Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, during the past week, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of President Obama's health care law. This week also marks the 2-year anniversary of the President's signing that law.

There is no question that our health care system required and still requires significant reform. In passing this law, however, Congress failed to follow the Hippocratic oath of ``first, do no harm.'' The new law increases health care costs, hurts our seniors and health care providers, and imposes billions of dollars in new taxes, fees, and penalties. This, in turn, will lead to fewer choices and higher insurance costs for many middle-income American families and most small businesses--the opposite of what real health care reform should do.

I find it particularly disturbing that President Obama's health care law does not do enough to rein in the cost of health care and to provide consumers with more affordable choices. In fact, Medicare's Chief Actuary estimates the law will increase health care spending across the economy by more than $300 billion. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the law will actually increase premiums for the average family plan by $2,100. Moreover, a recent report issued by the CBO found that the new law will cost $1.76 trillion between now and the year 2022. That is twice as much as the bill's original 10-year pricetag of $940 million.

The new law will also mean fewer choices for many middle-income Americans and small businesses. All individual and small group policies sold in our country will soon have to fit into one of four categories. One size does not fit all.

In Maine, almost 90 percent of those purchasing coverage in the individual market have a policy that is different from the standards in the new law.

I am also very concerned about the impact of the law on Maine's small businesses, which are our State's job creation engine. The new law discourages small companies from hiring new employees and from paying them more. It could also lead to onerous financial penalties even for those small businesses that are struggling to provide health insurance for their employees.

According to a Gallup survey taken earlier this year, 48 percent of small businesses are not hiring because of the potential cost of health insurance under the new law. The Director of the Congressional Budget Office has testified that the new health care law will mean 800,000 fewer American jobs over the next decade.

Even when the law tries to help small businesses, it misses the mark. For example, I have long been a proponent of tax credits to help small businesses afford health insurance for their employees. The new credits for small businesses in the health care law, however, are so poorly structured and phased out in such a way that businesses will actually be penalized when they hire new workers or pay their employees more.

Moreover, they are temporary. The tax credits are temporary and can only be claimed for 2 years in an insurance exchange.

I am also very concerned that the new law is paid for, in part, through more than a $500 billion cut in Medicare--a program which is already facing serious long-term financing problems. It simply does not make sense to rely on deep cuts in Medicare to finance a new entitlement program at a time when the number of seniors in this country is on the rise. We need to fix and save Medicare, not add to its financial strains.

Moreover, according to the administration's own Chief Actuary, those deep Medicare cuts could push one in five hospitals, nursing homes, and home health providers into the red. I am particularly concerned about the impact on rural States like Maine. Many of those providers could simply stop taking Medicare patients. That would jeopardize access to care for millions of our seniors.

It did not have to be that way. The bitter rhetoric and the partisan gridlock over the past few years have obscured the very important fact that there are many health care reforms that have overwhelming support in both parties.

For example, we should have been able to agree on generous tax credits for self-employed individuals and small businesses to help them afford health insurance. That would have reduced the number of uninsured Americans. We should have been able to agree on insurance market reforms that would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to children who have preexisting conditions, that would permit children to remain on their parents' insurance policies until age 26, that would require standardized claim forms to reduce administrative costs, and that would allow consumers to purchase insurance across State lines. Those are just some examples of health care reforms that would enjoy and do enjoy widespread bipartisan support.

We also should be able to agree on delivery system reforms that reward value over volume and quality instead of quantity. We should be able to agree on reforms that increase transparency throughout the health care system so consumers can compare prices and quality more easily.

I know the Presiding Officer's State, and Dartmouth College in particular, has done a great deal of work in this area, as have many health care providers and many hospitals in the State of Maine. They are experimenting with new delivery models that will help them better control chronic disease treatments, which, in turn, will not only improve the quality of health care but also help to lower costs.

We should be able to agree on ways to address the serious health care workforce shortages that plague rural and small-town America. Simply having an insurance card will do you little or no good if there is no one available to provide the health care.

In short, I believe we made--Congress made--a real error in passing ObamaCare. We should repeal the law so we can start over, to work together in a bipartisan way to draft a health care bill that achieves the consensus goals of providing more choice, containing health care costs, improving quality and access, and making health care coverage more affordable for all Americans.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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