Health Care

Floor Speech

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor as the Senate begins the debate on the nomination of Sylvia Burwell to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. If she is confirmed for that job, she would be responsible for implementing thousands of pages of regulations related to the President's health care law. I think it is appropriate, as we consider this nomination, to take a little bit of time and talk about the state of the President's health care law.

Just this morning I visited with a number of people from Uinta County, WY. I will tell you what they know and what we all know, and that is there are many dangerous side effects of the law, such as people losing access to their doctor and getting smaller paychecks.

Today I want to talk specifically about the expensive side effect so many Americans are facing, and that is how much health insurance premiums are rising because of the law. States are starting to release the proposed premiums insurance companies expect to charge next year under the Obama health care law. The numbers are not good for the American people--for people who wanted affordable care, quality care, and access to care, the kinds of things the President of the United States looked into the camera and promised them.

Virginia was one of the first States to put out the numbers. What is happening in the State of Virginia? Every health plan sold in the State exchange expects to raise its rates next year. The State expects some people to pay as much as 17 percent more next year.

In Vermont, it is a similar story. There are two companies offering plans in the State exchange. Yesterday we learned that one intends to raise rates 10 percent, the other expects to raise its rates 15 percent next year.

Last Friday Ohio released its proposed rates for people buying insurance through the exchange. The average premium in the State's individual market is expected to be 13 percent higher next year than it was last year. According to State insurance regulators, it is bad news, but it is what they expected.

The State Lieutenant Governor said:

Continued and unnecessary headwinds out of Washington are making it more difficult for job creators, hard-working Ohioans and their families to purchase health insurance.

President Obama said the Democrats should forcefully defend and be proud of the health care law. Is there a Democrat in this body--even one--who is willing to come to the floor and forcefully defend premium increases of 13 percent, 15 percent, or 17 percent in 1 year alone?

More States are going to be releasing their new premiums all summer. More people around the country are going to see these kinds of rate increases. This is an alarming side effect of the President's health care law. That is on top of the rate increases people have already had to pay for insurance for this year.

It is astonishing when you look at the numbers. It is not just families buying health insurance through the exchanges who are getting slammed. USA Today ran a headline last week which said:

More employees are getting hit with higher health insurance premiums and co-payments, and many don't have the money to cover unexpected medical expenses, a new report finds.

The report found that 56 percent of companies increased their employees' share of health premiums for copayments for doctors' visits last year after the health care law came into effect, and 59 percent of companies intend to do the same thing this year. So people buying insurance in the exchange are being hurt, people who get insurance through work are being hurt, and small businesses are being hurt as well.

There was an article in the Alaska Dispatch about this last Thursday. It said: ``Alaska's small businesses feel the pinch of rising health care costs.'' The article tells the story of a restaurant owner with 24 employees. He wants to offer health insurance coverage, but he is paying $5,000 a month more than he paid last year for his share of the insurance. He is somebody who wants to provide insurance, but it is now $5,000 more a month for his 24 employees. He says the costs are crippling and that it is like meeting another payroll every month. This small business owner said the health care law is ``killing me.'' He says, ``I just don't know how long we can keep absorbing these costs.'' These are costs put on this business owner in Alaska by every Member of the Senate who voted for this health care law--every one of them.

I invite any one of them to come down here to forcefully defend this law as the President requests that they do and be proud of what they have done to this small business owner. Are Democrats in the Senate who voted for this health care law proud of what the law is doing to this small business owner in Alaska? Are they willing to forcefully defend his having to pay an extra $5,000 a month? That is what people are dealing with.

There is a story which just came out today about North Carolina--another State where a Senator has said: If you like what you have, you can keep it. The headline to this story is ``ObamaCare cripples North Carolina small business.''

It says:

A North Carolina woman currently living her dream--to own a salon--could soon shatter and crumble, leaving her employees to pay astronomical costs for health insurance, all because of ObamaCare.

Julia Vittorio, owner of Fresh Salon for the past five years, is worried that she will not be able to provide her employees with health insurance.

She said: ``I think you just want the best for your employees.''

I think that is what many people around the country want: the best for their employees.

She said: ``We are a small business and it's very much like a family, so I care about our staff.''

That is what she told a television station, WCNC in Charlotte.

She previously offered her employees health insurance and paid part of it, but has been forced to reconsider her decision because of the rising costs of premiums.

``We've been very proud to even carry it for this long, but it's certainly a concern moving into the future if we're going to be able to keep doing it,'' she explained.

Veronica Cook, a hairdresser who has worked at Fresh Salon since it opened, said: ``It's frustrating and scary and you don't know what to expect.''

I think that applies to many people around the country as a result of the President's health care law--this quote: ``It's frustrating and scary and you don't know what to expect.'' She is not sure what she will do if she has to pay for her own insurance. That is what this devastating side effect of the President's health care law is doing to people all around the country.

The President says he wants everyone to have a fair shot. Democrats say it over and over. Is this small business owner getting a fair shot? Are the families of Ohio getting a fair shot when their premiums go up as much as 13 percent next year?

Some Democrats who voted for the health care law have come out and said that the rates may be going up, but not as fast as maybe they would have without the law. But let's take a step back. When they were trying to pass this health care law, Democrats said it would only raise premiums--no. Democrats never said it would only raise premiums by 10 to 13 percent. No. They said it would drop premiums by $2,500 a year. That is what the President said--$2,500 per family per year, and he said by the end of his first term.

Well, we met with the President in February of 2010 at the White House at the roundtable discussion. Senator Lamar Alexander, my colleague from Tennessee, asked specifically about the predictions that the premiums, as we have seen, would go up. The President was making these promises, claims that they would go down. The President denied again to each of us in a face-to-face meeting that they would go up. The President said: ``That's just not the case.''

Well, now what we do know is it is the case, and it was the case all along. People believed the President when he promised he would save them money. They thought that Democrats were giving them this fair shot the President talks about. Now they are finding out what they got: higher premiums, higher costs, higher deductibles, higher copays, loss of coverage, you can't keep your doctor. It is hard to believe the President of the United States.

This is not what people wanted. People wanted a fair shot. But it is not what the President and Democrats in Congress actually gave them in the health care law. Many of them who voted for it never read it. Nancy Pelosi said first you have to pass it before you get to find out what is in it. But it did not stop the Democrats who voted for it from making those same promises--promises: If you like what you have, you can keep it. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Premiums will go down. All of those promises--each one of them turned out to be not true.

A fair shot is exactly what Republicans have offered, and that is--and I can tell you this as a doctor--what patients want is patient-centered care, not government-controlled and mandated care--a patient-centered approach that would solve the biggest problems that families face: access to care, cost of care, quality care. That means measures such as allowing small businesses to pool together in order to buy insurance more cheaply for their employees. It means letting people shop for health insurance that actually works for them and works for their families, not what the President says is best for them.

So in closing let me just say, these are just a couple of the solutions Republicans have offered to give Americans the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs, without the outrageous, expensive side effects of the President's health care law.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

I yield the floor.

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