Obamacare

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, let me start by stating the obvious: ObamaCare is a direct attack on the middle class. Premiums are shooting up by double digits, copays are spiking, and deductibles are skyrocketing. Co-ops are collapsing and insurers are withdrawing.

We all know the statistics, and they are literally shocking. Yet they still do not truly capture the toll this partisan law is taking on America's middle class, because behind every premium increase headline is a family budget stretched to its limits, and beyond every co-op collapse is an agonizing uncertainty about where a family will find insurance. This is what too often gets lost in the debate over ObamaCare, especially amongst our Democratic friends, perhaps because it helps them rationalize away the pain of this law. But this is not some theoretical discussion; these are people's lives this law is hurting.

That is why I shared the story of a mom in Louisville who said her family's health care costs would consume nearly a fifth of their budget this year. ``I wish somebody would explain to us,'' she wrote, ``how a hard working middle class family paying this much for health insurance became a loser under Obamacare.''

That is why I shared the story of the Campbellsburg man who had just lost the health insurance he had had for many years. ``Instead of something affordable,'' he wrote, ``I [now] face the possibility of struggling to purchase an Obama[care] health plan that costs two to three times what I had been paying.''

That is why I shared the story of a small business man in Lexington who may have to end his decades-long practice of providing insurance to his employees at no cost thanks to, as he wrote, ``the cynically named Affordable Care Act.''

I shared stories from other States too. There is the New Jersey man with chronic health issues who lost access to his doctor the moment ObamaCare placed him on Medicaid. ``You have a card saying you have health insurance,'' he said, ``but if no doctors take it, it's almost like having one of those fake IDs.'' He reminded us that having health insurance under ObamaCare is not the same thing as actually having health coverage.

There is a woman from Ohio who lost her plan after ObamaCare forced out her insurer. ``They fine you if you don't have insurance,'' she said, ``then they take your options away.'' She put words to the frustration of literally millions.

I explained how ObamaCare is chasing out insurers in States such as Ohio, Arizona, and Alabama, throwing thousands off their plans all over again. I explained how ObamaCare's co-ops are failing in States such as New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Connecticut, massively disrupting coverage for thousands more. I explained how ObamaCare is shooting up premiums by almost unimaginable amounts in States such as Minnesota, Illinois, and Montana, forcing more Americans to make impossible financial decisions.

I invite Democrats to recognize that ObamaCare's human toll is evident from north to south, from east to west. That includes States such as California, where, according to what the Democratic leader told us yesterday, ObamaCare is supposedly ``working wonderfully.'' Really? Is it wonderful that premiums in California are set to spike by more than three times the average of recent years? Is it wonderful that ObamaCare is causing huge, double-digit increases in the Golden State, while reducing access to doctors and hospitals at the same time?

The Los Angeles Times quoted a leftwing activist summarizing the situation this way. This is a leftwing activist: ``We're paying more for less.'' Indeed, before these massive increases had even been announced, polling showed Californians more concerned about the cost of health care than whether they even had insurance. Two thirds reported they worried ``very much'' about rising health costs, and a majority credited ObamaCare for causing costs to go up ``a lot'' for average Americans. It is similar to what Americans said nationwide when they cited health care as their biggest financial worry. That was ahead of wages, ahead of college costs, and even job loss--more concerned about health care. No wonder even some on the left have taken to calling ObamaCare the un-Affordable Care Act.

What we are seeing with ObamaCare may be shocking, but it is not surprising because there are inevitable consequences to this partisan law--the partisan law littered with broken promises. Democrats said premiums would be lower. Remember that? Democrats said copays and deductibles would be affordable too. Obviously, that was wrong. Democrats said Americans could keep their health plans. Remember that promise? Democrats said Americans could keep their doctors. Of course, that wasn't true. Democrats said ObamaCare wouldn't touch Medicare. Democrats said taxes wouldn't increase on the middle class. Democrats said shopping for ObamaCare would be as simple as shopping for a TV on Amazon. Wrong, wrong, and wrong again.

Democrats have broken one promise after the next on ObamaCare. But now, get this: They are asking Americans to trust them to fix--they want to fix the mess they created. They say they have the perfect solution too. It is more ObamaCare. Really. Seriously, I am not kidding. They actually think they can pull another fast one on the American people. They are actually pushing government-run ObamaCare 2.0 as some kind of solution, and they are doing this with a straight face. So, look, we already know what we could expect from a Democratic-run Congress next year on ObamaCare: more broken promises, more stonewalling, more of the same.

ObamaCare's attack against the middle class is a nationwide phenomenon. It is hurting the very people we were sent here to represent. The only way to deliver true relief for the middle class is to finally build a bridge away from ObamaCare. That is why we passed a bill to repeal this partisan law and sent it to the President--because the middle class deserves better than the pain of ObamaCare.

I think even President Obama, if he is being honest with himself, should be able to recognize that as well. Here is what he himself said last month: ``Too many Americans still strain to pay for their physician visits and prescriptions, cover their deductibles, or pay their monthly insurance bills; struggle to navigate a complex, sometimes bewildering system; and remain uninsured.'' That is from the President himself. That is not the description of a law that is working. It is time to leave this failed experiment in the past and move toward the real care that Americans deserve.

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