Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act--Motion to Proceed--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today, as I do week after week, and have since the health care bill was signed into law, with a doctor's second opinion about the health care law. I do that as someone who practiced medicine, taking care of families all around Wyoming for about a quarter century.

I continue to hear great concerns from folks back home and across the country about the health care law. So often people ask the question: Does the President understand the health care law?

Well, last week President Obama shocked a lot of Americans when he made a statement--not on the teleprompter but off script--that the ``private sector was doing fine.'' He said the private sector was doing fine. He said the weaknesses in our economy had to do with State and local government.

The words made it very clear to people in this country that the President is not in touch with what is happening in this country--specifically with the economy.

But then on Monday, the President said something else about the health care law that made it once again look as though he doesn't understand what is happening all across America. During an interview the President was doing with a local news reporter from Sioux City, IA, he actually was surprised to learn that his health care law is hurting small businesses--certainly hurting small businesses all across the country. He was surprised to learn of that.

While the news doesn't come as a shock to most Americans, it definitely caught President Obama off guard. Here is what happened. The Iowa reporter told the President that one business in Iowa needed to ``close up shop and move the jobs back to Wisconsin'' because of the President's health care law. The President's response to the reporter I found troubling. President Obama said:

Yeah, that would be kind of hard to explain, because the only folks that have been impacted in terms of the health care bill are insurance companies.

The President said that the only folks--only folks--who have been impacted in terms of the health care bill are insurance companies.

That is why I continue to come to the floor with a doctor's second opinion, ever since Nancy Pelosi made the famous statement that ``first you have to pass it before you get to find out what is in it.''

I had hoped that by now the President would actually know what is in the health care law. By his statements to this reporter in Iowa, it certainly seems to me the President does not know what is in the health care law, does not know how it is impacting jobs and the economy in the United States. How on Earth can President Obama believe insurance companies are the only people impacted by the health care law? Small businesses all across the country are being slammed by the law's expensive mandates--the mandates that people have to have government-approved insurance, which is much more expensive than what they had before. The insurance premiums that he promised would drop by $2,500 per family have actually gone up higher and faster than if the law had never been passed. The President said if you like what you have, you can keep it. We know that millions of Americans who had insurance they liked are not able to keep it.

The fact is that colleges are dropping their insurance plans for students because, under the President's law, those insurance plans were going to go up anywhere from 4 to 10 times more as a result of the mandates that those students buy government-approved levels of insurance, which was a lot more insurance than the students needed, wanted, or could afford. So the colleges are saying we cannot pass this expense on to students, so we are going to drop it entirely.

It is astonishing that the President doesn't realize how many people are impacted in a bad way by his own health care law. He thinks it is only the insurance companies, but small business owners are forced now, because of this law, to choose between bad choices. One is that they can offer very high-cost government-approved insurance, making it much more expensive for them to try to run their business and hire workers in this time of significant uncertainty in the economy, or they won't offer any health coverage at all because they cannot afford the law's out-of-touch and expensive insurance mandates. The choice is completely unacceptable, and the President should know that.

Someone in the White House ought to be informing the President. They ought to clearly be leveling with the President about the impact of his bill, his law, and his understanding of it, and what the impacts are on American families and the American economy. The private sector is not doing fine. This health care law negatively impacts people across the country, including many small business owners.

The President also deserves to know from his advisers that his health care law is having a significant impact on American seniors.

Earlier this week, Senator Coburn and I joined the rest of the Republican health care providers in Congress, in the House and Senate, and released a ``Doctor's Note on Medicare.'' This new report details how the President's health care law specifically makes it harder for America's seniors to get the care they need from a doctor they choose at a lower price.

I want to walk you through this report. There is a section called ``10 Facts Seniors Need to Know About Medicare's Future.'' I will focus on five of those.

One, to control Medicare spending, instead of trusting seniors, the President empowered 15 unelected bureaucrats. That is right, the President set up the Independent Payment Advisory Board, people who would be politically appointed--not elected by the voters but unelected bureaucrats. They will be the ones in charge of deciding and controlling Medicare spending.

Another is that doctors overwhelmingly believe the Independent Payment Advisory Board will hurt seniors' access to care. This is under the facts that seniors need to know about Medicare's future as a result of the President's health care law.

In a recent survey, 80 percent of doctors said this Independent Payment Advisory Board, which the President liked and put in his health care law, will cut reimbursement rates to doctors, which will harm seniors' access to care.

Now let's go to a third. Without congressional action, Medicare reimbursement rates will drop about 30 percent at the end of the year, which would harm seniors' access to care. That is in the law as it stands now. If the law isn't changed, that cut will automatically go into place, and it is going to be that much harder for seniors to get doctors. Seniors are very concerned right now about being able to find a doctor. If their doctor retires, they may have a hard time finding a new doctor. If the senior moves locations, they may have a hard time finding a doctor in that location. This is an increasing problem that is made worse by the health care law.

I think the President deserves to hear that and to know that and to realize the impact his law has had on people way beyond, as he says, just insurance companies.

The President also needs to know--because seniors know--that the President's health care law took $530 billion from Medicare--not to save Medicare, not to strengthen Medicare, but to spend on other programs not for seniors. The health care law cut more than $ 1/2 trillion from the Medicare Program to fund new government programs. Seniors realize this, and it is time the President of the United States understood the impact of the decisions he made when he signed this health care bill into law.

Many seniors on Medicare Advantage will lose their plan. More than one in four seniors are currently on Medicare Advantage. It is a choice they make. They know they are on Medicare Advantage. Over 11 million seniors are on Medicare Advantage. Yet, according to the Actuary of Medicare alone, by 2017, when the Medicare Advantage cuts in the President's health care law are fully implemented, roughly half--half--of seniors who like the Medicare Advantage plan they have will lose it.

The President said: If you like what you have, you can keep it. Perhaps he should have realized the bill he signed into law would cause him to break a number of the promises he made to the American people. That is another one of those broken promises. So the President promised: If you like what you have, you can keep it. But we find out many more people are not able to keep what they have. And the President said his plan would lower insurance costs by $2,500 per family. Yet we see insurance rates have gone up, and they are going up faster than if the law had never been passed in the first place.

So the reality is from the time I gave my second opinion speech last week until today, the President needs to realize the private sector is not fine and his health care law hurts small businesses, hurts seniors, and hurts patients all across this country. If the President wants to do something to help the private sector, he should work with Congress to repeal his health care law and to replace it with better reforms that would actually be better for patients and providers and taxpayers.

This health care law, as I see it, is bad for patients, it is bad for providers--the nurses and the doctors who take care of those patients--and it is terrible for the American taxpayer. What we need is health care reform that actually provides the care for people they need from a doctor they choose at a lower cost.

Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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