“Why did President Obama take away the rights of women to choose what health coverage is right for them and their families?”
Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s speech.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) spoke about how the President’s health care law is disproportionately hurting women across the country. Barrasso shares specific accounts from women in Wyoming, North Carolina and Arkansas who are being forced to pay more money for insurance they do not need, do not want and will likely never use.
Excerpts of his remarks:
“Last week I heard the Majority Leader speak about people who are happy with the president’s health care law. I agree some people have actually been helped by the law, but many Americans— many Americans have been hurt by the law’s destructive side effects.
“Republicans have given examples of people from all across the country, of all ages, in all kinds of situations being harmed by the health care law.
“And what we found is that a disproportionate number of those being hurt are women. These are middle-class Americans. They work hard. They do the right thing. They just want to care for themselves and their families.
“The health care law that the president wrote and every Democrat in the Senate voted for, this law is standing between them and the lives that they want to live. That’s what I’m hearing from my neighbors back home in Wyoming and I think I hear perhaps from more individuals than many of the senators do because I was a physician that practiced medicine in Wyoming for 25 years, taking care of patients, taking care of families.
“But I’d like to share with you what I’ve been hearing from women around the state of Wyoming and how this law has been impacting their own lives.
“So I got a letter from a woman in Gillette, Wyoming, and she says, ‘I want to share with you my frustration and my worry concerning the Affordable Care Act.’ She said that she and her husband have three daughters, three daughters ages 12, 9 and 3. She said her husband recently started a business.
“She said, ‘Thanks to the new health care law, our insurance premium has increased $560 every month.’ That’s the increase every month. That’s $6,700 more a year that this family has to pay for insurance under the president’s health care law.
“Here’s what she wrote. She said, ‘As we struggle to plan for our girls’ futures, attempt to make my husband’s business prosper, and dream of what our future may hold once our children are raised, it is disheartening,’ she said, ‘that we will now pay nearly $17,000 a year for health insurance.’
“She said, ‘There are so many things we could and should be able to do with that money.’ She says, ‘That’s an additional $560 a month could put our girls into college funds, could go toward a payment on a new car or home, could be given back to our church, our community.’
“She said, ‘Sadly, we don’t have the luxury of deciding how to use that hard-earned money. She says, ‘We’ve been told by Washington that we will spend our money on health insurance.’ She said, ‘I’ve never been so completely let down by the American government.’
“Here’s a woman who just wants to raise her family, send her daughters to college, maybe grow the family business and there in Wyoming she is struggling with the burden Washington Democrats imposed on her with this terrible health care law.
“Now, President Obama says the Democrats who voted for this law should forcefully defend and be proud of the health care law. Are Democrats in the Senate who voted for this health care law proud of what they’re doing to this woman and her family?
“Are Democrats willing to come to the floor and forcefully defend and be proud that this family, this Wyoming family has to spend thousands of dollars on health insurance instead of on their daughters’ college funds?
“Millions of women all across America are in the same situation as this woman in Gillette, Wyoming.
“There’s been a new study that looked at how much more money people are paying this year for insurance in the Obamacare exchanges than they paid last year, before the Obama health care law kicked in.
“What they found is a lot of women are paying much, much more because of the health care law, because of the president’s health care law.
“In North Carolina—we just heard from the senator from North Carolina—in North Carolina, an average 27-year-old woman is paying $1,100 more for insurance coverage this year than she did last year.
“In North Carolina, a 64-year-old woman is paying $5,000 more because of all the requirements of the health care law. Is that senator willing to come back and forcefully defend and be proud of this health care law? And what it’s done to these women in their home state?
“It’s the same thing in Arkansas. An average 40-year-old woman pays $1,300 more this year because of the law. A 64-year-old woman in Arkansas is paying $3,400 more this year because of the exchanges.
“In one state after another, women are paying more. Women of all ages are getting hurt. And ‘The Washington Post’ had a very interesting story about this on June 24th. It said, ‘Older women bear the brunt of higher health insurance costs under Obamacare.’
“The article says, ‘A new report found women aged 55-64 will face a huge spike in cost when they go out to buy individual insurance on the federal exchange.’ The article says, ‘These women bear the brunt of the increased premiums and the out-of-pocket expenses after the Affordable Care Act.’
“So under President Obama and the Democrats’ plan, older women are bearing the brunt of higher health insurance costs. This is a disgraceful side effect of the Democrats’ health care law.
“Women across the country paying more money for insurance they do not need, do not want and will likely never use. Are Democrats willing to come to the floor of the United States Senate and forcefully defend and be proud of the fact that older women are bearing the brunt of higher health insurance costs under this law?
“I’ve got another letter from a rancher from Newcastle, Wyoming. She and her husband were paying $650 a month for insurance. She says we don’t carry maternity insurance because we’ve completed our family and the woman has had a hysterectomy.
“Now, I say the president I get letters more than maybe most because I am a physician, practiced in Wyoming for a long time.
“She says their insurance agent told them they couldn’t renew their policy at the end of last year and the reason, well, because it didn’t meet the president’s requirement that they have to have maternity coverage.
“So they had to choose a new policy from the exchange. Now, remember she doesn’t need or want maternity coverage and she’s never going to use it because she’s had a hysterectomy.
“According to President Obama and the Democrats, doesn’t matter one bit. Doesn’t matter, they said.
“So they were paying $650 a month before Obamacare. She said that her insurance agent quoted her rates for a comparable policy of anywhere between $1,300 and $1,600 a month. Or they could take a bronze policy with much less coverage than they had before for $900, still more than they were paying before, so $3,000 a year more than they paid before Obamacare, and the out-of-pocket costs would be much higher, much more difficult for the family.
“This woman from Wyoming writes ‘We’re being forced out of a good policy which we pay for with hard-earned money and which we choose into a dangerous financial health situation with less coverage and which puts my husband and I,’ she said, ‘who are proud of our own sustainability, on to what we consider the welfare rolls by needing a government subsidy to afford a plan that we don’t want or need. We don’t want, we don’t need, and we’re forced on to it.’
“She writes ‘to say that we’re angry is an understatement. Why is this happening? Why can Obama force me into this?’ She says, ‘We feel helpless.’
“This isn’t what the President of the United States promised the American people, it’s not what every Democrat who voted for the health care law promised the American people. It seems to me that President Obama and Democrats in the Senate just don’t get it.
“All these women wanted was a chance to buy insurance coverage that worked for them. They wanted the right to be left alone, to make their own choices about their family’s health care, not to have Washington make choices for them.
“They wanted the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs. President Obama wasn’t interested in listening to what women wanted. He wanted to tell, he wanted to mandate, tell them and mandate what he thought was best for them. It’s outrageous.
“I hear from people almost every day who are feeling the costly and cruel side effects of the health care law.
“Heard from a woman in Casper, Wyoming where I practiced and was chief of staff of the medical center, the Wyoming Medical Center in Casper.
“She gets her insurance through her job and the costs have gone up so much under Obamacare that she is worried about what will happen. She writes ‘I’m concerned for what I might be facing when my employer has to comply with the health care law next year.’ She said ‘I’ve not had children yet, not had children yet because of the effects the recession has had on me and my husband.’
“She said ‘I would very much like to think that we could have one in the next couple of years, however, the insurance fiasco worries me.’
“So this woman is worried that the health care law might actually affect her and her husband having a family. Why did President Obama take away the rights of women to choose what health coverage is right for them and their families?
“An active decision made by Democrats in this body and the President of the United States to take away the rights of women to choose what health coverage is right for them and their families.
“Why did President Obama raise the cost of health care and make it more expensive for women? These are just a few of the women who are being hurt by Obamacare and just a few of the ways that the president’s health care law is affecting women all across America.
“Again, there are some people who have been helped by the law. Some people are happy with their insurance. Nobody’s denying that.
“There are also people who have been hurt by the law and who can’t afford it and who are devastated because of it. What does the president have to say to those people?
“Why won’t President Obama sit down with just one of these women who have written to me and actually listen to the damage that he has done to them, to their families, and to their health care as a result of his health care law?
“Why won’t Democrats come to the floor of the Senate and talk about these millions of Americans, millions of women who they have harmed with the health care law?
“Republicans have offered ideas for health care reform that allow women to make choices on what’s best for them and their families. If they want maternity coverage, they can find a policy that offers it.
“They wouldn’t be forced to pay for what they don’t need, or don’t want just because someone in Washington tells them they must.
“People wanted health care reform to give them access to quality, affordable care, not more expensive coverage.
“Republicans are going to keep coming to the floor, going to keep offering real solutions for better health care without all these expensive and offensive side effects.”
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