Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013 - Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, recently, President Obama made the comment that ObamaCare is not just a web site, it is much more. I could not agree more with that statement. His health care law is also a list of broken promises that harm middle-class Americans. While he was trying to sell ObamaCare to the American people, President Obama repeatedly stated that ``if you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period.''

He did not say that if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan unless your health care plan changes or if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan unless your health care plan gets canceled. He didn't say that you can only keep your health care plan if the White House likes your health care plan. He said, ``If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period.''

It is pretty emphatic, I would argue, when the President of the United States says something such as that. Yet just 1 month after the ObamaCare exchange rollout, at least 3.5 million Americans have received insurance cancellation notices, according to the Associated Press. That number just reflects the number of dropped plans in about 25 States. There are about 25 other States that have not reported their numbers yet.

A report by the American Action Forum cites that this number is expected to dramatically increase in the coming months. On Sunday, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs conceded that it was certainly wrong for the President to claim that ``if you like your plan, you can keep it.''

The Washington Post fact checker even gave the President four Pinocchios for his oft-repeated pledge that no one will ever take away your health care plan. We are now learning it is actually only if the White House likes your plan that you are going to be able to keep your plan.

We are also learning the White House knew people would be losing their coverage. After ObamaCare was signed into law, the President's administration released regulations that would invalidate grandfathered health care plans if they made routine changes. This information was buried in 2010 regulation and, despite the fact that the administration had posted this regulation, the President continued to state, ``If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan.''

At the time this regulation was released, the administration issued estimates stating that 40 to 67 percent of Americans who purchased insurance in the individual market would lose their coverage. The administration also stated in that regulation that by the year 2013, 39 to 69 percent of businesses, large and small, would lose their grandfathered plans.

What the President blatantly left out of his promise was the caveat that if the Federal Government approves of your health care plan, then you can keep it--not if you like it you can keep it, but if the Federal Government likes it, then you can keep it. But what we are finding is the opposite is true. It is a completely broken promise--completely. What makes this issue even more startling is that in 2010 Senate Democrats voted along party lines to reaffirm that those Americans who like their plan can only keep it if it receives a government seal of approval.

In September of 2010, Senator Mike Enzi from Wyoming proposed a resolution to block the way the administration was planning to handle plan cancellations. On a party-line vote, Democrats killed the resolution, effectively endorsing the administration's proposal to cancel plans individuals have and like. After breaking his oft-repeated promise, the President is now telling millions of Americans who had their insurance canceled that they should just shop around for policies that can be more costly on a Web site that does not function.

It is clear the administration has mislead Americans with their promises. Jerry Buckley of Marion, AR, says he did not pay attention to any of that because the President kept telling you this will not affect you if you like what you have. Despite being assured he could keep his plan, Mr. Buckley received a letter from Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield saying his policy did not comply with the new regulations under ObamaCare. A comparable plan has a higher premium, higher out-of-pocket costs, and less coverage.

As the leader of our country, the President's words matter. He needs to be held accountable for these millions of insurance plans he promised the American people they could keep. Simply having administration officials apologize for a broken Web site is not a solution. The issues run much deeper than anything any IT expert can fix. This is fundamentally about the flaws in this law. That is why the cancellation notices continue to go out despite the President's assertions and promises that if you like your plan, you can keep it.

In addition to the cancellation notices, consumers are experiencing sticker shock when they see what plans are available to them this next year. Forbes reports that premiums in 41 States are going to increase under ObamaCare. My home State of South Dakota ranks seventh on that list, with premiums rising 77 percent, on average. In four States, insurance premiums are expected to rise over 100 percent. A Washington Post headline from the weekend reads:

For consumers whose health premiums will go up under the new law, sticker shock leads to anger.

The article cites an anecdote by an area lawyer, Deborah Persico. Ms. Persico recently found out her insurance is being canceled due to ObamaCare. Under a comparable plan with the new law, her premium is going to increase by 55 percent and her deductible will double. She expects this new plan will cost her at least $5,000 a year more than she pays under her current plan.

There are millions of middle-class Americans just like Deborah whose health care costs are skyrocketing under ObamaCare. The rising premiums are affecting both Americans who buy their insurance in the individual market and those who have employer-provided health care as well. In an effort to avoid these higher costs, small businesses are renewing their plans early to avoid requirements imposed by ObamaCare. Insurance brokers told USA Today that 60 to 80 percent of small businesses with less than 50 employees are scrambling to renew their policies before the year's end to avoid paying the ObamaCare prices for 1 more year.

With our still sluggish economy and unacceptably high unemployment rate, Americans cannot afford ObamaCare. This catastrophic law is leading to canceled policies, higher costs, and less coverage.

Senate Republicans want to hear your stories. If you had a plan of your choice canceled, visit RepublicansÐ.senate.gov/yourstory.

It is now evident that after supporting the rule that led to insurance cancellations, nervous Democrats are beginning to recommend a delay in the individual mandate. It is clear that even those who supported this law in 2009 and 2010 are having second thoughts, but second thoughts are not enough. We need to work together to repeal this law and replace it with policies that actually lower the cost of care and allow individuals to keep the plans and the doctors they like.

Republicans will continue to fight to protect as many Americans as possible from this train wreck, and we hope the Democrats in the Senate will work with us.

Over the weekend we saw more examples, including a story in the Wall Street Journal from yesterday, about a lady who lost her coverage and can't use her doctors. She is a stage 4 cancer survivor, and she has used health care facilities in her own State of California that have done wonderful things for her in treating her illness. Yet under the ObamaCare policies that are currently in place, she is losing that coverage and losing access to her doctor.

The promise that ``you can keep your plan if you like it'' and the promise that ``you can keep your doctor if you like your doctor'' are broken promises that cannot be fulfilled. The President of the United States, over and over, said, ``If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.'' We know that is not true, and we know it is never going to be true. We know now, going back to 2010, they knew it wasn't going to be true. They were predicting that there were going to be cancellations and sticker shock. Yet never once did the President modify his statement. He consistently said, ``If you like your health care plan today, you can keep it, period''--completely misleading. Millions of Americans who have received cancellation notices and who are seeing skyrocketing premiums are in peril in their ability to cover themselves and their family.

There is a better way. There was a better way back then and there is a better way today of bringing down health care costs and making it more affordable for more Americans, allowing them to have access to the health care plan they like and the doctor they choose. Yet if we stay on this current path, we are headed for a train wreck. We have time to turn the train around before this is fully implemented, and I hope to find bipartisan cooperation because health care is an important issue to millions of Americans. It is a pocketbook issue that affects so many families across this country, and their ability to provide affordable coverage for themselves and their families is an economic issue and something everybody talks about at the kitchen table.

We can come up with a better solution. We should come up with a better solution. If we don't, not only will we see millions of Americans with canceled coverage and millions of Americans with dramatic increases in the amount they are paying for health insurance coverage today, we will also see the impact this will have on jobs as more and more employers find it more difficult to retain their employees and hire more workers. The chronically high unemployment rate we see today, as well as the historically low labor participation rate, the reduced take-home pay we have seen for middle-class Americans, those will become a permanent state for the American people. I think the American people want to see us work on policies that will improve their standard of living, improve their quality of life, get more Americans back to work, and increase take-home pay for middle-class Americans.

This policy takes us backward. This policy takes us down a track that leads to broken promises and unfulfilled expectations for the American people. It is high time we change that. We can do that. I hope we will find the bipartisan cooperation here and hopefully the engagement of the President of the United States who, after all, made the promise that ``if you like your plan, you can keep it, period,'' repeatedly, over and over--a broken promise. It is not too late to do the right thing. I hope we will be able to find the bipartisan cooperation to do that.

I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a quorum.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source