[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10028]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       PROVIDING HEALTH INSURANCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Gibbs) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GIBBS. Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed to hear that the Senate 
will not be able to take up the healthcare bill this week, but this is 
a tough issue. It is a tough issue because, at least on my side of the 
aisle, we want to do the right thing. We want to make sure that people 
can buy health insurance that is affordable and accessible, and not 
pull the rug out from under people who have issues.
  In the House, we passed a bill, and one of the big issues was 
preexisting conditions. We made sure that people with preexisting 
conditions can buy health insurance that is reasonably priced, similar 
to people who have no preexisting conditions, but then we kicked in 
billions of dollars to subsidize those premiums to help those people be 
in the insurance market because I think it is important that those 
people are in the insurance market and have access to insurance that is 
affordable.
  I think it is really un-American to pull the rug out from people 
because they got sick.
  ObamaCare is imploding. In Ohio--and this is from the Health and 
Human Services Agency--ObamaCare in Ohio, since 2013, premiums have 
increased 86 percent. We had almost 236,000 families pay almost $44 
million in penalties because they couldn't afford their health 
insurance.
  Then there is also a myth out there that the price is going through 
the roof, it is collapsing because of the current administration. Well, 
if you look at the facts, the average premium skyrocketed by nearly 
$3,000 across the country during the previous administration's final 
term. Eighty-three insurers left the market, and the average exchange 
premium spiked 25 percent last year alone. Americans living in roughly 
one-third of our Nation's counties have only one option of healthcare 
coverage precisely because this law has continued to fail. All this has 
occurred prior to the current administration.
  Mr. Speaker, I got a phone call last night from a lady whom I have 
known for over 30 years. She is self-employed, running a service-type 
business, and she was struggling to pay for her healthcare under the 
ObamaCare exchanges. She has prayed these last few years that she 
wouldn't get sick because she wouldn't be able to meet the deductible. 
She works 12-hour days. She is in one of those at least 20 counties in 
Ohio that will not have an insurer on the individual market for next 
year. She has no options to buy health insurance next year. She called 
me up and said: I don't know what I am going to do.
  I didn't have a good answer for her. That is why we need to get this 
done.
  Prior to ObamaCare--I don't know if a lot of people realize this--
when I was a self-employed farmer, I bought my health insurance through 
association plans. ObamaCare did away with association plans and forced 
people onto the exchanges and mandated what kind of coverage you had to 
buy.
  Ironically, as a Member of Congress, I am required to be on 
ObamaCare, and I am. But the ironic thing is, next year, if things 
don't change--and I was forced to be on the D.C. exchange, but if I was 
forced to be on my county exchange back where I live, my county does 
not have a health insurer in the individual market next year. I think 
it is ironic as a Member of Congress, if I wasn't on the D.C. exchange, 
I wouldn't be able to buy insurance through my exchange back home 
because it will not be available.
  How do we fix this?
  I think we have to incorporate free-market principles. We have to get 
the cost down, and then the market will work.
  How do we get the cost down?
  We have to have price discovery, and how you get that is through 
competition. I think health savings accounts is one way you will get 
competition and personal responsibility. People will shop around on a 
nonemergency-type basis, and it will help drive the cost down.
  ObamaCare did away with health savings accounts.
  Also, tort reform. We need to make sure that doctors practicing 
medicine don't have to worry about frivolous lawsuits and fight 
defensive medicine. That is really important.
  We need to be able to buy insurance across State lines. We have it in 
property and casualty insurance. We have it in auto insurance. We ought 
to have it in health insurance. It ought to be portable, you take it 
with you. And you also have your health savings account that you can 
take with you and be portable.
  These are some of the things that we can do, but we have to let the 
market work. That is my hope. And this is a tough issue. The Senate is 
working through it. They want to do the right thing. They want to make 
sure that Americans have affordable, high-quality health insurance 
coverage that they can buy. We need to work through that, and I think 
the Senate will get there. Hopefully, we will get a bill on the 
President's desk so my friend, whom I have known for over 30 years, can 
buy health insurance next year and not have to worry about the risk of 
what happens if she gets sick, or if she will have to go on Medicaid.
  Mr. Speaker, one out of four Americans today are on Medicaid. That is 
not really a good option. I am seeing some of our physicians are not 
treating Medicaid patients.
  Do you know why that is?
  Because they are a service business, and there are only so many hours 
in the day. So they have to have people with health insurance or self-
payers, and they can't have too many people on their client portfolio 
that have Medicaid with reimbursements that are too low for the cost of 
service. That is what we have moved to.

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