ObamaCare
Floor Speech
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Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I rise to speak about ObamaCare and the incredibly negative impact it is having on millions of Americans. Let's just speak about its impact upon the middle class. There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, dated August 26, which spoke about how ObamaCare is pushing the burden of health care costs to the middle class. It speaks about how deductibles have risen 256 percent, but wages have only increased 32 percent. It also goes on to say how folks are spending 32 percent more on health care, but they are having to cut back on groceries, restaurants, entertainment, and clothing. Everything else is being cut back as health care consumes more and more.
ObamaCare was supposed to change health care. The President promised that premiums would fall $2,500 per family. The logical question is, Why didn't that happen?
I have a good example. A physician friend I know who happens to be a neurologist in Baton Rouge texted me. She had a couple in her office who were paying $1,600 a month for insurance. They have a $10,000 family deductible. They are middle class and don't get a subsidy. Let's think about this. They are paying $1,600 a month and have a $10,000 family deductible. Let's do a little quick math. That is roughly $16,000 a year plus $3,200, which comes to $19,200 a year, if my math is correct. When we add $10,000 for a deductible--let's say they both get in a car wreck and they are taken to the emergency room at the same time--they will be out $29,000 before they see a benefit from their insurance. They will have to pay $29,000 before they see a benefit from ObamaCare which is supposed to hold down costs.
These are statistics and anecdotes. Let's speak in a different sense. Let's speak about premium hikes. Premiums are up 31 percent this year in Louisiana, but premium increases are rising as high as 67 percent in Arizona. There is a 69-percent premium increase in Tennessee, and that is consistent across the Nation.
As it turns out, there is one county now which doesn't have any insurance company providing coverage, but there are many other counties in our Nation in which there is only one insurance carrier. I can tell you, the less competition you have, the higher costs will go. As this continues, competition decreasing--and insurance companies like Aetna, Humana, and Blue Cross are pulling out of the exchanges in some States--we can expect these premiums to continue to rise.
The situation we are in is that people are either going to be insurance poor or they will be forced to go without insurance. There is an incredible irony. The bill which passed, the Affordable Care Act, had the stated goal of making health care affordable. It is becoming so unaffordable that people are going without insurance. I think this will only worsen.
Up to today, ObamaCare has received $10.5 billion in Federal tax dollars as subsidies, and there were a series of co-ops set up. The co- ops were going to foster competition. As it turns out, 16 out of the 23 co-ops have gone out of business, health expenditures are on an alltime rise, and the subsidies are going away--some of them have been ruled illegal by the Federal courts--and so only the beneficiary will be paying the premiums. Despite $10.5 billion in subsidies, insurance companies have lost $2.7 billion. Again, if these subsidies go away because they are illegal, we can expect premiums to rise even more.
I am a big believer that if you are going to criticize something, you should offer an alternative. I would like to point out that this Republican and another Republican have offered an alternative. We call it the World's Greatest Healthcare Plan. We have kind of a cheeky title to draw attention to it, but it is serious legislation. Under the World's Greatest Healthcare Plan, we change the paradigm of ObamaCare. If under ObamaCare the presumption is that government knows best and folks in Washington can make better decisions for the folks in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lafayette, Shreveport, the Presiding Officer's hometown in Pennsylvania, or any other place in the Nation, and knows what to tell them and what they should buy--therefore how much they should spend--under the World's Greatest Healthcare Plan, we take the opposite approach.
We assume that the woman in the household--usually it is a woman. I am a physician so I know this. Usually, the woman makes 95 percent of the decisions on health care for a family--let's use the feminine--so she knows what is best for her family. There is kind of a humorous anecdote. On the campaign trail 2 years ago, I had two different women speak to me in a very memorable way. One of them came up and said: You know, I am 58 and my husband is 57. Our two boys are 18 and 19. Unless my name is Sarah and my husband is Abraham, we are not having more children, we do not need pediatric dentistry, and I do not need obstetrical benefits, but that is included in my policy, which I am forced to pay for, and my husband and I are paying $28,000 a year for insurance.
Another woman from Jefferson Parish walked up to me and said: My name is Tina. I am 56 years old, and I had a hysterectomy. My husband and I are paying $500 more a month for insurance--$6,000 more a year--and I am paying for pediatric dentistry and obstetrics. I do not need these benefits, but I sure as heck would like to have my money.
Washington is making the decision that these two women in Louisiana, and women across the Nation should pay for benefits they don't need, therefore paying far more. By paying far more, they have less to spend on other things they might need to purchase, for example, flood insurance in my State, clothing, restaurants, entertainment, a night out in their own State, wherever that State might be, but they cannot make that decision.
Under the World's Greatest Healthcare Plan, we take the power away from Washington and give it to the family. We allow them to choose the benefits they wish, those they need, making the decisions between pocketbook and health care that they are uniquely qualified to make. By the way, we also do away with the individual mandate. We know that individual mandate. It is the ObamaCare provision saying that you shall buy insurance or the Federal Government will fine you.
Under the World's Greatest Healthcare Plan, we take all the money a State would receive from the Federal Government for health care and we allow the State to give a credit to each individual in that State who is eligible, and that would be most folks. The State legislature would have the option to say that everyone in the State who is eligible is enrolled unless they choose not to be--unlike ObamaCare, where you have a 16-page online form where you have to get on and have your W-2 and check it off. If you don't have a W-2 with you and are a poorer person and have to go to the library for your Internet access and you go home by public transportation to get the right form and have to take public transportation back, it is not going to happen. Under our plan, you are enrolled unless you choose not to be. We expect to have 95-plus percent enrollment.
We don't provide the bells and whistles of ObamaCare, but what we do is give first-dollar coverage. Instead of a $6,000 deductible per individual or a $10,000 deductible per family, every family will have a health savings account with which they have first-dollar coverage. If they need to take their daughter to the urgent care center to have an earache treated, they have first-dollar coverage. There is not a $6,000 deductible to work through. They have a pharmacy benefit and a catastrophic coverage on top. If they are in a car wreck and admitted to the hospital, they will be protected from medical bankruptcy by that catastrophic coverage.
Another thing we do by giving power to the patient is price transparency. Under ObamaCare we have seen prices rise and rise and rise even more. Part of the problem is the consumer has no power. She does not have the ability to know that if a doctor orders a CT scan for her child--if she goes to this place and pays cash, it is $250 or if she goes to that place, it is $2,500. I picked those numbers, by the way, because the Los Angeles Times had an article a few years ago and found that the cash price for a CT scan in the L.A. Basin varied from $250 to $2,500, and there would be no way someone would know. With the World's Greatest Healthcare Plan, the power of price transparency is given to that mom so she knows where she can take the child for the best cash price and the highest quality and balance that with her budget. If the family wishes to really take matters into their own hands, they can put their family credits all together in a pool and buy a group policy for their family or they can give it to their employer as the employee's contribution for an employer-sponsored plan and buying into the richer coverage that employers typically give.
I could go on, but, if you will, the premise I learned as a physician is that if you give the patient the power, she will make the right decision for her family, both for their health and their pocketbook-- unlike ObamaCare, which says: Family, you are not as wise as folks in Washington. We are going to tell you what you have to buy, therefore what you have to pay, and if prices escalate even more and you decide you can no longer afford insurance, we are coming after you to make you pay a penalty. It is wrong, I think it is un-American, and it is certainly bad for families.
The principle under the World's Greatest Healthcare Plan, which I like to say in a phrase is giving the patient the power, but the academic literature would call it the activated patient--someone who is now fully engaged in managing her and her family's health care. Not only does that result in lower costs, statistically it gives you better outcomes.
There is a physician Congressman on the other side in the House of Representatives who tells a story of someone he worked with. They went through a health savings account, and the manager came up and said: Dr. Fleming, I don't particularly care for this plan because it doesn't pay for my inhaler. He said: Well, your health savings account can pay for your inhaler, I suppose, if it is not covered by your pharmacy benefit, but if you stop smoking, you don't need an inhaler, and he walked away not thinking about it. She later approached him and she said: Dr. Fleming, let me tell you. He said: Yes? She said: You are right. He is thinking: What was I right about? She said: I stopped smoking and no longer need an inhaler. That is a personal story, if you will, of that which statistically is demonstrated. If people become engaged in their health care, they are not only healthier, but they save money. Under the World's Greatest Healthcare Plan, we take that Republican principle of believing in the power of the individual to shape her life and her family's destiny in a much more positive way than you would expect from a bureaucrat telling you to be passive and to otherwise obey.
I will return. Unfortunately, the President's health care law, the Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare, is crushing the middle class with ever-higher premiums, higher deductibles, higher copays, an inability to pay, and becoming insurance poor as they cut back on everything else to avoid paying the penalty for the needed health insurance.
Republicans have offered an alternative. One alternative is the World's Greatest Healthcare Plan, and in our alternative we give the patient the power. I suggest that would be an important area of compromise; that we all see that giving the patient the power, the individual American the responsibility, is a better way to go.
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