“There are new problems with this health care law every day. Now, the website was supposed to be the easy part – but to me it’s the tip of the iceberg.”
Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s speech.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) spoke about how over the past four weeks Americans have learned that the President’s health care law is much more than a failed website. Barrasso outlines how Americans are watching their premiums increase and many are losing their health coverage and their doctors.
Excerpts of his remarks:
“Later this week, we will hit the one-month anniversary of the launch of the President Obama’s health insurance exchange.
“My question is, what have we learned the past four weeks?
“We know that the rollout of the exchanges, and the Healthcare.gov website, I think Americans would agree, it’s been disastrous.
“Last week, the Associated Press even ran a headline about what people in my home state of Wyoming have experienced.
“It said: ‘National health insurance site sputters in Wyoming.’ The article goes on to talk about the health care law, the website and it says, ‘Wyoming Insurance Commissioner Tom Hirsig said Monday that he’s personally been unable to register on the federal government’s Wyoming site despite trying every day.’
“This is the same story we’ve seen all across the country.
“We’ve also learned over the past four weeks that the President’s health care law is much more than just a failed website.
“What we know, there is sticker shock hitting people all across the country as they start shopping and find that higher premiums are what they’re facing. They’re going to be paying much higher premiums if they able to buy health insurance if they’re able to get through the exchange.
“CBS News had the story of one woman in Florida whose health insurance she said will cost 11 times what she’s currently paying—from $54 a month to $591.
“Well, over the past four weeks another thing that we’ve learned is that many people have gotten notices in the mail and these are cancellation notices. They’re getting these from their insurance companies. They’re being told that their insurance policies, the coverage that they had, has been canceled.
“Only a small number of people have been able to get insurance through the government exchanges so far we’ve seen that over the last month –and testimony today in the House Hearing. A person from the Administration said they really can’t really tell you how many people have signed up for the exchanges, but we know that hundreds of thousands of people are losing the insurance they had.
“Here’s what that woman in Florida told CBS.
“She said, ‘What I have right now is what I’m happy with, and I just want to know why I can’t keep what I have. Why do I have to be forced into something else?’
“Like many Americans, this is a person that actually believed President Obama when he promised that if you liked the insurance you had, you could keep it.
“Now she’s learned that under the President’s health care law that it’s not just a website, it’s a broken promise.
“It turns out that if the White House likes your plan then you can keep it – if the White House doesn’t like your plan, then you’re out of luck. You can’t keep it.
“Yesterday the Obama Administration finally admitted that millions of people across the country will lose their insurance.
“Now we know all of these ways the President’s health care law is more than a failed website.
“So the big question now is: What don’t we know yet? What is still out there that the American people don’t know about the health care law?
“How much worse will things get before the White House admits that the entire law is broken?
“We’ve seen one headline after another about problems with the health care law that the Obama Administration knew about, and would not admit.
“One revelation after another about troubles they hid from the American people and did so deliberately.
“So, what else is the Obama Administration not telling the American people?
“The White House may have finally said publicly that millions of people are going to lose the insurance they have—but according to NBC News, the Obama Administration has known that for at least three years.
“When the train first went off the tracks, the White House said that its website crashed because they said millions of people tried to use it at the same time.
“Well, according to the Washington Post, though, the limited testing the Administration did before the launch found that the site would crash if just a few hundred people used it.
“It’s just fascinating. The Democrats’ whole law was based on the idea that Washington, government, is capable of running America’s health care system competently.
“What we’ve seen is gross incompetence.
“It turns out that Washington can’t even set up a website competently – and it looks like they knew it.
“Computer programmers warned about the rush to get the web site done by October first.
“Instead of hitting the pause button, which they should have done, hitting the pause button until it could get things working, the White House pushed on.
“That’s what we learned from some of the contractors who built the website. This is a website that has cost the taxpayers $400 million so far and the bills are still coming in.
“These contractors testified last week in the House that full tests of the site should have started months in advance, but the testing didn’t happen until the last two weeks of September.
“Who decided to go ahead anyway?
“Well, President Obama’s Administration. They’re the ones that decided.
“Contractors thought if the registration process wasn’t going to work, then maybe it would help to set up a way for people to shop for plans and get information without registering.
“The Administration told them to ‘deprioritize’ that plan. What a government word. Deprioritize that plan.
“Then, when the website turned out to be a complete disaster, a systems failure, the Obama Administration tried to hide just how bad it was.
“It asked the largest health insurer in North Dakota not to tell anybody how many people have signed up for insurance through the exchange. The administration telling a state, don’t open up, don’t tell the people the truth.
“Why not?
“Well, because as of last week, only 14 people had been able to sign up for the company’s plan.
“The numbers are so embarrassing for the Administration –they’ve been trying to cover up. And they continue to cover up today when there was testimony and no numbers were given.
“It’s the same reason the Administration won’t say how many people have signed up nationwide.
“They know how many people have signed up—but they refuse to tell the American people. The taxpayers, the people who pay the taxes and see their money being wasted by this administration and this government.
“There are new problems with this health care law every day. Now, the website was supposed to be the easy part – but to me it’s the tip of the iceberg. The website failures are just the tip of the Iceberg.
“What else does the White House know about?
“Well, by now they should know about cancelled coverage because it looks like millions of Americans have already gotten notices from their insurance companies that they lost their insurance. Their insurance has been cancelled.
“There have been premium increases. People have talked about the fact that their premiums are going up, that there are higher co-pays and deductibles to deal with. People losing access to the doctor. Then, there’s always the issues of fraud and identity theft?
“What else are we going to learn this week when Secretary Sebelius testifies in the House tomorrow?
“Will she actually open up? Will she tell people the truth? Will she give them the real numbers? Or will she not admit to what is actually going on and refuse to answer the questions.
“How much worse does the Obama Administration incompetence get?
“What will it take for the President to admit that his health care law has been a train wreck—and that he’ll have to delay it for at least a year?
“We know he’s going to have to do it eventually.
“There is no way all of these problems are going to get fixed quickly—and he’s going to have to delay the individual mandate. The mandate that says every American must buy and have and prove they have health insurance.
“And who’s the enforcer. The IRS. The Internal Revenue Service.
“The President should just go ahead and do it now – and also delay other parts of the law, not just the mandate.
“It’s time for President Obama to really come clean with the American people about what his Administration knew—and then come to the table to work with Republicans and give people the real health care reform that they need, that they want, and that they deserve. So people can get the care they want from a doctor they choose at a lower cost.”
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