pain it would cause, and warned against 
it.
  I wish the President and Washington Democrats had listened back then. 
I really do. I wish we had been wrong about ObamaCare too, because the 
failings of this law are about so much more than a Web site. They are 
about real people.
  Yes, the healthcare.gov fiasco can seem almost comical at times--like 
a surreal parody of government bungling. But as the President says, 
this is about so much more than a Web site. He is right about that. The 
pain this law is causing is not digital--it is real.
  Workers first began to feel the pain when employers started cutting 
hours, and then benefits, and some jobs altogether. Spouses felt it 
when they lost their health coverage they had had through their 
husband's or wife's job. College graduates felt it when they could only 
find part-time work, if they could find anything at all in the Obama 
economy. And this was before basically anyone had even heard of this 
ObamaCare Web site.
  Now that the health care law is actually coming online, many 
Americans are finding they will be seeing premium increases or that 
they will be getting hit with higher copays and deductibles or that 
they can no longer see the doctors who use the hospitals of their 
choice. In fact, I have been hearing from constituents in western 
Kentucky that a number of the hospitals and health care providers they 
have relied upon will no longer be available in their network--and, in 
many cases, they will be responsible for 100 percent of the costs 
associated with services performed at those facilities they used to 
use.
  Let me repeat. One hundred percent of the costs. How is that an 
improvement? How is that reform?
  Many in the middle class are also learning that the health plans they 
were promised they could keep are being taken away from them anyway. 
They feel absolutely betrayed. They feel hurt. And they feel 
vulnerable. When these folks are offered ``comparable'' plans at all, 
they are often completely unaffordable. And if they poke around on the 
exchanges--assuming they could even log on--many are finding that 
ObamaCare coverage is going to cost them way too much, not offer them 
what they want, or both.
  Here is a note I recently received from a constituent in Caldwell 
County:

       According to . . . our health insurance provider, we can 
     elect to stay on our current plan for this year with less 
     coverage or switch to the `Affordable' Care Plan that 
     provides a little more coverage but at a cost increase that 
     is almost double. We currently pay $653 per month and it 
     would increase to over $1100 . . . after talking to the 
     insurance company today, it seems . . . I was lied to by the 
     President and Congress when we were told that the 
     `Affordable' Care Act would not require us to switch from our 
     current insurance provider. My husband and I work hard, pay a 
     lot in taxes and ask for little from our government. Is it 
     asking too much for government to stay out of my health 
     insurance?

  Her family is not alone. A CNN report this morning estimates that 
roughly one-half of the 600,000 people in Kentucky's private insurance 
market will have their current insurance plans discontinued by the end 
of the year.
  This is not right and it is certainly not fair. It is even more 
unfair when you consider that the administration chose to exempt 
businesses from this law for a year but did not think the middle class 
deserved the same treatment.
  Republicans do. We think the middle class actually deserves a 
permanent exemption from this law. But as long as partisans in 
Washington continue to jealously defend ObamaCare, we will do at least 
whatever we can to fight for greater fairness for the middle class.
  I hope more Democrats will join us to make that happen because a Web 
site can be fixed but the pain this law is causing--higher premiums, 
canceled coverage--that is what is really important, and that is what 
Democrats need to work with us to address by starting over, completely 
over, with true bipartisan health care reform.
  I yield the floor.

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