WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor highlighting recent alarming headlines about President Obama’s health care law.
Transcript of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:
“The American people have gotten used to hearing bad news about their health care ever since the Democrats passed Obamacare.
“It seems like each and every day there’s another headline about another way the health care law is hurting people.
“Last Wednesday, there was a remarkable amount of bad news in one day.
“The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, September 23, the headline ‘Health Insurers Defend Deals.’ You flip the page over and the bottom half of that page, ‘Cost of a Family Health Plan Tops $17,000.’ One day, one page.
“The top article about the wave of health insurance company mergers we’ve been seeing recently.
“Now, the president said that his health care law would increase competition among insurance companies.
“Just like a lot of other predictions that President Obama made, this one has not come true.
“Back in June, the insurance company Aetna announced plans to buy Humana. Then the company, Anthem, decided to buy Cigna.
“If these mergers are approved, it means that the five largest insurance companies in the United States would now be down to three.
“The president said that there would be more competition – well, Americans are about to have much less competition.
“It’s not only because of these giant insurance company mergers.
“Obamacare also set up health co-ops in 24 states. These co-ops were supposed to add competition and help keep prices down. Taxpayers put up $2.4 billion to help these companies get started.
“Well, over the past few months, what’s happened? These co-ops have been dropping like flies.
“Just the other day, regulators in New York shut down the largest Obamacare co-op in the country. Why? Because it’s lost so much money. 215,000 New Yorkers will now have fewer options for where they can buy their Washington-mandated insurance.
“This is the fourth co-op to fail in just the past few months. Another one failed before it ever enrolled a single person. Think about that: government loan, set up a co-op, don’t enroll anyone and close shop.
“There’s only one co-op of the original 24 that is actually making any money – so it can stay in business.
“The American people know that they are not getting the increased competition that President Obama promised.
“They also know that they aren’t getting the lower prices that the president promised.
“Another article came out last Wednesday that talked about how much more Americans are paying for their health care.
“This was a September 23rd New York Times, with the headline ‘Health Insurance Deductibles Rising Faster Than Wages.’ Here it is: unaffordable care. From 2010 to 2015, wages up 10 percent, premiums up 24 percent, deductibles up 67 percent.
“The article describes a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. According to Kaiser, health insurance premiums for a single person have gone up more than twice as fast as people’s earnings since Obamacare became law. And we’re talking about all the people who get their insurance through work , which is about 150 million Americans. This isn’t just a small group of people – this is all the people who get their insurance through work.
“Deductibles have gone up almost seven times faster than earnings. That’s an enormous hit to the finances of American families.
“This article talked about how these high deductibles are hurting a woman named Beth Landrum. She’s 52 years old, she’s a teacher.
“The article says that about two years ago Beth ‘saw the deductible on her family’s plan increase to $3,300 per year. She’s a teacher, she’s 52. $3,300 per year deductible under Obama’s healthcare law.
“A couple of years ago is when a lot of these Obamacare mandates were really starting to bite.
“This woman survived a brain tumor 10 years ago. Here she is – she has insurance, she had a brain tumor 10 years ag, successfully treated.
“Now she’s putting off having an MRI that’s been recommended by her doctor. She says, ‘My doctor’s really mad at me because I haven’t had the MRI.’ They want to see if there’s any recurrence of the tumor.
“She says that she and her husband need to save up money to pay for the test. She has the health insurance under Obamacare – and she can no longer afford to get the health care. Coverage without care. The president continues to ignore this fact about his unaffordable health care law.
“Can’t afford to get care, not under Obamacare.
“President Obama promised that people would save $2,500 per family, per year under his health care law. Average premiums are up nearly $4,000 since the law passed.
“Does the president really believe it’s affordable?
“This new study by Kaiser only looked at insurance that people get, as I say, through their jobs.
“It didn’t look at the deductibles people are paying when they buy their insurance through the Obamacare exchanges.
“President Obama said that these plans would be cheaper than a cell phone bill. That’s what he said – cheaper than a cell phone. Easier to use than Amazon for shopping on the web, and cheaper than a cell phone.
“According to this article in the New York Times, that’s not how it’s worked out for a woman named Rebecca Bullard.
“Rebecca is 27-years-old, and she purchased her plan through her state exchange for $129 per month. To get a plan at that price, she had to accept a deductible of $6,000. But she has Obamacare. The president can say he did her a favor.
“The article says that when she worried that she had cracked a rib recently, ‘she chose to ask friends on social media about what to do rather than go to the doctor.’ Because of the Obamacare that was not worth very much to her.
“That’s how concerned she is about paying the out-of-pocket costs that Obamacare brought her. She says, ‘Now I don’t even want to go to the doctor.’
“Is that what the president promised the American people?
“Deductibles so high that people don’t even want to go to their doctor?
“People may have coverage, but they cannot afford the care. People are paying more and getting less.
“It’s not surprising that the Obama administration is starting to worry.
“They have to figure out how to convince people that it’s worth signing up for this outrageously expensive Obamacare insurance.
“That’s what the Wall Street Journal said in another article on September 23.
“This was under the headline ‘Insuring More People Seen as Tough.’
“According to this article, the Secretary of Health and Human Services says that ‘this open enrollment is going to be tougher than last year.’
“We know it’s going to be tough for families that are getting hit with higher premiums and other costs.
“Now, the Obama administration isn’t worried about these people.
“What the Obama administration is now worried about is that it will be tough to sign up enough customers for this awful law.
“By now, they were supposed to have 21 million people signed up for Obamacare by next year. Right now there aren’t even 10 million people signed up. They’re not even half way to where they need to be and where they said they would be.
“If they don’t get more young, healthy customers soon, the whole system is likely to collapse.
“That’s why the Obama administration is worried. They’re worried about their ability to sustain this law.
“There’s a reason people aren’t signing up. The people who haven’t signed up yet know that the insurance is not a good value. It’s not good for them, personally.
“About half of the people who still don’t have insurance have less than $100 in savings. How is someone with less than $100 in savings supposed to pay a $6,000 deductible? Why won’t the president answer these questions? Why won’t they Democrats come to this floor and answer these questions? I haven’t seen a Democrat come address any of these issues or any of these headlines.
“President Obama promised the American people that his health care law would produce lower costs and more choice.
“Instead, he’s given people fewer choices, more powerful insurance companies, higher deductibles and higher premiums.
“We’ve had too many of these alarming headlines, and that’s just in one day. Too much bad news about Obamacare. The American people get it, it’s a bad deal for them.
“President Obama is a lame duck. He forced through Congress a terrible program.
“It’s time for Democrats in Congress to sit down with Republicans and start talking about the kind of health care reforms that the American people need, want and deserve.”
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