Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act Of 2015
Floor Speech
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, I understood that the Senator from Ohio was seeking consent to speak after me.
I would like to take a few minutes this morning to speak about how the Affordable Care Act is harming the people of the State of Alaska. This Senator has come to the floor a lot to talk about the fact that we in the State of Alaska have the highest insurance premiums. Well, again, we have the highest insurance premiums in the country. Believe me, I am hearing from folks back home all the time about the burden that these costs place on them.
Our State's largest newspaper has been reporting, as we have seen these premium increases coming out over these past several months--they have been detailing the incredible rise of premiums throughout the State. The average monthly premium for a single 40-year-old in the State of Alaska is now over $700 a month--$700 a month for the average single 40-year-old--more than double the national average. People are paying thousands of dollars each month to insure their families. The insurance premium costs have gone up somewhere between 25 percent to 40 percent each year. How do you budget for that?
A family of three in Ketchikan--I got the information from them--are going to be paying almost $2,000 a month next year for one of the cheapest bronze plans available. This is a family of three paying for one of the cheapest plans, and they are going to be paying $2,000 a month. This plan comes with a $10,500 deductible. Heck of a deal. In spite of paying almost $24,000 on insurance, nearly all the medical bills will still be paid out of pocket for this family. They will not see any benefit until they have spent just about $35,000. Contrast the $2,000 per month for health insurance with their mortgage payment. Their monthly mortgage payment is $1,250. Does this seem right to anyone? It should not cost more to provide health care coverage for your family than to own your home.
We have a married couple in Wasilla who were paying $850 a month prior to the ACA, but that plan wasn't acceptable under the new regulations. The promise that you can keep the plan if you like it--well, that didn't hold. They had to find other insurance. Next year this married couple is going to be paying over $2,300 per month. That means they are going to be paying over $17,000 more per year for the same coverage. This is a 268-percent increase in just one calendar year. This is not right. This is unconscionable. It is not that this married couple has somehow increased their income by an additional $17,000 last year. No, this is just the cost to cover their insurance.
A self-employed man down in Homer whose insurance covers him, his wife, and his son has seen his costs increase from $325 per month 2 years ago to $1,325 a month since the ACA was passed. That is an additional $1,000 per month that these folks are now paying for the cheapest bronze plan available with a $12,000 deductible. This is not some Cadillac plan. This is the cheapest plan available. This is a $12,000 deductible. This is what these folks at home are paying.
The ACA repeal bill that we are currently debating addresses the problem by reducing the penalty for not buying insurance to zero. Alaskans could choose to buy insurance or simply save the thousands of dollars they would be paying each month that could be spent on medical bills as needed but would be available for the families to use as they see fit.
On top of the outrageous costs that we are seeing that come with the individual mandate, the Cadillac tax that I just mentioned hits Alaskans harder than anywhere else in the country. Premera is the largest insurer in our State and they tell me that about 62 percent of their customers in Alaska will be forced to pay these tax penalties under the Cadillac tax in 2018, the first year of the tax. The average cost will be $420. That would be the tax on the plan that they would be paying that first year. It is not as if these plans are grand. The problem is with the high cost of health care within our State. The tax penalizes Alaskans because our health care is more expensive in a rural State with a low population.
This tax is going to hit the State, the boroughs, and our school districts. It will take away money from public education and other services that the State provides. I am hearing from school districts. Instead of saying they are concerned about testing or some of the other issues we are dealing with in education, they are saying their No. 1 concern is the implementation of the Cadillac tax. It is the single greatest threat to quality public education. That is how Robert Boyle, the superintendent of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District describes the ACA, as the single greatest threat to quality public education. Bob's district faces a tax penalty of over $500,000 due to the Cadillac tax coming up in 2018, the first year of the tax, and the penalties only increase from there. The Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District is looking at a half-million-dollar tax coming due in 2018. They are not getting more money to run their school district. This is money out the door that isn't improving the education of a single child in that district.
We are facing a financial crisis in the State. The State cut the education budget this year, and they are looking hard at cutting it again next year. We are a State that relies on oil revenues, and you see what is going on with the price of oil. That is an impact to us. We are feeling it--desperately feeling it. School districts cannot afford the imposition of hundreds of thousands of dollars of new taxes on top of a budget reduction. The money, as you and I know, would be far better spent paying teachers what they deserve. School districts are now looking to possibly reduce benefits for teachers in order to avoid paying the new tax. With low pay and no benefits, how are our schools going to get ahead? How can we expect to attract and retain quality teachers? The answer is pretty real--we just can't do it. Without quality teachers who suffers? It is going to be the kids.
The bill we are debating solves the problem for 6 years by delaying the Cadillac tax for 6 years until 2024. That gives us time to find a way to address it permanently and in a responsible way. This Senator advocates eliminating the Cadillac tax altogether.
The problems with the ACA don't end with hundreds of thousands of dollars in new taxes on schools or charging individuals outrageous premiums. It also impacts our small businesses. I heard from so many business owners around the State who want to expand but are saying they just can't do it. They can't do it.
They cannot afford to both expand their business and then hit the 50-employee threshold at which they are required to provide the insurance. So, at best, these businesses are kind of treading water right now. The ACA requires every business owned by an individual to be grouped together when counting employees.
I have heard from a fellow in my State from Fairbanks. He owns several businesses there. It is a mix of businesses. One is a plumbing distribution company, but he also has a whole handful of little coffee shops. There is quite a difference between plumbing distribution and coffee shops.
For tax purposes, Mr. Vivlamore's businesses are all treated as separate entities, and for legal purposes, they are all treated as separate entities. That makes sense. But for some reason, for purposes of health insurance, they are all lumped into one bucket. He has his employees from the coffee shop, and he has employees from the plumbing distribution business, so he is going to be required to provide health insurance when the mandate kicks in because he employs more than 50 people across all of his companies together, even though he doesn't have 50 employees in every one of his very different businesses. He has talked to me about what he is going to do about the prospect of possibly downsizing because the cost of doing business under the ACA for him is just too high.
This issue is also resolved in the bill by reducing to zero the penalty for noncompliance with the employer mandate. Employers will once again be free to offer workers more hours, hire more staff, or expand operations without facing a large tax penalty for not offering insurance or an equally significant cost increase when they are forced to provide insurance.
I have been on the floor before, and I have asked the question before, but it is worth repeating: For whom is the Affordable Care Act actually affordable? It is certainly not affordable for the average, hard-working Alaskan who is being forced to shell out thousands of dollars for their premiums each month. It is not affordable for the school districts and other State entities that will pay huge taxes. It isn't affordable for the kids whose educations will potentially suffer.
This law is not affordable for us in Alaska. That is why I support the bill that repeals the ACA and wipes out these harmful impacts. We cannot stand by and see these premiums shoot through the roof 30 percent or more each year, see our businesses artificially constrained, and see the quality of public education decline. It just doesn't work.
I appreciate the time this morning and look forward to the opportunity this afternoon to weigh in on some of these very significant issues that have great and considerable impact on the people of Alaska.
With that, I yield the floor.
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