[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8473]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, what has happened in the years since 
Democrats forced ObamaCare on our country? Health choices have 
plummeted downward year after year. Health costs have skyrocketed 
higher year after year. And what have Democrats, who promised the 
opposite, done all these years since, as Republicans repeatedly warned 
we had to act before ObamaCare hurt more Americans on its inevitable 
path to collapse? Well, they have done basically nothing. They said we 
were exaggerating. They were wrong. They said things would get better. 
They got even worse. Rather than work with us to fix healthcare, they 
pretended things were fine, while more Americans got hurt.
  So you can imagine my surprise when Democrats recently sent a letter 
that essentially conceded that the status quo of ObamaCare is 
unsustainable. Was it because they actually wanted to work together on 
reform? I sure wish that were the case, but so far it seems part of a 
new strategy to--get this--blame someone other than themselves for the 
failures of ObamaCare. Did they actually think anyone was going to buy 
this? Come on.
  Just the other day, a bombshell report came out that reminded us 
exactly where the blame for ObamaCare's failures has always belonged. 
The blame belongs with ObamaCare. The official report said that since 
ObamaCare's full enactment in 2013, premiums had, on average, doubled 
in the vast majority of States that use ObamaCare's Federal exchange, 
and premiums even tripled in a handful of others. Think about that. 
Premiums doubled in the vast majority of these States, and premiums 
tripled in a handful of others. There is no serious way to now try to 
spin away these years and years of ObamaCare's failures on cost.
  By the same token, there is no serious way to try to spin away or 
ignore the years and years of ObamaCare's failures on choice. Just take 
a look at the chart behind me. It shows that 49 percent of the counties 
in my State have just one insurer. Half of the counties--one choice. 
And when you have one choice, you have no choice at all. That is the 
latest in a long-term trend we have seen under ObamaCare. To add insult 
to injury, predictions show that next year could be even worse for 
families when it comes to their choices under this law.
  Unfortunately, my State is not alone either. This year, there are 26 
States with at least 1 county where residents have just 1 insurance 
option under ObamaCare. That means millions of Americans living in more 
than 1,000 counties across our country really have no choice at all.
  Thanks to ObamaCare, things could again get even worse next year. 
Just yesterday, tens of thousands of Missourians across 25 counties--
from small towns to Kansas City--learned that they may join the ranks 
of Americans without a single insurance option to choose from next 
year--not one--thanks to ObamaCare and its years-long trend of fewer 
and fewer choices.
  Does any of that sound like what Americans were promised?
  A mother in Louisville recently wrote to my office begging for 
Members of Congress to address the failures. ``Middle class Kentuckians 
are hurting because of ObamaCare,'' she said. ``Residents [have] little 
choice for health plans'' and ``our family is not the only one 
suffering from the high costs of health insurance.'' She concluded, ``I 
hope you will push hard to fix our healthcare system.''
  I know many of my colleagues have received letters like this one from 
their constituents as well.
  ObamaCare has caused so much pain for families across our country, 
and it is not going to just magically somehow get better on its own. I 
know that, like so many families across the country, I am not satisfied 
with the ObamaCare status quo, and I don't think it is acceptable for 
its failures to be considered the new normal. As the people of Kentucky 
have shown in election after election, they don't either.
  Senate Republicans are working together to move past the problems of 
ObamaCare and to help those who have been hurt by it. We would love for 
Democrats to join us. Democrats have already effectively conceded that 
ObamaCare has failed. Now the question is, Will they work with us to 
actually fix this mess, or will they waste more time in some futile 
attempt to now redirect blame? The ObamaCare status quo is 
unsustainable. It is indefensible, and we have to move beyond it before 
more Americans get hurt.

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