Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks.
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding how the president’s health care law is “very near collapse.”
Barrasso points out that, one by one, insurers are dropping out of Obamacare and leaving Americans with less choice for health insurance.
Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:
“I can still remember the president back in 2009, when he gave his speech to Congress, he said, ‘In 34 states, 75 percent of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies.’
“The president said that ‘without competition, the price of insurance goes up,’ and he said that ‘quality goes down.’
“That’s what President Obama said seven years ago. He said that five options or fewer was such a threat to competition and to quality of care for American families that he needed to create his very own entire Obamacare system.
“So what’s the situation today? One-third of America will have only one Obamacare insurer in 2017.
“Millions of Americans will have fewer choices in 2017 than when they had in 2016, with a third of the country having only one option for coverage next year.
“The Obama administration said that these were supposed to be competitive marketplaces.
“When there’s only one company selling a product in an area, that’s not competition – that’s a monopoly.
“When you’re down to one choice, basically you have no choice. Except for the people in
Pinal County, Arizona, they actually have no choices.
“No one wants to sell insurance to the people that live there, none. It is an Obamacare ghost town.
“What does President Obama say about that?
“It’s gotten so bad in some places that the Obamacare exchanges are being called by state insurance commissioners ‘very near collapse.’
“The insurance commissioner in Tennessee described the situation in her state as very near collapse.
Obamacare Premiums Set to Skyrocket
“People in Tennessee who get Obamacare insurance will be paying as much as 62 percent more starting in January.
“In Illinois, they’re going to be paying 45 percent more next year. In Georgia, 33 percent more.
“These aren’t just proposed increases; these are increases that have been approved by the insurance commissioners of those states.
“Premiums are going through the roof, Americans are stuck with fewer options – because the insurance companies just can’t afford to sell on the exchanges due to the rules and regulations and the mandates of the exchanges.
“People living in a third of the country won’t have any choice next year – all they’ll have to deal with is an Obamacare health insurance monopoly, heading to Obamacare no man’s land.
“Companies are giving up because people don’t want Obamacare insurance, people can’t afford it, they’re not buying it, they say for them it’s not a good deal.
Creating Real Competition—Not Obamacare Monopolies
“Obamacare has failed – and Democrats cannot fix it by making it larger.
“In one-third of the counties in America, people won’t have a choice for where they buy their health insurance starting November 1st.
“America does have a choice when it comes to fixing our broken health care system.
“We can choose to get rid of Obamacare – and to put in place solutions that we know actually will work for people.
“It means letting people get out from under the burden of all the Washington mandates, and it’s the mandates that are really the cause of these devastating price increases.
“You want to create real competition, not Obamacare monopolies.
“Letting people choose the coverage, and the cost, that is right for them and their families – not what Washington says is right for them.
“It’s time for Democrats to work with us to give the American people the health care that they want, that they need and that they deserve.”
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