[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5144-5145]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it has been 6 years since the flawed 
health care policies of ObamaCare were signed into law. Six years 
later, my office continues to receive stories from Kentuckians who are 
reeling from the negative effects of this partisan law.
  For instance, take the heartbreaking story from one middle-class 
husband and father of two from Covington who suffered a heart attack at 
the age of 42. Under ObamaCare, this Kentucky dad has seen his health 
care premium triple and his deductible increase to, as he put it, a 
``ridiculous'' amount. He said he struggles to afford his medicine--
which he says costs upward of $1,000 a month--as he and his family 
struggle to survive week to week.
  Put simply, he says, ObamaCare is a ``terrible blight on the health 
care system'' that has resulted in more ``expensive, watered down, 
unaffordable health care for the middle class.'' Unfortunately, too 
many American families have had similar experiences under this 
administration's partisan law because from the start this health care 
policy was built on a mountain--a mountain of higher costs and broken 
promises, which only seem to grow larger by the day.
  When it comes to ObamaCare, costs in the exchange are higher than its 
champions expected. A recent study found that ObamaCare exchange 
individual market enrollees experienced higher medical costs than 
people insured through employer-provided coverage: 19 percent higher in 
2014 and 22 percent higher last year. When it comes to ObamaCare, it 
simply does not work like its champions promised either. As a result, 
we have seen increasing numbers of insurers pull out of the ObamaCare 
marketplace altogether.
  Just last week, we learned that the Nation's largest health insurer 
will join the list, withdrawing from all but a ``handful of States'' 
next year, including Kentucky. What this means is that Americans in my 
home State and across much of the Nation are likely to face even fewer 
health insurance options. According to one analysis, if this insurer 
withdrew from the exchange market altogether, nearly 2 million 
marketplace enrollees would be left with only 2 insurers, while more 
than 1 million more would be left with only 1.
  Fewer choices could also mean even higher premium costs. As one 
expert put it, either insurers will drop out or insurers will raise 
premiums. This only adds to the many Kentuckians who have already seen 
their premiums spike under ObamaCare, like the retired police officer 
whose premium increased to nearly $5,000 a year, which he ``simply 
cannot afford'' or the Kentuckian whose rate tripled, leaving him 
uninsured and leaving him to pay a fine at the end of the year.
  Not surprisingly, the insurance industry's chief spokesperson--who is 
a former top Obama administration official, by the way--is bracing the 
public for even more premium increases in the year to come. The 
administration's answer? More money from taxpayers. Whether they call 
it a risk corridor or a premium subsidy or a reinsurance mechanism, the 
source is still the same, the American taxpayer.
  So the bottom line is this: Americans continue to be unfairly hurt by 
a health care law that was forced on them through backroom deals and is 
literally littered with broken promises.

[[Page 5145]]

Too many have seen their premiums and deductibles skyrocket. Too many 
have suffered from tax increases and lost coverage. Now too many are 
set to face even fewer choices and significant price hikes in the year 
to come.
  Middle-class families have endured the broken promises and failures 
of ObamaCare for far too long. It is past time for Democrats to own up 
to the many disappointments of this law and help us move toward better 
health care policies for our country.

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