[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16964-16965]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         OBAMACARE CANCELATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Holding) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOLDING. Madam Speaker, President Obama promised the American 
people that if you liked your health care plan, you could keep your 
health care plan. Period. No exceptions.
  Now, as the ObamaCare exchanges have opened and enrollment has begun, 
there are hundreds of thousands of people in North Carolina who are 
finding

[[Page 16965]]

that the President's promise doesn't hold true. According to the North 
Carolina Department of Insurance, over 183,000 policies have already 
been terminated, impacting over 473,000 people and their families 
across the State.
  When ObamaCare supporters talk about the new health care law, they 
focus on the number of people who previously did not have health care 
and will now be covered. What you don't hear them talk about is the 
people who already had health care and are losing it now. They don't 
talk about the canceled policies and the alternative plans offered that 
are vastly more expensive and far from comparable. This is extremely 
misleading, Madam Speaker, and this administration has demonstrated a 
lack of transparency when it comes to the real impacts of ObamaCare.
  Madam Speaker, I have heard from hundreds of constituents whose 
health care plans are going up in cost or being canceled altogether. A 
man in his sixties from Zebulon, North Carolina, wrote to my office 
that his wife's current plan, which costs $292 a month, will be 
discontinued because it does not comply with ObamaCare standards. She 
will be moved to a comparable plan that doubles her monthly payment. On 
top of the increased cost, the new plan is not tailored to their needs. 
The couple is in their sixties, retired, and their children are adults; 
yet their new plan includes newborn care, plus dental and vision for 
dependent children.
  A constituent from Cary, North Carolina, wrote in with similar 
concerns. He and his wife currently pay about $715 a month for their 
health care plan and were informed that it was being canceled. Their 
new plan will cost them double annually and will no longer include 
vision care, but they are now both covered for maternity care. He wrote 
that his present policy is better and more suited for two people in 
their sixties, and ``it just doesn't seem quite fair that two people 
who have always been responsible and done without things in order to 
afford health care insurance and save enough to retire should now be 
faced with this.'' Madam Speaker, I agree.
  Men and women of all ages across my home State and the country are 
feeling the negative impacts of ObamaCare. I received a letter from a 
mother in Wake Forest, North Carolina, who got a notice that her 
monthly premium for a family of four is going from $624 a month to 
$1,207 a month. This is as much as their mortgage payment. Now her 
family is forced to pay the steep increase or choose a plan that 
includes a smaller premium, but with fewer benefits and much higher 
deductibles. So much for keeping the health care plan she liked.
  Another constituent from Cary wrote that a difference in cost between 
his current BlueCross BlueShield plan and the lowest option under 
ObamaCare is about $700 a month, tripling his current rate. How is this 
comparable to the plan he already has and now cannot keep?
  Madam Speaker, these are real people who have real problems with 
ObamaCare. President Obama needs to listen to North Carolinians and 
American families across the country. Stories like this indicate that 
what President Obama said simply wasn't true. People are being forced 
into plans that include coverage they don't need or want, and they are 
not being able to keep the doctors and plans they had for years. 
ObamaCare gives little choice and puts many in an impossible financial 
situation.
  Madam Speaker, this is simply not right. The American people want to 
be able to keep their doctors and health care plans that they were 
promised, and they were promised this by the President. That promise 
should be upheld.

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