Obamacare

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, back when the President and Senate Democrats were lobbying for passage of ObamaCare, they made a number of promises. The one thing they promised over and over again was that the President's health care plan would lower costs.

``Bringing down costs of health insurance and making it more affordable is job one for this health care reform.'' That is a quote that was made by the then-Democratic majority whip on the floor in December of 2009. Families will save on their premiums, President Obama pledged that same month. The Affordable Care Act, Democrats made clear, was the solution to the health insurance challenges facing American families. Well, 6 years down the road it is clear the Affordable Care Act was no solution at all.

The President promised that health care reform would reduce premiums by $2,500 for the average family. Instead, the average family premium for employer-sponsored health insurance rose by $4,170 between 2009 and 2015. Forty-five percent of Americans report that their health insurance premium has increased over the past 2 years, and 35 percent report that their copays and deductibles have increased over the same period. The President promised that Americans who liked their insurance plan could keep it. Instead, the President's health care law pushed more than 4.7 million Americans off their health care plans.

Then there is the centerpiece of the President's health care law, the exchanges. The exchanges were supposed to offer accessible, affordable health care to those who had struggled to get insurance, but a lot of Americans are finding out the health care offered on the exchanges is neither affordable nor accessible. Last year countless consumers around the country faced massive rate hikes on their exchange plans. One constituent wrote to tell me that her plan would cost $1,600 a month for her, her husband, and their four children--$1,600 a month. That is more than $19,000 a year. A new car would be cheaper, and all signs point to consumers being set to face yet huge rate hikes again this year.

Investor's Business Daily recently reported that Oregon's largest insurer in the individual market is seeking an average rate increase of 29.6 percent for its exchange and nonexchange plans for 2017. Meanwhile, over the weekend the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that Blue Cross exchange customers in Tennessee will face a ``major rate increase'' that may exceed the 36.3-percent rate increase exchange customers faced this January. The Associated Press recently reported that insurers are seeking rate hikes ranging from 9.4 percent to 37.1 percent on the exchanges in Virginia--a 37.1-percent increase.

Think about that. Let's say you have a family health insurance plan that costs $10,000 a year. A 37.1-percent increase would add more than $3,700 to the cost of your plan--$3,700--for just 1 year. That is a significant amount of money, and you could easily end up facing a similar rate hike the following year.

I could go on and on about ObamaCare. I could read from a steady stream of news stories reporting on ObamaCare's many failures, from huge cost increases to bankrupt co-ops, to decreased access to doctors and hospitals. I could talk about the ways ObamaCare has hiked prescription drug costs or the challenges facing businesses, thanks to the Affordable Care Act's taxes and mandates. I could read stories from my constituents--constituents who have had to wrestle with the inefficient ObamaCare bureaucracy, constituents who lost their health plans as a result of ObamaCare, constituents who can't afford their ObamaCare insurance, but since I don't want to use up all my colleagues' time on the floor as well as my own, I will just say this: Three weeks ago, on April 27, Gallup published the results of a poll on the financial challenges facing American families. The headline of the article was this: ``Healthcare Costs Top U.S. Families' Financial Concerns.'' Let me repeat that. ``Healthcare Costs Top U.S. Families' Financial Concerns.''

If 6 years on from the passage of the Affordable Care Act health care costs top the list of American families' financial concerns, then the Affordable Care Act has failed, and it is time to repeal it. The Republican-led Senate has already passed legislation to repeal ObamaCare, but we need a President willing to work with us or significant support from Democrats in Congress if we want a repeal to become law. I hope we will see that kind of support in the near future.

The Affordable Care Act has been a disaster from the beginning, and it is time to lift the burdens the law has placed on Americans and replace this law with health care reform that will actually drive down costs for American families and consumers and increase access to care. That is what we should--and I hope we will--be focused on.

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