Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act of 2014 - Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I join my colleague from South Dakota and agree with what he is seeing in South Dakota and I am seeing in Wyoming and that people all across the country are seeing with regard to the President's health care law. People are very concerned because it hits them in their pocketbook.
What we are seeing is that people's premiums are going up. The deductible that they have to pay before they get to use their insurance is going way up. The copay that they have to make has gone way up.
So in terms of people's actual pocketbook issues and the things that concern them, they are paying more and getting less, and it is because of the mandates in the Obama health care law.
The President of the United States says: ``Forcefully defend and be proud'' of this law. Yet day after day, I don't see Democrats who voted for the health care law coming to the floor to forcefully defend or be proud of it. And there is very little to be proud of.
We all get letters from people in our home States. I was home over the Fourth of July visiting around the State, going to many communities. I haven't run into anyone who says this has actually significantly helped make their life better. People have come up to me at parade routes, rodeos--all the different places we have been--and they have great concerns about the health care law and the impact on their own personal life, what money is left over at the end of the day to help put food on the table, to get the kids off to school, clothing for the kids, and how the impact of the health care law is making it harder and lowering the quality of life in spite of the President's promises, which they say are just not true.
I got a letter from a young woman, Shelly in Worland, WY, in Washakie County, in the center of the State. I know the community very well. She writes to me:
I know you have heard my story a hundred times, but I feel maybe one more won't hurt.
She wanted to share what is going on in her specific life in Wyoming related to the health care law.
Yesterday in the mail I received a notice that my ..... health insurance will go from $637 to $897, and my $10,000 deductible is now $11,000.
So her premiums have gone up and the deductible has gone up. It is a double whammy hitting her. But, she says:
My plan now meets the requirements of the health care reform law.
And let's be serious about this. The requirements of the health care law mandate that many people all across the country end up buying much more insurance than they ever will need, ever will want, and will ever use. But it has to comply with what the Federal Government says they need.
The families of Wyoming have a better idea of what they need for their health insurance than Barack Obama has in terms of what he thinks they might need. The families of Wyoming know what they need much more so than the Democrats in this body who voted the mandates onto these people and said they have to have all of this insurance. This woman doesn't need it, doesn't want it, and is not going to use it. Yet she is paying more out of her pocket, impacting that family's life so it can comply with the health care law instead of what is best for her and her family.
She goes on to say:
My husband is self employed on the family farm, and I am also self employed at a beauty shop. Needless to say we have always pinched our pennies. My children are all grown, my two daughters are both kindergarten teachers in our wonderful state, and my son is working with us on the farm. We have worked very hard not to use any of the government assistance raising our children on less than $30,000 a year.
We are talking about hardworking families from all across the country pinching their pennies, making sure that they use their money wisely, not relying on the government. That is what we have here.
So now I am forced to enter the health care reform circus.
That is what this is. This is a circus forced down the throats of the American people by the Democrats in this body and by the President of the United States who forced this onto the American people, this health care reform circus.
I know I missed the deadline because I was determined to not be a part of this, but now I simply cannot afford this insurance. I tried to navigate the website last night and finally gave up after being kicked off three times.
To make matters worse my insurance was offering one decreasing deductible that we were counting on. We also lost that in our new policy. We had our deductible down to 3,000. We have been saving in an HA, but I'm afraid it won't last long. I have just been told I have a rare bone disease called fibrous dysplasia. It is causing some eye issues, and I am facing some sort of surgery to remove the diseased bone behind my eye.
This hardworking Wyoming family:
After working so hard to take care of ourselves my husband and I are faced with having to have help. This makes no sense to us. We were doing fine until the government stepped in.
There has to be an answer somewhere. Thanks for your time.
I practiced medicine for 25 years in Wyoming and took care of many families just like we have here with Shelly, knowing how hardworking people are--and the Presiding Officer knows that as well--in rural communities, people who roll up their sleeves, go to work every day,
and don't want assistance from the government. They just do their job. And this is a family that has been hurt by the President's health care law--hurt dramatically. They had gotten their deductible down to $3,000, and now it is up to $11,000. Their premiums are higher than they were before, and she has a lot more insurance than she is ever going to want, need, can afford or will ever use.
But we are seeing this all around the country. It is not just in stories from Wyoming. CBS Money Watch in the middle of June came out with a report called ``For some, Obamacare delivers sticker shock.''
It is interesting, just trying to follow the press from around the country. These aren't isolated cases. We are seeing this all across the country.
The article goes on:
..... Obamacare is delivering a hefty dose of sticker shock.
What did the President of the United States promise the American people? He promised the American people that under his plan insurance premiums would drop $2,500 per family by the end of his first term--not stay flat, not go up a little--would actually go lower $2,500 per family per year by the end of his first term. ``Obamacare is delivering a hefty dose of sticker shock.''
Now, who is getting hurt by this? All Americans are getting hurt, but the Washington Post had an interesting story on June 24. I wish the President would pay attention to this. The President of the United States needs to know that it is ``Older women who bear the brunt of higher insurance costs under Obamacare''--the headline in the Washington Post June 24.
The new government report is out:
..... women age 55 to 64 will face a huge spike in cost when they go out to buy individual insurance on the federal exchange. These women bear the brunt of the increased premiums and out of pocket expenses after the Affordable Care Act.
Winners and losers--and President Obama has chosen older women to bear the brunt of higher increased insurance costs under the President health care law.
We are going to hear that again and again as Democrats stand up to talk about the issues facing our country. It is older women who are bearing the brunt of the higher insurance costs under the President's health care law, as reported in the Washington Post.
Then, how incompetent is the Web site? Let's take a look at what the New York Times said July 1: ``Eligibility for Health Insurance Was Not Properly Checked, Audit Finds.''
An independent audit of insurance exchanges established under the health care law has found that federal and state officials did not properly check the eligibility of people seeking coverage and applying for subsidies, the latest indication of unresolved problems at HealthCare.gov.
I remember listening to President Obama talk and be interviewed by President Clinton in September of last year in New York City at the Clinton Global Initiative, or something like that. President Obama said: Easier than shopping on Amazon. Cheaper than your cell phone bill.
This is in a report to Congress on Tuesday:
In a report to Congress on Tuesday, the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services ..... said that the exchanges ..... did not have adequate safeguards ``to prevent the use of inaccurate or fraudulent information when determining eligibility.''
Moreover, in a companion report, the inspector general said that the government had been unable to verify much of the information reported by people applying for insurance coverage and financial assistance to help pay premiums.
We are talking about the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services of the Obama administration.
``As of the first quarter of 2014,'' [the Inspector General] said, ``the federal marketplace was unable to resolve about 2.6 million of 2.9 million inconsistencies''--
--because the Web site that President Obama has said would be easier to use than Amazon, cheaper than your cell phone was not fully operational. What kind of government incompetence are we talking about?
The Associated Press on July 1: ``Health law sign-ups dogged by data flaws.'' Unable to resolve 2.6 million so-called inconsistencies--it is astonishing. And they call it ``another health care headache for the White House.'' The problems continue out of sight.
The President is trying to hide these problems--trying to hide them from the American people. The President says one thing, tries to sell a story. The President now has his own war room set up--not to solve the problems. Oh, no. He is not trying to solve the problems. He has a war room to try to spin the information so the voters don't get to see what they are not being deceived by. They can see through this. You have a war room with six people trying to spin the health care numbers rather than trying to solve the problems, trying to lower the cost of care, trying to help patients get care--not empty coverage and expensive coverage. There are so many problems in the world, and what the White House has decided to spend its time and money on is set up a war room to try to spin the issues of the Obama health care law, not to solve the problems.
Go around the country, State by State. California: ObamaCare massive backlog stalls medical expansion. Connecticut: Anthem seeks 12.5 percent rate increase. Back to California: Confusion over doctor list is costly for ObamaCare enrollees in the State.
You can work your way around the country, and State by State, whether you do it from east to west, north to south, do it in alphabetical order, in every State there are horror stories about the impact of this health care law.
Connecticut again: ObamaCare glitch leading to canceled policies. Constituents calling to talk to their State representatives say their insurance policies have been canceled because the subsidies that helped discount the premiums hadn't been paid--hadn't been paid. According to people involved with the insurance companies, the issue of mistaken policy cancellation ``is real.'' So the insurance companies are saying it is absolutely true, it is absolutely real.
I see other colleagues on the floor.
I would say that in Colorado, a State that I go through every weekend at least twice going to Wyoming and coming back to DC from Wyoming, people in Colorado are very concerned. ``Colorado health exchange site needs surgery.'' This is NBC 9 News, Colorado. A reporter said:
I'm not going to sugar-coat this: The official state website where Coloradans can shop for health insurance is a mess. Sure [the web site] looks pretty slick at first glance. It lets you window shop for plans and offers some (but not all) good info about the health care law. But when you actually create an account and start shopping, the site offers an experience that is clunky, counter-intuitive, and often confusing.
That sounds to me like the Obama administration--clunky, counterintuitive, and often confusing.
That's the web product being offered to Coloradans after receiving more than $179 million in federal grants to develop the state exchange.
This reporter says:
If you are looking for a passionate argument of the pros and cons of [ObamaCare], as a reporter I avoid making public policy arguments.
However, if this is the official system the people of Colorado are getting to shop for individual coverage, it should be a good one. Nine months after it began selling health plans, this website is not a good one. It should be upsetting to everyone in the state of Colorado, especially supporters of the healthcare law.
I would apply that to anyone from Colorado who is on this Senate floor or in the House of Representatives who voted for the health care law.
He said:
It should be upsetting to everyone in the state, especially supporters of the healthcare law. My family obtained a health plan despite the website.
By way of background, I am not remotely anti-technology. I grew up in Silicon Valley. I built my own computers as a kid. I once had a job working in tech support for [a dot-com company], a sophisticated e-commerce platform ..... My goal in this review is to shine a light on some really basic (and deeply frustrating) problems that any commercial dot-com would be pulling all-nighters to fix.
Well, that shows you the difference between a commercial dot-com and the government of the United States.
It says:
For some reason, these issues have been allowed to hang around for the better part of a year by the Connect for Health Colorado.
And then today, the Denver Post: ``Colorado exchange expects more to drop health coverage''--giving up, not paying their premiums, not renewing their coverage. They are expecting double what was initially anticipated of the number of people who aren't paying their premiums. They realize this empty coverage they are paying a lot of money for isn't actually good for them. They are paying too much in premiums. Their deductibles are high, their copays are high.
I can go on and on. The people of America know what they wanted with health care reform. They wanted to be able to get care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs.
That is not what they got from President Obama's health care law that the Democrats in this body voted for. What they got are higher premiums, higher copays, higher deductibles, maybe cannot keep their doctor, cannot keep their hospital--not what the President promised, not what people wanted, and it is time to go back and start over to work on a health care system that gives the American people what they truly want, truly need, and deserve.
Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
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