[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 8854-8855]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, before I close, I want to take just a few 
minutes and discuss the President's health care law. The President made 
some comments yesterday on the upcoming Supreme Court ObamaCare 
decision. Referring to his health care law, the President said:

       What's more, the thing's working. Part of what's bizarre 
     about this whole thing is we haven't had a lot of 
     conversations about the horrors of ObamaCare because it 
     hasn't come to pass.

  That was from the President yesterday. Let me just repeat and put 
that into context. The President of the United States thinks that 
ObamaCare is working and that negative predictions about the law have 
not come to pass. Well, to respond to that, let me just read a few 
headlines from the past couple of weeks. This from CNN: ``Obamacare 
sticker shock: Big rate hikes proposed for 2016.'' From the Associated 
Press: ``Many health insurers go big with initial 2016 rate requests.'' 
From The Hill: ``Overhead costs exploding under ObamaCare, study 
finds.'' From the Associated Press again: ``8 Minnesota health plans 
propose big premium hikes for 2016.'' From the Lexington Herald-Leader: 
``Most health insurance rates expected to rise next year in Kentucky.''
  I could go on. The truth is that not only is ObamaCare not working, 
but it is rapidly unraveling. A May 1 headline from the Washington Post 
reported: ``Almost half of Obamacare exchanges face financial struggles 
in the future.''
  Hawaii's exchange has already failed. California's exchange is 
struggling to sign up consumers. One-third of the consumers who 
purchased insurance on the California exchange in 2014 declined to 
reenroll in 2015. The Massachusetts exchange is being investigated by 
the Federal Government.
  Colorado's exchange is struggling financially and has raised fees for 
consumer insurance plans. Rhode Island's Governor is pushing for new 
fees on insurance plans to help fund the $30.9 million operating cost 
of the Rhode Island exchange. Now, incidentally, that is $30.9 million 
to run an exchange that serves just 30,000 people.
  The Minnesota exchange was supposed to cover than more than 150,000 
individuals in its small business marketplace by 2016. So far, it is 
covering 1,405 individuals, or approximately 1 percent of the number it 
is intended to cover. The Minnesota exchange has cost Federal taxpayers 
$189 million so far--$189 million for an exchange that provides 
coverage for just 61,000 people.
  A recent Forbes article notes that Vermont's exchange ``will need $51 
million a year to provide insurance to fewer than 32,000 enrollees--or 
$1,613 per enrollee in overhead. Before ObamaCare, $1,600 would have 
been enough to pay for the entire annual premium for some individual 
insurance plans.''
  While the ObamaCare exchanges unravel, health insurance costs on the 
exchanges are soaring. Insurers have requested double-digit premium 
increases on 676 individual and small group plans for 2016. More than 6 
million people are enrolled in plans facing average rate increases of 
10 percent or more. Around the country, rate increases of 20, 30, 40, 
and even 50 percent are common.
  One health care plan in Arizona is seeking a rate increase of 78.9 
percent--so much for the President's promise that his health care plan 
would ``bring

[[Page 8855]]

down the cost of health care for millions''. In my home State of South 
Dakota, proposed rate increases range up to 44.4 percent. That is not 
something South Dakota families can afford.
  The discussion about ObamaCare's success or failure is no longer 
theoretical. The evidence is in, and it shows the President's health 
care law is broken. It is time to repeal ObamaCare and to replace it 
with real health care reforms that will actually drive down costs. Five 
years under ObamaCare is long enough for American families.

                          ____________________