Water Resources Development Act of 2016--Motion to Proceed--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I wish to thank my fellow Senator from Louisiana, Mr. Cassidy--Dr. Cassidy--for his really creative ideas--the World's Greatest Healthcare Plan and the way he frames it, in terms of his years of practice and the sincerity with which I know he has practiced in all kinds of health care settings and has done a lot of work with folks who never could or never would have afforded health insurance. So I thank the Senator for what he is doing and for working with us to try to solve this issue.

I rise today to join many of my colleagues in sharing the realities of ObamaCare. We have heard a lot about this. In my home State of West Virginia, for many, this law has been nothing short of devastating. While the number of people insured has increased because of the expansion of Medicaid in my State, the way these policies were put into place has created possible catastrophic fiscal cliffs for States. My State, by the way, last fiscal year was over $300 million in the hole because of other issues, and now they are looking at this fiscal cliff of having to pay the full rate of Medicaid expansion.

There is now a segment of our population that is falling through the cracks when it comes to health reform. They make too much money to qualify for aid or subsidies and end up paying the full cost of increasing individual coverage premiums. These working families are being faced with sky-rocketing premiums, copays, and deductibles. Talk to any health care center. Talk to the hospitals. This rising amount of deductibles is influencing their bottom line because they are not chasing the uninsured. They are chasing now people's deductibles. In my State and across this country, we have little, if any, choice in insurers.

I know we have all heard that often-repeated phrase, and I will say it again. It is the claim that if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. This has been pure fiction. The provider and hospital networks have shrunk and insurers have shifted away from options to give patients the choice they were promised and that they counted on, and they are now being pushed into much more restrictive plans.

One of our local papers recently ran a story about a West Virginian in just this situation, a small business person who labeled this plan accurately, calling it the ``Un-Affordable Care Act.''

Since ObamaCare, my premiums have increased at least $450 per month in the last couple of years. The plan I had was can- celed. . . .

So if you like your health care, you can keep it. His was canceled-- false statement. He had to enroll in a new plan. His premiums are currently over $1,350 a month. Between the high deductible and meeting the out-of-pocket maximum, this West Virginian has to pay 20 percent-- all out-of-pocket--and the situation is likely to get worse.

In West Virginia, we, like many other States, are currently waiting to see what our premium increase is going to be for 2017. It hasn't been approved yet by the State insurance commission. The question is not whether there will be an increase; that is a given. The question is, How enormous will it be?

If nearby States are any indication, there is much to be concerned about. In the State of Tennessee, the State insurance commissioner recently sounded the alarm saying that the ObamaCare exchange in Tennessee is very near collapse. Rates there are skyrocketing to between a 44- and 62-percent increase. Sadly, the story is the same whether one is in Arizona, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nebraska, or West Virginia. All too often, these rate increases are coming with much less coverage as well.

I recently spoke with a West Virginia small business person who has absorbed the cost of increased premiums for their employees, realizing they can't afford it but, at the same time, that employees are getting much less coverage, higher deductibles, and higher copays. Attempting to switch to a lower cost plan comes with its own perils. The average bronze plan deductible in 2016 was $5,700. This is assuming you have choices.

A recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that one- third of all counties in the United States will only have one ObamaCare insurer next year. This is up dramatically from the 7 percent of counties in 2016, and it is largely the result of major insurance companies scaling back or withdrawing their participation on the marketplaces. Unfortunately, there is nothing that indicates that this trend will not continue. Many counties are becoming ObamaCare ghost towns.

In Pinal County, AZ, 10,000 people bought exchange coverage this year, but no insurers are planning to offer plans on the exchange next year. What are they supposed to do? I fear this scenario could all too easily play out in West Virginia. Traditionally, over the course of ObamaCare, we have only had one insurer for the entire 55 counties. This year we happen to have 1 insurer for 45 of the 55 counties.

This lack of competition in the marketplace is not new for our State. This has been the reality for the vast majority of our residents, and now we are seeing it just expanding all across the country. This lack of choice, along with unaffordable premiums, copays, and high deductibles, has prompted most Americans to reject ObamaCare plans and not even join.

Nationwide enrollment in ObamaCare exchanges is only half what was originally planned. We owe it to those we represent to do better. We have heard Senator Cassidy talk about his ideas. We have great ideas on this side of the aisle to improve it, and we have asked and voted many times to throw out ObamaCare and start over. I think that is the direction we need to go, because Americans deserve a health care system that works for them, every day, from year to year. It is becoming clearer and clearer that ObamaCare is not that plan.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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