President's Health Care Law

Floor Speech

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, this past Saturday the open enrollment period for the Obama health care law opened in terms of the health care exchange. People who bought health insurance through healthcare.gov or through their State's exchange are finally allowed to see how much their insurance is going to cost next year. Things were pushed back beyond the election so people wouldn't be able to find out before the election what it was going to cost. So the Obama administration had all of this information for awhile, but they intentionally kept it secret until after election day. Now people get to see the prices, and many people across the country are absolutely in shock at the increased costs of the health care law.

Millions of Americans are learning their health insurance is going to cost them a lot more. As a matter of fact, when the exchanges opened November 15, on the front page of the New York Times: ``Cost of Coverage Under Care Act Set to Increase.'' The article says:

The Obama administration on Friday unveiled data showing that many Americans with health insurance bought under the Affordable Care Act could face substantial price increases next year--in some cases as much as 20 percent.

Substantial price increases, 20 percent.

For some people it is going to be even higher than that.

The Wall Street Journal took a look at it and they had a large story with a picture on Friday and the headline is: ``Consumers Still Confused Ahead of Insurance Sign-ups.''

The article describes a man named Bob Sorey, who is a real estate salesperson in Mount Juliet, TN. He had a plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield, and he says his premiums are going up nearly 25 percent next year. He told the newspaper, ``I just can't absorb that.''

President Obama promised the American people they would save $2,500 per year per family under his health care law. Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House, went on ``Meet the Press'' at one point and said everyone's rates would go down--everyone, she said. What does the President have to say now? What will he tell those people whose rates have continued to go up? What does he say to this real estate broker in Tennessee who can't absorb a 20-percent increase?

In Anchorage, AK, a typical plan is going to cost 28 percent more next year. That is for the second cheapest silver plan, what they call the benchmark plan.

In Minneapolis rates are going up almost 19 percent, and that is just for the premiums. For many people their copays are going up and their deductibles are going up as well. In some parts of Georgia 70 percent of the plans sold on the exchange have deductibles of at least $2,500. Is that affordable for people? Millions of Americans will be paying more in premiums as well as more out of their pocket--millions of people such as Bob Sorey, the real estate broker in Tennessee, who, as he said, just can't absorb the cost.

These skyrocketing premiums may explain why the President's health care law is more unpopular right now than ever before.

According to the latest Gallup poll, only 37 percent of Americans approve of the law. It was supposed to get more popular. That is what the Democrats on this floor told people across the country and told us. Instead, the opposite has happened. People see how much their costs have increased because of the law, and many people are learning that having coverage under the law is not the same as having care. There is a difference between coverage and care.

That is what USA Today found out. They had a front-page article last Friday with the headline: ``Rural Hospitals in Critical Condition.''

So not just the cost of coverage under the care act set to increase, but rural hospitals are in critical condition.

Obama critics say the law is speeding up the demise of rural facilities, of rural hospitals. That is the problem.

The article talks about a small hospital in Georgia that had to close in the spring of last year because of all the new burdens of the health care law. People in that town now have to travel many miles to get to another hospital in another town. One of those people was Bill Jones. He was a peanut and cotton farmer who lived about 9 miles away from the old hospital. Bill suffered a heart attack 1 month after the hospital had to close. The ambulance had to take him to another hospital in a town further away. I can tell my colleagues, as a doctor who practiced medicine for 25 years, when someone has a heart attack, every minute counts. Bill Jones didn't survive his heart attack. Maybe he wouldn't have survived a trip to a closer hospital; we won't know that. But the hospital is gone now and it is gone because of the President's health care law. For people living in rural States such as Georgia and my own State of Wyoming, this is a terrifying prospect.

The article says that since January of 2010, more than 40 rural hospitals have closed across the country. There is a map of the country of all the places where hospitals have closed. Ezekiel Emanuel, who worked on the health care law, says that 40 hospitals is not enough. He is one of the architects of course of the President's health care law. He says that over the next 6 years, more than 1,000 hospitals will close. In more than 1,000 American communities, people will be further away from medical care. That is precious lost time for people who have heart attacks or for women with high-risk pregnancies who are further from the help they need to deliver a healthy baby. They may have coverage under the President's health care law, but that is not the same as getting the care they need.

We are also seeing that for people whom the law has pushed into Medicaid--because Medicaid, of course--the President's goal was to push more and more people into Medicaid--that pays less for services than traditional insurance companies pay. A lot of doctors and other providers can't afford to take new Medicaid patients.

There was a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal last Friday that says as more join Medicaid, health care systems feel strained.

As more join Medicaid--the President's goal--health systems feel the strain. The article says that about one-third of all primary care physicians aren't taking new Medicaid patients. One of them is Dr. Holly Abernathy. She is a family physician in Farmington, NM, and she says she just can't afford to take any new patients under the program. She says: ``I would love to see every Medicaid patient that comes through my door.'' She also says: ``If you give people coverage, they should be able to utilize it.''

Premiums are going up, out-of-pocket costs are going up. Hospitals are closing. Doctors are having to turn away patients--all because of the President's health care law.

ObamaCare was too long, too complicated, too expensive, and it took away too much from the people who like the care and the coverage they had before the law was passed. That is why Republicans are going to vote to repeal the entire health care law.

Meanwhile, we will also vote to strip away the worst and most destructive parts of the law--parts such as the employer mandate, the arbitrary 30-hour workweek, that has been devastating to part-time workers across the country and others such as the unfair medical device tax that sends American jobs overseas and threatens lifesaving innovation.

Republicans are going to keep fighting for Americans who have been harmed by the President's health care law. We are going to keep offering the real solutions that people wanted all along--access to the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower cost. That is what the American people are demanding, and that is what they deserve. It is what Republicans are going to give them.

I thank the Presiding Officer, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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