[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12398-12399]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Republican leader loves to come to the 
floor once or twice a week to talk about how bad ObamaCare is. What I 
say to him is this: His constant attacks on ObamaCare do not take away 
from the fact that there are 20 million people who have health 
insurance today who didn't have it 6 years ago. The Senator from 
California came as the speech was being given by the Republican leader 
and said to me: Remind him of what is going on in California--that we 
love ObamaCare. It is working wonderfully. Millions of people in 
California have health insurance that they didn't have before. She 
reminded me that in those States where the Republican Governors have 
agreed to do Medicaid, it is great. In fact, where States have expanded 
into Medicaid, the rates are approaching 10 percent lower than in other 
States.
  I need not look at California. Let's look at Nevada. We have a 
conservative Republican Governor. Brian Sandoval is his name. I have 
learned to accept the fact that he is doing a good job. In spite of the 
fact that in running for Governor he beat my son, Brian Sandoval is a 
good person. He is doing a good job as Governor of the State of Nevada. 
He stepped aside and was not worried about the criticism he would 
receive by helping the people of the State of Nevada, and he has 
Medicaid in the State of Nevada. The rates there are some 7, 8 percent 
lower than had he not done that.
  My friend, the Republican leader, complains about the few choices in 
the ObamaCare marketplace. Wow, that takes a lot of chutzpah to say 
that. Before ObamaCare, people had no choice, or the choice was either 
paying a lot, a whole lot, or not doing anything. Many people just 
skipped insurance. They were willing to take their chances. Now, people 
go to the marketplace and they have lots of choices. That is why we 
have 20 million more people who have health insurance now who didn't 
have it before. There are many examples, but my friend the Republican 
leader just ignores them. Preexisting conditions--think about that. 
Prior to ObamaCare, if you had a child who was born with a birth defect 
of some kind, if you had a child that developed diabetes, or if you 
were an adult who might have had a car accident, or you were a woman--a 
woman--who had a preexisting condition, you had to pay more for your 
health insurance, if you could get some.
  Everyone seems to ignore the good that has come from ObamaCare. 
Eighty-five percent of the people in the marketplaces get financial 
assistance in buying their coverage. After assistance, people are 
paying an average of $175 a month for their health insurance.
  So ObamaCare is a signature issue of the Obama administration. As he 
announced yesterday, he is very happy with what ObamaCare has done for 
the American people, and it should be made better. It could be made 
better so easily if we could have a little bit of cooperation from the 
Republicans--a little bit. But we are going to continue

[[Page 12399]]

focusing on making sure that people understand how well it has worked.

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