[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10459-10461]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE ECONOMY AND HEALTH CARE

  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I want to talk a little bit today about jobs 
and the economy and people's health care, and they are all related. We 
are in the midst of one of the slowest growth periods for the economy 
in the recent history of the United States. They just revised the 
figures again. That makes three times the figures have been revised for 
the last quarter. They now show a two-tenths of 1 percent growth. They 
should be showing about 2 percent growth for the year.
  Why is that a problem? If the economy increases by just 1 percent, it 
results in $300 billion to $400 billion more tax revenue without 
raising taxes. That is where we need to be. When it is less than that 2 
percent, that means we are losing that much in additional money. We 
make these decisions on about $1,100 billion a year, and we are 
overspending that by $468 billion. That is almost 50 percent 
overspending. No family can afford to do that, no city can afford to do 
that, and no State can afford to do that, but apparently the Federal 
Government can because we just borrowed more. So far, there is a lot of 
confidence in this country that we can continue to borrow.
  One of the areas where job growth and economy growth are impeded is 
with health care. President Obama is disconnected from the harsh 
reality that this health care law has created for people. Almost 2 
weeks ago, speaking about his health care law, the President said:

       Part of what's bizarre about this whole thing is, we 
     haven't had a lot of conversation about the horrors of 
     ObamaCare because none of them have come to pass.

  None of them have come to pass? How insulated is our President? I 
just want to emphasize what he said--none of those horror stories have 
come to pass.
  Apparently that message didn't make it very far because I hear a 
drastically different story from folks across Wyoming and other parts 
of the country.
  A rancher from Gillette complained to me that her and her husband's 
health insurance went up from $11,000 per year to $20,000 per year and 
then had a deductible thrown in that was $6,500. She said: How is that 
affordable?
  A retired nurse from Casper told me that if you add the premium 
increases and the deductible increases, she and her husband are up 
$36,000 per year.
  She wrote: Health care is unaffordable. It is a huge burden and 
worry. How can people afford to pay more for health care than they make 
in a year?
  She said that ObamaCare doesn't provide them with coverage for their 
medical needs and added that it goes against everything they believe in 
for America.
  A man from Cheyenne said the President's health care law is forcing 
him to choose between paying for his health care or paying for his 
mortgage.
  A small business owner in Newcastle said that before the affordable 
health care law, she could afford to pay for her employees' health 
care. After the law went into force, she couldn't. Her employees 
couldn't afford it, either, so they might leave for a bigger company--
which probably isn't possible--and the small business owner might have 
to sell out to a bigger company, which in many of the towns in Wyoming 
also isn't going to be possible. She loves her community and wants to 
stay an active part of it. She is discouraged by the situation this 
health care law has created and is asking for help.

[[Page 10460]]

  We have been asking for help for several years now. The President has 
recognized that there needs to be some help; otherwise, there will be 
some real calamities. Why haven't they happened? Well, some of them 
have. I have described some of them to you. But some of them haven't 
happened. That is because the President has given waivers on some of 
the things that he knows are atrocious and will cause a huge problem 
with the economy of the United States. Does he have the authority to do 
the waivers? Not really, but he did them, and that is to put off the 
tragedies until later. That is not what we ought to be doing. We ought 
to be making health care more affordable. There are lots of plans 
around here for making it more affordable; most of those were just 
discarded.
  The bill that went through here went through--there was a 60-vote 
majority on that side of the aisle. Sixty votes is enough to pass 
anything through here. I hope neither party has a 60-vote majority 
again because you don't have to listen to the other side. You don't 
have to listen to the unintended consequences that might come from 
somebody who is knowledgeable because of their background. There are a 
bunch of different backgrounds who serve here and another 435 
backgrounds who serve on the House side. Why do we have so many people 
in Congress? So that we have those diverse backgrounds and we can find 
those unintended consequences and adjust for them.
  The people I mentioned are real people, real families. They didn't 
write the story. They and many more like them contacted me. They are 
telling me and they are telling all of us in Washington to do something 
about this unworkable health care bill for millions of Americans that 
is far from affordable, breaks promises, and makes lives harder. I am 
listening to them, and so should the torch carriers of this federally 
mandated dream that was broken before it began.
  Today's Supreme Court ruling on King v. Burwell is surprising, but it 
reminds all of us who warned against this health care law that we will 
have our work cut out for us to move our country away from the failed 
policies. This law was written and implemented in its entirety by one 
party, as I mentioned, and has been informed from the start by ideology 
rather than reality.
  There are a number of us who were working on health care before the 
President even became a Senator, and we have continued to work on it. 
We have had a lot of discarded ideas that could have increased 
competition and brought prices down.
  This law was written and implemented in its entirety by one party, 
and it has been informed from the start by ideology rather than 
reality. Yet, it has fallen to us to make things better and help people 
get through these difficulties caused by this law.
  The Federal Government cannot possibly know what is best for each 
individual, and, as we have seen, a one-size-fits-all dictate doesn't 
work. The Wyoming folks whose stories I just relayed and the millions 
more like them from every State are a testament to that. That is just a 
very small sample out of the hundreds of people who write to me or talk 
to me as I travel across Wyoming. Our focus is to offer each of them 
new choices for quality affordable health care. Our focus is not 
protecting this failed law, this busted political legacy. We want to 
protect families as we get rid of ObamaCare and transition away from 
this fiasco. That is what it is, as is illustrated by the testimonials 
that I talked about earlier and the hundreds more that I have.
  It is time for Republicans and Democrats to truly deliver on the 
President's broken promise of a health care system that expands access 
and promotes quality and has patient-centered care while actually 
bringing the costs down. That is possible, just not under that bill. 
This is an opportunity for both parties to work together and put into 
place real solutions that rely on these principles.
  I think they just announced that one of the Federal insurance co-ops 
is going out of business. All of them are severely in the red. Those 
would be government-sponsored entities that said too much was being 
charged for health care by many of the insurance companies, and they 
went for far lower premiums. The hope was that it would bring down the 
price, but it didn't. That is not the way to encourage the kind of 
competition we need if we are going to bring down health care costs.
  One of the things that has been focused on around here for a long 
time has been small business health plans or small businesses. Small 
businesses are the ones that are really having the problem.
  I ran into a man who said: I have a very successful business, and I 
just got a tremendous location that is only 50 miles away where I could 
open another one. But that would put me over 50 employees, and that 
puts me in a different category on health care costs. The people who 
are working for me like the health care costs I am providing, and I 
would have to go to a whole different level or pay huge fines, and I 
can't afford to do that. So I am not going to open that other location; 
I am not going to put 50 more people to work.
  For too long, the debate over health care has placed politics over 
the best interests of patients. No matter the Court's ruling, it is 
time for Democrats and Republicans to deliver what the President 
promised but ultimately failed to deliver. We need a health system that 
expands access and promotes quality, patient-centered care while 
actually bringing down the costs. We must allow States the freedom and 
flexibility to ensure that hard-working Americans can get the care they 
need. It is time for both parties to work together on real solutions 
that rely on these principles. We should move forward on a bipartisan 
basis to provide more choices and a better health care system for hard-
working Americans.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor to congratulate my 
colleague, the senior Senator from Wyoming, whom I have worked with for 
many years and who has been a true leader in true health care reform 
with proposals he has made that would actually help people get 
affordable care.
  The Obama health care law, regardless of the ruling of the Supreme 
Court, continues to be an expensive failure. There have been so many 
broken promises by this President about health care in America, which, 
to me, is the reason this health care law--the support for it across 
the country remains at an alltime low.
  People were promised that if they liked their coverage, they could 
keep their coverage. Millions have lost coverage. The President 
promised: If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Millions 
have lost their doctors. The President said premiums would go down by 
$2,500 per family. Instead, premiums have gone up, and there is no end 
in sight.
  When I take a look at this and say ``Why is the support so low?'' it 
is because most people believe that for them personally, it is a bad 
deal. They are paying more in premiums, higher copays, and higher 
deductibles, all of which makes it a bad deal for them personally.
  I would say that ObamaCare cannot be fixed, but health care in 
America must be fixed.
  They say: What are you going to do about it as a Republican?
  There are incredible Republican plans out there, each of which is 
much better than the President's health care law. We still have 30 
million Americans without insurance, concerned about the fact that they 
still need care. We are going to continue to work to repeal and replace 
this health care law with a law that will allow people to get what 
Senator Enzi had been talking about. We need patients to get the care 
they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs. That is what 
Republicans are committed to, and that is what Republicans, in spite of 
today's ruling by the Supreme Court, will continue to work for.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.

[[Page 10461]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Fischer). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________