Click here to watch the speech.

Over a year ago and a half ago, President Obama’s health care plan was written in Washington behind closed doors.  Each day, Americans regularly discover more glitches in the President’s health care law. 

Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) spoke about two of the law’s major flaws:

• Americans may not receive promised health care tax credits through federal exchanges. 

• Approximately 3 million middle-class early retirees will become eligible to enroll in Medicaid, a low-income assistance program.

Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate:

“Well, the American people have now had 17 months to find out what is in the President’s health care law, and one news report after another has been uncovering a laundry list of so-called glitches in the health care law.

“On Wednesday, September 7, of this year, Investor’s Business Daily printed an article entitled ‘Oops: no Obama tax credit via federal exchanges.’ The way Obamacare was written, individual whose qualify for a taxpayer-funded subsidy to buy government-approved health insurance in the new state exchanges may not get it.

“Section 1311 of the health care law requires the states to set up state-run exchanges.  This state-based exchange is a place where individuals can use their government subsidy to buy health insurance.  Now, if a state declines to set up their own exchange, then section 1321 mandates that the federal government set it up and run it for them.

“Here’s the catch: the health care law, as written, as signed by the President, explicitly says that the taxpayer-funded subsidies can only go to people who are enrolled in exchanges set up by the state.

“Nowhere does the health care law mention that the subsidy can be given to people enrolled in the federal exchange.  So the American people are now finding out that their family might actually qualify for government help to buy health insurance but they’re not going to receive the help.

“Instead, individuals enrolled in the federally run exchanges could be forced to buy health insurance that absolutely they cannot afford.  Not only might this law cause individuals to spend money that they don’t have, the law may also offer tax-funded subsidies to people who don’t actually need it.

“At a time when our country can hardly afford to spend money we don’t have, Medicare’s Chief Actuary, Richard foster, exposed yet another glitch in the President’s health care law.

“The law allows approximately 3 million middle-class early retirees to qualify for Medicaid. Well, Medicaid is a safety net program designed to help low-income Americans.

“Here’s how this one works: the health care law defines how the federal government will set an individual’s Medicaid eligibility. The calculations are all based on income.

“Here’s the glitch: the health care law excludes a large part of an individual’s social security income from that calculation.

“Well, today federal low-income assistance programs are required to count social security benefits as part of an individual’s income.  Thanks to the health care law, early retirees earning up to $58,840 a year could now be eligible for Medicaid.

“Here’s what Mr. Foster said in an Associated Press article: ‘I don’t generally comment on the pros or cons of policy, but that just doesn’t make sense.’   This is the Chief Actuary of Medicare.

“Well, Mr. President, I agree.  That’s why I’ve co-sponsored legislation introduced by Senator Mike Enzi closing this loophole.  Senator Enzi’s bill, (S. 1376), changes the health care law’s subsidy-eligibility calculation to include all nontaxable social security income.

“The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimate that if we enacted Senator Enzi’s bill, we will save the federal government and the American people about $13 billion. The Senate should immediately take up (S. 1376) and pass it.

“Now, these two examples inevitably beg the question, what next?  Clearly, the self-described ‘most transparent administration in history’ has a lot of explaining to do.

“How many more destructive ticking time bombs are there lurking in this law and in the regulations that still haven’t been written about this health care law? That was signed a year and a half ago?  We don’t know.  We don’t know because many of the provisions don’t even go into effect until the year 2014 or later.”

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