National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I join my colleagues here on the floor to hear them tell stories that we are hearing from our constituents at home. I saw the newspaper from the State of the Presiding Officer, the New York Times, front-page story, ``Uninsured Skeptical of Health Care Law in Poll.''

This whole law was passed to try to deal with issues of the uninsured. This article on the front page of today's New York Times says 53 percent of the uninsured disapprove of the law.

Then they go through some of the numbers and it looks as though for the same number of people who think they will be helped, an equal number of people who are uninsured think they will actually be hurt by this law.

Another headline, Wall Street Journal, ``Errors Continue to Plague Health Site.'' But the health care Web site is just the tip of the iceberg. Sure, there have been Web site failures, but the thing that is hurting Americans all around the country is the higher premiums the Senator from Iowa talked about, the canceled coverage the Senator from Iowa talked about, people who cannot keep their doctor in spite of the President's promise, fraud and identity theft, and higher copays and deductibles which we now know are actually going to be higher, after the law has been passed, specifically for the bronze policies, than they were all last year until the law came into effect.

I would like to share a letter from a woman in Carbon County, WY, who writes about the harmful effect of the health care law for her life and for her health care.

She says:

I currently have health insurance through my husband's employer, but the reality is that the current health insurance that we have may not be available much longer. This is scary to me, since I recently did some insurance shopping for my mother.

She said her mother is 63 years old and in good health. She said:

I was only able to get two quotes. The cheapest quote was for $756 a month with a $6,000 deductible.

So we see higher premiums and we see higher copays and deductibles.

The prescription deductible for that particular plan was $500, and then the copay for prescriptions was still around $35. The other quote seemed like a better plan and had better co-pay on prescriptions, but that premium was $985 a month. And that is also with a $6,000 deductible. What the heck. Who can afford these kind of premiums? That is more than most mortgage payments.

Yet the President of the United States said if you like your coverage, you can keep your coverage; if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

I went on national TV, talked with Bill Clinton a few days before the Web site was opened, and he said it will be easier to use than Amazon, cheaper than your cell phone bill, and if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

It is fascinating, the President was so clueless about his own law and here we are today, people suffering all around the country, and the President doing nothing about it.

I yield the floor.

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