America's Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2015--Motion to Proceed--

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, a couple of weeks ago was the sixth anniversary of President Obama's unpopular health care law. Every year at this time, that birthday is not one people actually want to celebrate. When we take a look at the reasons Americans aren't celebrating ObamaCare's sixth birthday, it is pretty obvious. Let's read them: unsecured data through the Web site, fewer provider choices, over $1 trillion in new taxes on American families, 2 million jobs' worth of hours lost, and skyrocketing premiums and deductibles. It is no surprise that the health care law continues to be very unpopular.

Americans know that under the health care law they have less freedom to keep their doctor, to keep the insurance that was right for them and their families, because the President says he gets to decide what somebody needs for themselves and their families--not the families getting to decide for themselves.

We know that--again, it came out during the break--people's personal data is not secure at healthcare.gov, as they thought it was. We know insurance companies are continuing to give patients fewer choices by limiting the networks of doctors that people can see. The health care law has added over $1 trillion in new taxes onto hardworking American families. Premiums and deductibles are up, and according to the Congressional Budget Office, ObamaCare is cutting the hours Americans can work by about 2 million jobs over the next decade. So it seems that every day there is more news coming out on how the health care law is unaffordable, unpopular, and unworkable.

Last week there was a new study that explains one of the reasons why the President's health care law is collapsing. There was a study that came out from Blue Cross Blue Shield. It compared people buying new health insurance coverage in the ObamaCare exchanges to people who already had health insurance through their jobs. The study found that the new ObamaCare customers went to the doctor 26 percent more often than other people did, that they were admitted to the hospital almost twice as often, that ObamaCare customers have higher costs, and that the average medical spending is about $1,200 a year higher for people on ObamaCare than people who get their insurance through work. So why is it that hospital admissions are up so much for people who are on ObamaCare, and why is it that doctors' visits are up 26 percent? Because the new ObamaCare enrollees are sicker and costlier. So insurance companies of course have to raise their premiums. People are sicker who are signing up. They go to the doctor more. The insurance company turns around, and it raises premiums on everyone else. That is why so many people are opposed to the health care law--because the impact it has had on them personally.

When insurance companies have to raise their rates on ObamaCare plans, a lot of money is paid by taxpayers because it is the taxpayers who are paying for the subsidies for all the folks who have signed up for ObamaCare. What we know is that taxpayers are subsidizing the premiums of 83 percent of the people who buy ObamaCare insurance. When the premiums go up, taxes have to be made up to pay for it.

Well, when companies can't get enough extra money, they just stop offering policies. Under ObamaCare that may happen. Then more people will lose their insurance coverage. Maybe some companies will just go out of business. We are familiar with that process because we have seen it. We have seen that under the ObamaCare health care law, a majority of the ObamaCare health insurance co-ops have actually gone bankrupt. The health care law created 23 co-ops, and 12 have already gone out of business.

Premiums were already out of control, and it is getting worse. The average premium for what is called the benchmark silver plan in the ObamaCare exchange is more than 7 percent higher this year than last year. For people who can only afford the cheaper bronze plan, premiums are up 13 percent compared to last year. Over the next couple of months, insurance companies are going to start setting their rates for 2017. They are going to take into account what has happened in the previous year. So this new study by Blue Cross Blue Shield is just laying the groundwork for even more price increases to come next year. I think this is one of the things that explains why so many people dislike ObamaCare.

A new poll came out that found that 47 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the health care law. The Kaiser Family Foundation report shows Americans' opinion of ObamaCare is tilting negative--47 percent marked it unpopular in March of 2016. A year ago this poll said that 42 percent of the people had an unfavorable view. There we were a year ago. Here we are now. The number keeps climbing. Now only 41 percent of the people have a favorable view of the health care law. It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Mr. President, 6 years ago Democrats in Washington were very confident that the law would be extremely popular today. As a matter of fact, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York went on ``Meet the Press'' back in 2010 and said: ``It is going to become more popular.'' He said: ``I predict that by November those who voted for the health care law will find it an asset.''

Well, we all remember what happened in the 2010 elections. We know that Democrats who voted for the health care law did not find it an asset. Democrats lost six seats in the Senate that year, and they lost control of the House of Representatives. Nancy Pelosi was out as Speaker of the House, and the Republicans took the majority.

Then in 2013, Senator Harry Reid was making this same prediction about how popular the health care law was going to be. He told the newspaper The Hill in Washington that ObamaCare would be ``a net positive'' for Democrats in 2014. Senator Reid forced the health care law through Congress when he was the majority leader, and I think that is a big part of why he is now the minority leader. He lost the majority in the Senate. Why? I think in big part because of the health care law and the fact that it ignored the needs of the American people.

The longer people have to live with this offensive and expensive law, the less popular it gets.

It was never popular to begin with, but today, even more than before, the opinion is, as this poster says, ``tilting negative.''

The same poll also found something I found amazing. I have practiced medicine for 25 years, and I have been involved here in the Senate for a number of years. I have never seen anything like this. This new poll found that 28 percent of Americans say that this health care law has directly hurt them and their families.

The President says: Defend and be proud of this law.

How can you defend and be proud of something that 28 percent of the American public tells you has hurt them and their family personally? Only 18 percent in the poll said the law had directly helped them. It is incredible and it is disturbing. ObamaCare is hurting far more people than it is helping.

Costs are going up much faster than Democrats promised, as are copays and deductibles. It is no wonder the law is unpopular. We know the health care law makes it more expensive for taxpayers--but how much more expensive?

The Congressional Budget Office came out with a report last week. It said that over the next 10 years the health care law is going to cost $136 billion more than they thought it would cost just a year ago. When they compared what they thought it was going to cost a year ago and what they think it is going to cost now, it is $136 billion more. That is despite there being fewer people in the insurance exchanges than they expected. They predicted there would be 21 million people buying ObamaCare health insurance this year. In fact, they say it is going to be no more than 12 million.

People are doing everything they can to avoid these insurance policies--especially young, healthy people. So why is it going to cost an extra $136 billion? One of the reasons is higher premiums, sicker patients, and because the law has dumped so many more people into Medicaid. About 23 percent of the people in the country under the age of 65 are now on Medicaid. That is what the Congressional Budget Office says--one out of every four.

Is that a success--putting all these additional people on Medicaid? The President says it is.

As a doctor who has practiced medicine and taken care of patients for over 25 years, putting additional people on Medicaid is not a success. It is not what people wanted, and it is not what President Obama promised. Americans deserve better. They deserve better than to be shoved into this second-tier health care system. Plus, in terms of government health care programs and wasting money, a recent study found that for every dollar spent on Medicaid, people only get about 20 to 40 cents on every dollar spent. How is that for an inefficient government system? Almost every day we get more information on the damage the health care law is doing to Americans across the country.

Republicans have offered solutions that would actually keep the promises the Democrats made for ObamaCare, such as letting people keep their doctors and keep their insurance, giving more people options for how they can reduce their costs of medical care. Americans have now been forced to try this ObamaCare experiment--what the Democrats wanted--and forced to do it for the last 6 years. ObamaCare isn't getting any better. It is just getting older, and it is still making things worse for American families. That is why it is so unpopular.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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