On Tuesday, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor highlighting the failures of the president’s health care law on its sixth anniversary.
Transcript of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:
“A couple of weeks ago was the sixth anniversary of President Obama’s unpopular health care law.
“Just like every year at this time, that birthday is not one that people actually want to celebrate.
“When you take a look at the reason that Americans aren’t celebrating Obamacare’s sixth birthday is pretty obvious: less freedom, unsecure data through the website, fewer provider choices, offering $1 trillion in new taxes – over $1 trillion in taxes for families, skyrocketing premiums and deductibles.
“So, it’s no surprise that the health care law continues to be very unpopular.
“Americans know that they – under the health care law – have less freedom to keep their doctor, to keep the insurance that they had that was right for them and their families because the president says he gets to decide what somebody needs for themselves and their family, not the families getting to decide.
“We know again, came out over the break, that people’s personal data is not secure at healthcare.gov – that they thought it was at the website. We know that insurance companies are giving patients fewer choices by limiting the network of doctors people can see.
“The health care law has added over $1 trillion in new taxes on hardworking American families.
“The premiums and deductibles are up. And according to the Congressional Budget Office, Obamacare is going to cut the number of hours that Americans can work by about two million jobs over the next decade.
“So, it seems like every day there’s more news coming out about how this health care law is unaffordable, it’s unpopular and it’s unworkable.
“Last week there was a new study that explained one of the reasons why the president’s health care law is collapsing.
“This was a study that came out by BlueCross BlueShield.
“It compared people buying new insurance coverage through the Obamacare exchanges to people who already had health insurance through their jobs.
“This study found that new Obamacare customers went to the doctor 26 percent more often than other people did.
“It found that they were admitted to the hospital almost twice as often.
“That Obamacare customers have higher costs and that the average medical spending is about $1,200 higher for people on Obamacare than people who get their insurance through work.
“Why is it that hospital admissions are up so much for people on Obamacare?
“Why is it that doctor’s visits up 26 percent?
“The new Obamacare enrollees tend to be sicker and costlier, so insurance companies, of course, have to raise their premiums.
“So, people are sicker who are signing up. They go to the doctor more.
“The insurance company turns around and it raises premiums on everyone else.
“And that’s why so many people are opposed to the health care law because of the impact it’s had on them personally.
“So when insurance companies have to raise their rates on Obamacare plans, a lot of money is paid by hardworking taxpayers because it’s the taxpayers who are paying for the subsidies on all of these folks who have signed up for Obamacare. And what we know is that taxpayers are subsidizing premiums on 83 percent of the people who buy Obamacare insurance.
“So, the premiums go up.
“Taxes have to be made up to pay for it.
“Well, companies can’t get enough extra money. They just stop offering policies in Obamacare.
“That may happen. And more people will then lose their insurance coverage.
“Maybe some of the companies will just go out of business.
“We’re familiar with that process because we’ve seen it.
“We’ve seen under the Obamacare health care law a majority of the Obamacare health insurance so-ops have actually gone bankrupt.
“The health care law created 23 co-ops, and of them 12 have already gone out of business.
“Premiums were already out of control and it’s getting worse.
“The average premium for what’s called the benchmark silver plan in the Obamacare exchange is more than 7 percent higher this year than last year.
“For people who can only afford the cheaper bronze plans, premiums are up 13 percent compared to last year.
“Over the next couple of months, insurance companies are going to start setting their rates for 2017, and they’re going to take into account what has happened in the previous year.
“This new study by BlueCross BlueShield is just laying the groundwork for even more price increases to come next year.
“I think this is one of the things that explains why so many people dislike Obamacare so much.
“A new poll came out that found that 47 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the health care law.
“As the Kaiser Family Foundation report shows, Americans’ opinion of Obamacare ‘is tilting negative.’ Forty seven percent unpopular marks in 2016, today.
“A year ago – a year ago – this poll said that 42 percent of people had an unfavorable view .
“So there we were a year ago, here we are now. The number keeps climbing.
“Only 41 percent of people have a favorable view of the health care law.
“It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
“Six years ago, Democrats in Washington were very confident that the law would be extremely popular today.
“Senator Chuck Schumer from New York went on Meet the Press back in 2010 and said, ‘It’s going to become more popular.’
“He said, ‘I predict that by November those who voted for the health care law will find it an asset.’
“Well, we all remember what happened in the 2010 elections.
“We all know that Democrats who voted for the health care law did not find it to be an asset.
“Democrats lost six seats in the Senate that year – and they lost control of the House of Representatives. Nancy Pelosi was out as the Speaker of the House and the Republicans took the majority.
“In 2013, Senator Reid was making the same predictions about how popular the health care law was going to be.
“He told the newspaper The Hill here in Washington that Obamacare would be ‘a net positive’ for Democrats in 2014.
“Senator Reid forced the health care law through Congress when he was the majority leader, and I think that’s a big part of why he’s now the minority leader. He lost the majority of the United States Senate.
“Why? I think in part because of the health care law and the fact that it ignored the needs of the American people.
“The longer people have to live with this offensive and expensive law, the less popular it gets.
“It was never popular to begin with.
“Today, even more than before, opinion ‘is tilting negative.’
“The new poll also found something I found amazing. I practiced medicine for 25 years. I’ve been involved here in the Senate for a number of years. I have never seen anything like this.
“This new poll found that 28 percent of Americans say this health care law has directly hurt them and their family.
“The president says defend and be proud of this law.
“How can you defend and be proud of something that 28 percent of the American public tells you has hurt them and their family personally?
“Only 18 percent of the people who have been polled says the law has directly helped them.
“It’s incredible, and it’s disturbing.
“Obamacare is hurting far more people than it’s helping.
“Costs are going up much faster than Democrats promised. As are co-pays, as are deductibles.
“It’s no wonder the law is so unpopular.
“We know that these rising premiums make the law more expensive for taxpayers.
“But how much more expensive?
“Well, the Congressional Budget Office came out with a report last week.
“It said that, over the next 10 years, the health care law is going to cost $136 billion more than they thought it would cost just a year ago – just a year ago.
“When they compared what they thought it was going to cost a year ago, what they think it is going to cost now, $136 billion more.
“That’s despite there actually being fewer people in the insurance exchanges than they expected.
“They predicted that there would be 21 million people buying Obamacare insurance this year.
“Well, in fact, they say it’s going to be no more than 12 million.
“People are doing everything they can to avoid these insurance policies – especially young and healthy people.
“So why is it going to cost an extra $136 billion?
“One reason is the higher premiums, and the sicker patients.
“Another big reason is because the law has dumped so many more people into Medicaid.
“About 23 percent of the people in the country under the age of 65 is now on Medicaid.
“That’s what the Congressional Budget Office says. One out of every four.
“So is that a success? Putting all these additional people on Medicaid.
“The president says it is.
Well, let me tell you as a doctor who’s practiced medicine, taken care of patients for 25 years, putting millions of additional people onto Medicaid is not success.
“It’s not what people wanted.
“It certainly is not what President Obama promised.
“Americans deserve better. They deserve better than to be shoved into this second-tier health care system.
“Plus, in terms of government programs and wasting money, a recent study found that of every spent on Medicaid, people only get about 20 cents to 40 cent of benefits on every dollar spent.
“How’s that for an inefficient government system?
“Almost every day we get news about the damage that the health care law is doing to families across the country.
“Republicans have offered solutions that would actually keep the promises that Democrats made for Obamacare.
“Things like letting people keep their doctor, keep their insurance.
“Things like giving people more options for how they could reduce the cost of their medical care.
“Americans have now been forced to try this Obamacare experiment, what the Democrats wanted, forced to do it for last six years.
“Obamacare is not getting any better, it’s just getting older – and it’s still making things worse for American families.
“That’s why it’s so unpopular.”