[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9444-9445]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor as the Senate 
begins the debate on the nomination of Sylvia Burwell to be Secretary 
of Health and Human Services. If she is confirmed for that job, she 
would be responsible for implementing thousands of pages of regulations 
related to the President's health care law. I think it is appropriate, 
as we consider this nomination, to take a little bit of time and talk 
about the state of the President's health care law.
  Just this morning I visited with a number of people from Uinta 
County, WY. I will tell you what they know and what we all know, and 
that is there are many dangerous side effects of the law, such as 
people losing access to their doctor and getting smaller paychecks.
  Today I want to talk specifically about the expensive side effect so 
many Americans are facing, and that is how much health insurance 
premiums are rising because of the law. States are starting to release 
the proposed premiums insurance companies expect to charge next year 
under the Obama health care law. The numbers are not good for the 
American people--for people who wanted affordable care, quality care, 
and access to care, the kinds of things the President of the United 
States looked into the camera and promised them.
  Virginia was one of the first States to put out the numbers. What is 
happening in the State of Virginia? Every health plan sold in the State 
exchange expects to raise its rates next year. The State expects some 
people to pay as much as 17 percent more next year.
  In Vermont, it is a similar story. There are two companies offering 
plans in the State exchange. Yesterday we learned that one intends to 
raise rates 10 percent, the other expects to raise its rates 15 percent 
next year.
  Last Friday, Ohio released its proposed rates for people buying 
insurance through the exchange. The average premium in the State's 
individual market is expected to be 13 percent higher next year than it 
was last year. According to State insurance regulators, it is bad news, 
but it is what they expected.
  The State Lieutenant Governor said:

       Continued and unnecessary headwinds out of Washington are 
     making it more difficult for job creators, hard-working 
     Ohioans and their families to purchase health insurance.

  President Obama said the Democrats should forcefully defend and be 
proud of the health care law. Is there a Democrat in this body--even 
one--who is

[[Page 9445]]

willing to come to the floor and forcefully defend premium increases of 
13 percent, 15 percent, or 17 percent in 1 year alone?
  More States are going to be releasing their new premiums all summer. 
More people around the country are going to see these kinds of rate 
increases. This is an alarming side effect of the President's health 
care law. That is on top of the rate increases people have already had 
to pay for insurance for this year.
  It is astonishing when you look at the numbers. It is not just 
families buying health insurance through the exchanges who are getting 
slammed. USA Today ran a headline last week which said:

       More employees are getting hit with higher health insurance 
     premiums and co-payments, and many don't have the money to 
     cover unexpected medical expenses, a new report finds.

  The report found that 56 percent of companies increased their 
employees' share of health premiums for copayments for doctors' visits 
last year after the health care law came into effect, and 59 percent of 
companies intend to do the same thing this year. So people buying 
insurance in the exchange are being hurt, people who get insurance 
through work are being hurt, and small businesses are being hurt as 
well.
  There was an article in the Alaska Dispatch about this last Thursday. 
It said: ``Alaska's small businesses feel the pinch of rising health 
care costs.'' The article tells the story of a restaurant owner with 24 
employees. He wants to offer health insurance coverage, but he is 
paying $5,000 a month more than he paid last year for his share of the 
insurance. He is somebody who wants to provide insurance, but it is now 
$5,000 more a month for his 24 employees. He says the costs are 
crippling and that it is like meeting another payroll every month. This 
small business owner said the health care law is ``killing me.'' He 
says, ``I just don't know how long we can keep absorbing these costs.'' 
These are costs put on this business owner in Alaska by every Member of 
the Senate who voted for this health care law--every one of them.
  I invite any one of them to come down here to forcefully defend this 
law as the President requests that they do and be proud of what they 
have done to this small business owner. Are Democrats in the Senate who 
voted for this health care law proud of what the law is doing to this 
small business owner in Alaska? Are they willing to forcefully defend 
his having to pay an extra $5,000 a month? That is what people are 
dealing with.
  There is a story which just came out today about North Carolina--
another State where a Senator has said: If you like what you have, you 
can keep it. The headline to this story is ``ObamaCare cripples North 
Carolina small business.''
  It says:

       A North Carolina woman currently living her dream--to own a 
     salon--could soon shatter and crumble, leaving her employees 
     to pay astronomical costs for health insurance, all because 
     of ObamaCare.
       Julia Vittorio, owner of Fresh Salon for the past five 
     years, is worried that she will not be able to provide her 
     employees with health insurance.

  She said: ``I think you just want the best for your employees.''
  I think that is what many people around the country want: the best 
for their employees.
  She said: ``We are a small business and it's very much like a family, 
so I care about our staff.''
  That is what she told a television station, WCNC in Charlotte.

       She previously offered her employees health insurance and 
     paid part of it, but has been forced to reconsider her 
     decision because of the rising costs of premiums.
       ``We've been very proud to even carry it for this long, but 
     it's certainly a concern moving into the future if we're 
     going to be able to keep doing it,'' she explained.

  Veronica Cook, a hairdresser who has worked at Fresh Salon since it 
opened, said: ``It's frustrating and scary and you don't know what to 
expect.''
  I think that applies to many people around the country as a result of 
the President's health care law--this quote: ``It's frustrating and 
scary and you don't know what to expect.'' She is not sure what she 
will do if she has to pay for her own insurance. That is what this 
devastating side effect of the President's health care law is doing to 
people all around the country.
  The President says he wants everyone to have a fair shot. Democrats 
say it over and over. Is this small business owner getting a fair shot? 
Are the families of Ohio getting a fair shot when their premiums go up 
as much as 13 percent next year?
  Some Democrats who voted for the health care law have come out and 
said that the rates may be going up, but not as fast as maybe they 
would have without the law. But let's take a step back. When they were 
trying to pass this health care law, Democrats said it would only raise 
premiums--no. Democrats never said it would only raise premiums by 10 
to 13 percent. No. They said it would drop premiums by $2,500 a year. 
That is what the President said--$2,500 per family per year, and he 
said by the end of his first term.
  Well, we met with the President in February of 2010 at the White 
House at the roundtable discussion. Senator Lamar Alexander, my 
colleague from Tennessee, asked specifically about the predictions that 
the premiums, as we have seen, would go up. The President was making 
these promises, claims that they would go down. The President denied 
again to each of us in a face-to-face meeting that they would go up. 
The President said: ``That's just not the case.''
  Well, now what we do know is it is the case, and it was the case all 
along. People believed the President when he promised he would save 
them money. They thought that Democrats were giving them this fair shot 
the President talks about. Now they are finding out what they got: 
higher premiums, higher costs, higher deductibles, higher copays, loss 
of coverage, you can't keep your doctor. It is hard to believe the 
President of the United States.
  This is not what people wanted. People wanted a fair shot. But it is 
not what the President and Democrats in Congress actually gave them in 
the health care law. Many of them who voted for it never read it. Nancy 
Pelosi said first you have to pass it before you get to find out what 
is in it. But it did not stop the Democrats who voted for it from 
making those same promises--promises: If you like what you have, you 
can keep it. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. 
Premiums will go down. All of those promises--each one of them turned 
out to be not true.
  A fair shot is exactly what Republicans have offered, and that is--
and I can tell you this as a doctor--what patients want is patient-
centered care, not government-controlled and mandated care--a patient-
centered approach that would solve the biggest problems that families 
face: access to care, cost of care, quality care. That means measures 
such as allowing small businesses to pool together in order to buy 
insurance more cheaply for their employees. It means letting people 
shop for health insurance that actually works for them and works for 
their families, not what the President says is best for them.
  So in closing let me just say, these are just a couple of the 
solutions Republicans have offered to give Americans the care they need 
from a doctor they choose at lower costs, without the outrageous, 
expensive side effects of the President's health care law.
  I thank the Presiding Officer.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.

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