[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12849-12851]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, as you hear in Montana and I hear in 
Wyoming weekend after weekend as we go home and we travel our States 
over the summertime, we are hearing from more people and seeing more 
articles in the newspaper about how the Obama health care law is 
falling apart. Every Member of this body--every Member of this body--
probably hears the same stories I hear and have heard again today 
visiting with people from Wyoming--stories from people who can no 
longer afford their health care premiums, their health care coverage, 
the copays, the deductibles, and all of the things that have happened 
because of the Obama health care law.
  I think it is interesting to reflect on that new survey done by the 
Gallup organization, a well-known pollster from

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around the country with a long history. They released numbers last week 
about what people are seeing around the country with regard to 
ObamaCare--the things we have been hearing at home every weekend.
  The first thing we found is that more Americans disapprove of 
ObamaCare than approve of it. Now, it is interesting because the Senate 
minority leader, Harry Reid, was on the floor yesterday saying 
repeatedly: Isn't ObamaCare great? Well, I would say to my friend and 
colleague from Nevada: No, as a matter of fact, more Americans 
disapprove--thumbs down--of the Obama health care law than people who 
approve.
  That is not what was supposed to happen--oh no. When the now minority 
leader--then the majority leader--came to the floor a number of years 
ago with a bill that was written behind closed doors in his office, 
when they forced this through the House and the Senate, they said it 
would be great. Senator Schumer, who may likely become the new leader 
of the Democrats in a new Senate after the minority leader retires, 
predicted from the floor--right over there--that the law was going to 
be much more popular as time went on. He said: ``When people see what 
is in the bill, and when people see what it does, they will come 
around.''
  Well, it has now been 6 years. People have seen what is in the bill. 
Remember Nancy Pelosi saying: First you have to pass it before you get 
to find out what is in it. People have seen what is in it. They have 
not come around. People disapprove of the President's health care law--
thumbs down--by 51 percent.
  It is interesting that the numbers have actually gotten worse, in 
spite of what the Senate minority leader said yesterday repeatedly, 
when he said: Isn't ObamaCare great? So 4 years ago, when Gallup asked 
the same question, the numbers were actually only 45 percent. Now it is 
51 percent who disapprove. So it is actually heading backwards. 
ObamaCare is becoming more unpopular as time goes on and as people see 
that it has actually hurt them personally. Yes, that is what I said: It 
hurt them personally. The President's signature law is hurting them 
personally.
  Let's take a look. How many people tell others the Obama health care 
law has hurt them personally--they and their families? A record number 
say that ObamaCare hurt their family--29 percent. Have people been 
helped by the health care law? Yes, but only 18 percent of people say 
they were helped by the health care law.
  What I hear repeatedly in Wyoming--and I assume the Presiding Officer 
hears in Montana--is that the President should not have had to hurt 
this many Americans to help people who didn't have insurance. Why 
should they have hurt people who had insurance to help those who 
didn't? That is why this law continues to be so unpopular. It is a 
record number. It is not what the President or the Democrats said would 
happen with the health care law.
  What does the President say about the law? He says: Forcefully defend 
and be proud. I think that is why we saw the minority leader on the 
floor yesterday saying: Isn't ObamaCare great? The minority party whip 
came to the floor on Tuesday, and he said the major aspects of the law 
are working. That is what he said. This doesn't look like a law that is 
working to me. More Americans have been hurt by the law than have been 
helped.
  The Senator from Illinois said that the major parts of the law, the 
major aspects of the law are working. Well, what are the major aspects? 
Premiums, what people have to pay--but premiums are going through the 
roof. In Senator Durbin's home State of Illinois, the average person in 
an ObamaCare exchange is going to be paying 45 percent more next year 
than this year. That is when they select their plans--November 1. When 
they go to the exchange to see what is available, they are going to 
find it 45 percent more expensive than this year. So it doesn't seem 
like the fundamental parts of the law are working.
  Why did the rates go up? It is because of ObamaCare and the mandates 
that come from a Washington that decides it knows what is better for 
the people than they know themselves. They have to buy insurance the 
President says they have to buy, not what they think might work best 
for them or their families. That is why record numbers say ObamaCare 
has hurt their family. They can't buy what they want. They are paying a 
price that is too high. The deductibles are too high. The copays are 
too high. So we hear the stories of what is happening with ObamaCare.
  There was one other question in this poll that I would like to point 
to. They asked all these American families about ObamaCare. They asked: 
In the long run--in the long run--how do you think the health care law 
will affect your family's health care situation? Will it make it better 
for your family, as the Democrats promised? Will it have no affect? Or 
will it actually make things worse for you and your family? Over one-
third of Americans--36 percent--say the health care law will make 
health care for them and for their family worse. Less than one in four 
say it will make it better. So more say ObamaCare will make their 
family's health care situation worse.
  Now, that is an overwhelming margin. It is even a higher margin than 
last year. So as people see the impact of the health care law, as they 
see the impact on themselves and on their families, they are looking at 
this and saying: Things are going to continue to get worse because 
premiums have continued to go up, copays have continued to go up, 
deductibles have been continuing to go up, and the options are fewer 
and fewer.
  What does the administration say about that? Well, the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services, Sylvia Burwell, wrote an op-ed that appeared 
in CNN 6 days ago. It was entitled: ``The reality of the health 
insurance marketplace.'' That is what they called it: ``The reality of 
the health insurance marketplace.'' She said that all these higher 
prices people are experiencing around the country--the reason people 
are saying it is worse for them and their family and that they have 
been hurt by the health care law--are ``growing pains.'' That is what 
she said--``growing pains.''
  Well, as a doctor who practiced medicine for 25 years, I can tell you 
that growing pains generally happen when something is growing. But that 
is not what is happening here. What is actually happening here is that 
ObamaCare is shrinking. The ObamaCare exchanges are shrinking. Millions 
of Americans will have fewer choices this year when they go to the 
ObamaCare exchanges than they had to buy insurance last year. In about 
one out of every three counties in America, people are going to be 
limited to only one single ObamaCare coverage choice in 2017.
  In her op-ed, the Secretary talked about the ``health insurance 
marketplace.'' When there is only one company selling insurance to one-
third of the country, that is not a marketplace, that is a monopoly. 
That is why so many people say that they and their families have been 
personally hurt by the law and they believe it is going to make things 
worse for their families.
  This Democrats' health care law is turning the country into an 
ObamaCare wasteland--a wasteland without choices and without 
opportunities to make decisions about what is best for you and your 
family. That is why the American people are so worried about the future 
of their health care and why there has been an incredible spike in the 
number of people who think that in the future, their health care will 
get worse.
  People look at these unsustainable price increases and they say: What 
am I going to do? They can't afford the insurance now. Maybe they can 
make it through this year. What about next year?
  People want and need relief because even if you are down to one 
choice, even if there is a monopoly and you are down to one choice, you 
have to buy it because if you don't, President Obama and the Democrats 
say ``You must pay a fine. You must pay a penalty. You must pay a tax'' 
even though you have no choice. That is the Democrats' plan

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for health care--fine and penalize and tax them, but we are not going 
to give them any choice. There is no marketplace; there is a monopoly.
  People want and deserve relief, and Republicans are offering that 
kind of relief. We are offering relief by saying: If you live in one of 
those counties that have no choices, the penalties, mandates, and fines 
should not apply to you.
  The Democrats say: Pay up anyway.
  If you live in a location where the premiums have gone up over 10 
percent, the Republicans say: You deserve relief from what President 
Obama and the Democrats have forced upon you.
  The Democrats say: Tough. Pay up anyway. Pay the fine. Pay the 
penalty. Pay the tax.
  The American people deserve relief. People around the country are 
frightened by what they are seeing. They are frightened by what is 
happening with the health care law and the impacts, and they can see it 
getting worse and worse.
  This didn't have to happen. It didn't have to happen. When the 
President wrote this law and had Harry Reid's office behind closed 
doors--had it written over in that area, ignoring the pleas of the 
Republicans, ignoring the pleas of the American people, who said ``Do 
not do this to us,'' the Democrats and the President said they know 
better than all of us.
  They said: If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. That 
turned out not to be true.
  They said: If you like your health care plan, you can keep your 
health care plan. That turned out not to be true.
  Premiums will drop by $2,500, they said, and that was per year. That 
turned out not to be true.
  This health care law has been very damaging to so many Americans. 
There are people who need help, but the Democrats should not have hurt 
so many Americans who had insurance, who had something that worked for 
them, who had something they could afford, in an effort to help others 
who didn't have insurance. That is why people are desperately asking 
for relief from a one-size-fits-all approach with Washington mandates, 
with unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats forcing more regulations on 
hospitals, on doctors, on nurses, and on nursing homes across the 
board. That is why the American people say the health care law is going 
to make things even worse.
  It is very distressing to hear a Democratic Senator come to the floor 
and say ``Isn't ObamaCare great?'' because the American people know it 
is not. They know they have been hurt, they have been harmed, they have 
been taxed, they have been penalized, and they have been forced to pay 
more. They have lost options, lost choices, and lost opportunities 
because of this law and this administration and the way this was 
passed--without listening to people from both sides.
  I think it is time for the Democrats to stop trying to spin this 
destructive law. It is time for them to work with Republicans to give 
the American people what they wanted from the beginning. They wanted 
the care they need from a doctor they chose at lower costs, not a 
health care law that so many Americans believe is going to continue to 
make health care in this country worse.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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