Obamacare

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, as you hear in Montana and I hear in Wyoming weekend after weekend as we go home and we travel our States over the summertime, we are hearing from more people and seeing more articles in the newspaper about how the Obama health care law is falling apart. Every Member of this body--every Member of this body-- probably hears the same stories I hear and have heard again today visiting with people from Wyoming--stories from people who can no longer afford their health care premiums, their health care coverage, the copays, the deductibles, and all of the things that have happened because of the Obama health care law.

I think it is interesting to reflect on that new survey done by the Gallup organization, a well-known pollster from around the country with a long history. They released numbers last week about what people are seeing around the country with regard to ObamaCare--the things we have been hearing at home every weekend.

The first thing we found is that more Americans disapprove of ObamaCare than approve of it. Now, it is interesting because the Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, was on the floor yesterday saying repeatedly: Isn't ObamaCare great? Well, I would say to my friend and colleague from Nevada: No, as a matter of fact, more Americans disapprove--thumbs down--of the Obama health care law than people who approve.

That is not what was supposed to happen--oh no. When the now minority leader--then the majority leader--came to the floor a number of years ago with a bill that was written behind closed doors in his office, when they forced this through the House and the Senate, they said it would be great. Senator Schumer, who may likely become the new leader of the Democrats in a new Senate after the minority leader retires, predicted from the floor--right over there--that the law was going to be much more popular as time went on. He said: ``When people see what is in the bill, and when people see what it does, they will come around.''

Well, it has now been 6 years. People have seen what is in the bill. Remember Nancy Pelosi saying: First you have to pass it before you get to find out what is in it. People have seen what is in it. They have not come around. People disapprove of the President's health care law-- thumbs down--by 51 percent.

It is interesting that the numbers have actually gotten worse, in spite of what the Senate minority leader said yesterday repeatedly, when he said: Isn't ObamaCare great? So 4 years ago, when Gallup asked the same question, the numbers were actually only 45 percent. Now it is 51 percent who disapprove. So it is actually heading backwards. ObamaCare is becoming more unpopular as time goes on and as people see that it has actually hurt them personally. Yes, that is what I said: It hurt them personally. The President's signature law is hurting them personally.

Let's take a look. How many people tell others the Obama health care law has hurt them personally--they and their families? A record number say that ObamaCare hurt their family--29 percent. Have people been helped by the health care law? Yes, but only 18 percent of people say they were helped by the health care law.

What I hear repeatedly in Wyoming--and I assume the Presiding Officer hears in Montana--is that the President should not have had to hurt this many Americans to help people who didn't have insurance. Why should they have hurt people who had insurance to help those who didn't? That is why this law continues to be so unpopular. It is a record number. It is not what the President or the Democrats said would happen with the health care law.

What does the President say about the law? He says: Forcefully defend and be proud. I think that is why we saw the minority leader on the floor yesterday saying: Isn't ObamaCare great? The minority party whip came to the floor on Tuesday, and he said the major aspects of the law are working. That is what he said. This doesn't look like a law that is working to me. More Americans have been hurt by the law than have been helped.

The Senator from Illinois said that the major parts of the law, the major aspects of the law are working. Well, what are the major aspects? Premiums, what people have to pay--but premiums are going through the roof. In Senator Durbin's home State of Illinois, the average person in an ObamaCare exchange is going to be paying 45 percent more next year than this year. That is when they select their plans--November 1. When they go to the exchange to see what is available, they are going to find it 45 percent more expensive than this year. So it doesn't seem like the fundamental parts of the law are working.

Why did the rates go up? It is because of ObamaCare and the mandates that come from a Washington that decides it knows what is better for the people than they know themselves. They have to buy insurance the President says they have to buy, not what they think might work best for them or their families. That is why record numbers say ObamaCare has hurt their family. They can't buy what they want. They are paying a price that is too high. The deductibles are too high. The copays are too high. So we hear the stories of what is happening with ObamaCare.

There was one other question in this poll that I would like to point to. They asked all these American families about ObamaCare. They asked: In the long run--in the long run--how do you think the health care law will affect your family's health care situation? Will it make it better for your family, as the Democrats promised? Will it have no affect? Or will it actually make things worse for you and your family? Over one- third of Americans--36 percent--say the health care law will make health care for them and for their family worse. Less than one in four say it will make it better. So more say ObamaCare will make their family's health care situation worse.

Now, that is an overwhelming margin. It is even a higher margin than last year. So as people see the impact of the health care law, as they see the impact on themselves and on their families, they are looking at this and saying: Things are going to continue to get worse because premiums have continued to go up, copays have continued to go up, deductibles have been continuing to go up, and the options are fewer and fewer.

What does the administration say about that? Well, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sylvia Burwell, wrote an op-ed that appeared in CNN 6 days ago. It was entitled: ``The reality of the health insurance marketplace.'' That is what they called it: ``The reality of the health insurance marketplace.'' She said that all these higher prices people are experiencing around the country--the reason people are saying it is worse for them and their family and that they have been hurt by the health care law--are ``growing pains.'' That is what she said--``growing pains.''

Well, as a doctor who practiced medicine for 25 years, I can tell you that growing pains generally happen when something is growing. But that is not what is happening here. What is actually happening here is that ObamaCare is shrinking. The ObamaCare exchanges are shrinking. Millions of Americans will have fewer choices this year when they go to the ObamaCare exchanges than they had to buy insurance last year. In about one out of every three counties in America, people are going to be limited to only one single ObamaCare coverage choice in 2017.

In her op-ed, the Secretary talked about the ``health insurance marketplace.'' When there is only one company selling insurance to one- third of the country, that is not a marketplace, that is a monopoly. That is why so many people say that they and their families have been personally hurt by the law and they believe it is going to make things worse for their families.

This Democrats' health care law is turning the country into an ObamaCare wasteland--a wasteland without choices and without opportunities to make decisions about what is best for you and your family. That is why the American people are so worried about the future of their health care and why there has been an incredible spike in the number of people who think that in the future, their health care will get worse.

People look at these unsustainable price increases and they say: What am I going to do? They can't afford the insurance now. Maybe they can make it through this year. What about next year?

People want and need relief because even if you are down to one choice, even if there is a monopoly and you are down to one choice, you have to buy it because if you don't, President Obama and the Democrats say ``You must pay a fine. You must pay a penalty. You must pay a tax'' even though you have no choice. That is the Democrats' plan for health care--fine and penalize and tax them, but we are not going to give them any choice. There is no marketplace; there is a monopoly.

People want and deserve relief, and Republicans are offering that kind of relief. We are offering relief by saying: If you live in one of those counties that have no choices, the penalties, mandates, and fines should not apply to you.

The Democrats say: Pay up anyway.

If you live in a location where the premiums have gone up over 10 percent, the Republicans say: You deserve relief from what President Obama and the Democrats have forced upon you.

The Democrats say: Tough. Pay up anyway. Pay the fine. Pay the penalty. Pay the tax.

The American people deserve relief. People around the country are frightened by what they are seeing. They are frightened by what is happening with the health care law and the impacts, and they can see it getting worse and worse.

This didn't have to happen. It didn't have to happen. When the President wrote this law and had Harry Reid's office behind closed doors--had it written over in that area, ignoring the pleas of the Republicans, ignoring the pleas of the American people, who said ``Do not do this to us,'' the Democrats and the President said they know better than all of us.

They said: If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. That turned out not to be true.

They said: If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. That turned out not to be true.

Premiums will drop by $2,500, they said, and that was per year. That turned out not to be true.

This health care law has been very damaging to so many Americans. There are people who need help, but the Democrats should not have hurt so many Americans who had insurance, who had something that worked for them, who had something they could afford, in an effort to help others who didn't have insurance. That is why people are desperately asking for relief from a one-size-fits-all approach with Washington mandates, with unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats forcing more regulations on hospitals, on doctors, on nurses, and on nursing homes across the board. That is why the American people say the health care law is going to make things even worse.

It is very distressing to hear a Democratic Senator come to the floor and say ``Isn't ObamaCare great?'' because the American people know it is not. They know they have been hurt, they have been harmed, they have been taxed, they have been penalized, and they have been forced to pay more. They have lost options, lost choices, and lost opportunities because of this law and this administration and the way this was passed--without listening to people from both sides.

I think it is time for the Democrats to stop trying to spin this destructive law. It is time for them to work with Republicans to give the American people what they wanted from the beginning. They wanted the care they need from a doctor they chose at lower costs, not a health care law that so many Americans believe is going to continue to make health care in this country worse.

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