Corker Says Health Care Law is Going to Drive Up Costs, Will Need to be Replaced with Legislation that "Fits the American People"

Statement

As the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the president's health care law, U.S. Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said the law is going to drive up health care costs and will have to be replaced with "common sense" legislation that "fits these times, fits the American people, allows the freedom and choice that American people are accustomed to" and is "fiscally sound." In remarks on the Senate floor today, Corker noted the law places an unfunded mandate on states to expand their Medicaid programs, which will cost Tennessee $1.1 billion dollars, and makes providing health care more expensive, incentivizing some employers to deny coverage and transfer their employees to the federally-controlled exchanges at taxpayer expense.

Excerpts from Senator Corker's remarks are included below:

"From 2014 to 2019, this bill mandates that the state of Tennessee use $1.1 billion of its own resources to expand the Medicaid program to meet the needs that this bill has put in place," Corker said. "I think what you're going to see throughout our nation, if this bill stays in place as it is--you're going to see a massive exodus by private employers from the health care business. But what that's going to do is put [their employees] on these public exchanges…and, in fact, what it's going to do is drive up the cost even more than people ever anticipated."

"There is no way that the projections laid out as to the cost of this bill are going to be what the actual costs are. And so, this body is going to be pressed with replacing this legislation with something that makes common sense. There was actually a lot of bipartisanship, prior to us passing this piece of legislation, about what those common sense measures should be. We ended up, instead, with something that was far more sweeping, something that most Americans find offensive--something that no question is going to cause this nation tremendous fiscal distress. And so my point is, yes, we're going to be watching this June as the Supreme Court rules.

Yes, we're going to be paying attention to the elections in November. Regardless of those outcomes, it is my belief that this body will have to come together and put in place a different piece of health care legislation that actually fits these times, fits the American people, allows the freedom and choice that American people are accustomed to and is built on premises as that will cause our country to be fiscally sound. And I stand ready to work with people on both sides of the aisle when that time comes to make that happen," said Corker.

Source