Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act of 2014 - Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I appreciate the comments from the Senator from Oklahoma who, like the Senator from Wyoming who is on the floor here with us here today, has heard from many of his constituents about the impact ObamaCare is having on them, the real-world economic impact.

I have received countless letters from my constituents in South Dakota telling me about the challenges they are facing because of ObamaCare. Those challenges consist of the economic costs associated with the new health care law: higher premiums, higher deductibles, higher copays, the loss of the doctors they like, the burden the law is placing on their businesses if they are an employer, and less control and less freedom, which is something that is important to so many Americans, particularly when it comes to their health care.

I want to take a few moments to highlight some of the stories that constituents of mine have shared with me. I know the Senator from Wyoming is here to do the same, to talk about the impact not only in his State of Wyoming but all across the country.

One person named Erik from southeast South Dakota wrote to me to tell me his family's health care plan was cancelled thanks to ObamaCare. His old plan was $448 a month, with a $5,000 deductible and a 20-percent copay after that. The cheapest bronze plan he could find was $987 a month, more than double what he was paying before, with a $6,500 deductible and a 40-percent copay. He said, ``This means that I would need to incur about $26,000 in eligible medical expenses each year before insurance is a benefit to me.''

Then there is Megan from McCook County, SD, who contacted me to tell me the cheapest plan she could find for her family of 4 would cost her a staggering $17,000. Seventeen thousand dollars. That is more than some people pay for their mortgage in an entire year.

Randy from Hot Springs, SD, contacted me to tell me an exchange plan similar to his old insurance plan is $1,222 a month, almost 2 1/2 times the cost of his old insurance plan.

Sheri, from a small town in Minnehaha County, said:

Next year, our insurance is changing, and I will lose my family practice doctor of 22 years--the doctor that delivered all my children and that has cared for our teenage children all of their lives. We'll also lose all of the back-up doctors our family has seen when we couldn't see our regular doctor. ..... I was happy with my insurance, and now I have to lose my doctor.

Then there is Denny from Rapid City, SD, who told me the following:

My insurance company cancelled my policy. I am currently paying over $800 a month for a family of four. ..... If I sign up for ObamaCare, I would be paying over $2,500 a month. I cannot think of any way this is considered affordable health care!

Linda, a small business owner and operator from a small town along the

Missouri River, wrote this:

We need your help. ..... We have one full-time employee, and we provide health care coverage for him, his wife, and their children. ..... Our monthly premium in 2013 was $2,964.20 or $35,570.40 annually. Our monthly premium--as a result of the ``Affordable Care Act''--for 2014 is $3,524.75 or $42,297 annually.

A huge increase from what they were paying before, from 2013 to 2014.

She says:

I have been told by our agent to expect even more substantial increases in 2015. This is very frightening for us.

Lyle from Brookings, SD, said that thanks to ObamaCare, his monthly premium almost doubled and his deductible doubled.

He says:

I'm a small business owner, and would like to hire an employee next spring. Well, that's not going to happen!

We were told that ObamaCare would lower costs and make health care more affordable. Instead, it has driven up costs for these Americans and for many others. What middle-class family can afford to spend $17,000 a year on insurance? How can a small business with one employee afford a $7,000 yearly hike in insurance premiums? The answer is they cannot.

As if high health care prices were not enough, ObamaCare is also damaging many Americans' job prospects.

There is the 30-hour workweek rule, which is forcing many employers to cut their employees' hours. There is the medical device tax, which has already resulted in thousands and thousands of lost jobs in the industry and will likely result in many more if it isn't repealed. There is the employer mandate, which is discouraging many employers from expanding and hiring new employees. And there are the many rules and regulations that are placing a huge financial and logistical burden on small businesses.

ObamaCare isn't working. It was supposed to help Americans. Instead, it is hurting them. It is time to start over and to replace this law with real health care reforms--reforms that will actually lower costs for Americans, give them back their health care choices, and improve access to care.

That is what we ought to be doing. But, unfortunately, we have lots of folks here in this Chamber who are trying as desperately as they can to run away from the issue without fixing it.

So as we get into these November elections and the run-up to them, a lot of vulnerable Democrats who voted for this are looking for a way out. But in many cases this was their signature achievement. This is the President's signature law. So they own it. They own that vote. Yet they are trying to figure out a way to spin it to the American people so that it will come across in a different way than the reality the American people are experiencing.

This is the headline in Politico from yesterday: ObamaCare ``War Room Prepares for Sept. Surprise.'' They know there is more bad news coming out in September of this year when the new insurance rates are announced to kick in.

So what is the White House doing? They have six people assigned to congressional Democrats to help do damage control in their States or their districts when this bad news comes out. And it inevitably will because there is no way that all the new mandates and requirements associated with this law don't lead to higher prices--in addition to all the higher taxes that go with it.

So the headline is the ``War Room Prepares for Sept. Surprise,'' and it goes on to detail how they are trying their best to spin this in a way that confuses the American people into thinking it is something better than it is. Unfortunately for the spinners, the reality that most Americans are confronting and experiencing is a very different one--and that is the reality I talked about earlier: higher premiums, higher deductibles, higher copays, fewer choices when it comes to doctors and hospitals, fewer full-time jobs and more part-time jobs as employers look for ways to avoid dealing with these mandates and requirements that are imposed under ObamaCare. But it is forcing more and more people onto part-time jobs when they would like to be working full time. That is why last week when the jobs numbers came out and people were hailing the numbers--sure, there was some good news there. But there was an awful lot of bad news, and one of the bad news items was that a good majority were actually part-time and not full-time jobs.

Why? One of the reasons is the mandates and requirements under ObamaCare and the institution of a 30-hour workweek, which is forcing employers to hire employees for fewer than 30 hours so they don't get stuck with having to provide government-approved health care, which would dramatically increase what they are paying for health care today.

That is the reality that most Americans are confronting. I hope at some point, as these realities continue to sink in with the American people, their elected officials here in Washington will come together and realize this isn't working; it is not working for employers; and it is not working for middle-class families in this country who are increasingly squeezed by these higher costs; and it certainly isn't working for our economy.

I know the Senator from Wyoming, Mr. Barrasso, who has been mentioned by the Senator from Oklahoma, is a physician and understands these issues very well and has spoken at great length here on the floor about ObamaCare and its impacts. I know he is going to share some of the stories that he has received from not only the people he represents from the State of Wyoming but from those around the country who are feeling the impacts of this law.

So would I yield for the Senator from Wyoming.

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