Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. I say to the Senator from Wyoming, definitely not, and Americans are seeing every day that is not the case. If I could respond a little bit more in length, I would go back to 1994 and point out a problem President Clinton had, and in turn that President Obama tried to avoid about 14 years later. It was in 1994 that the health care reform issue came before the Congress--promoted by President Clinton at that time--and it failed in large part because it fundamentally changed the health care coverage for nearly every American.
We know the bill that is now law has fundamentally changed, but President Obama, in 2009--and throughout his campaign in 2008--decided he would combat the failure of the Clinton administration on health care reform, and not being successful there, by repeating over and over to Americans: ``If you like what you have, you can keep it.'' That is basically what we heard at least 47 different times while the bill on health care reform was being debated.
We heard that from the President himself. We probably heard it from Members of this Congress hundreds of times. While it may have been politically useful to make that promise to the American people, it remains a promise he cannot keep and he did not keep.
The fact is, millions of Americans are seeing changes in their existing health plans due to the health reform law. So, basically, when the President said, ``if you like what you have, you can keep it,'' it is not turning out that way, and Americans are seeing it every day.
The administration's regulations governing so-called ``grandfathered health plans'' will force most firms--up to 80 percent of the small businesses--to give up their current health care programs, and that is happening fairly regularly. When those businesses lose their grandfathered status, they immediately become subject to costly new mandates and increased premiums that follow. So the economics of health care costs and health care insurance dictate that people are not going to be able to keep what they have, as the President promised.
Families in 17 States no longer have access to child-only plans as a result of the health care law. So if you were a voter in 2008, and the President said to you ``if you like what you have, you can keep it,'' and you wanted only health insurance for your children, you cannot do that today in these 17 States. It is not known how many families who lost coverage for their children because of the law have been able to find an affordable replacement.
Medicare Advantage covers about 20 percent of the senior citizens of America. There is a study that shows the Medicare Advantage enrollment is going to be cut in half. The choices available to seniors are going to be reduced by two-thirds. Then there is the open question about Americans who receive their health care through large employers. The CBO recently released a report that constructed a scenario where as many as 20 million Americans could lose their employer coverage.
While I acknowledge that the Congressional Budget Office report provided the number that I just mentioned as only one possible scenario, there are many who believe that is very plausible given the incentives in the health care law created for large businesses.
So I say to the Senator from Wyoming, 47 times--just while we were debating it; I don't know how many times during the campaign--this President said, ``If you like what you have, you can keep it.'' It is a promise that was not kept.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. That is not only a promise that has been broken, that is a promise that is very easy to quantify because, on July 29, 2009, during the consideration of this health care reform law, the President said:
Medicare is a government program. But don't worry: I'm not going to touch it.
So let's take a look at the health care law and see if that promise was kept. The health care law made significant cuts in Medicare programs. This is what we can quantify in dollars and cents.
On April 22, 2010, the Chief Actuary of Medicare analyzed the law and found that it would cut Medicare by $575 billion over 10 years. The President said, about Medicare, as I told you, ``I'm not going to touch it.'' But the President has touched it in a big way: $575 billion out of Medicare.
Medicare is on a path to go broke by 2021; $575 billion is not going to guarantee Medicare for everybody in the future. We have to reform and change Medicare if that promise is going to be kept. We all want to do that, but the President has made that more difficult.
The Congressional Budget Office wrote that over $500 billion in Medicare reductions ``would not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits.'' You know what the President said during the debate on this bill: ``I'm not going to touch it.'' But he has touched it in a big way.
The Chief Actuary had this to say about the Medicare reductions:
Providers--
Meaning hospitals and doctors--
Providers for whom Medicare constitutes a substantive portion of their business could find it difficult to remain profitable and, absent legislative intervention, might end their participation in the program.
So not only touching 500-and-some billion dollars, but also touching it in a way of limiting access for senior citizens of America when the President said, ``I'm not going to touch it,'' he misled the American people.
The CM Actuary said, in essence, these cuts could drive providers from the Medicare Program. I have a hard time understanding how these massive cuts to Medicare count as somehow: I'm not going to touch Medicare.
On the other hand, the biggest problem facing Medicare in the near term is a physicians payment update problem that we constantly have to address and could have been addressed in the health care reform bill. You know what. It was not addressed. Of course nothing was done about it. Perhaps that is what the President meant when he said about Medicare, I say to the Senator from Wyoming, ``I'm not going to touch it.''
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