Obamacare Isn't Working

Floor Speech

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Mr. JAMES. Mr. Speaker, today I rise for the families in my district and across America who are getting crushed by medical bills they never saw coming. Enough is enough. It is time we put patients back in charge of their own healthcare.

Let me tell you what is happening out there, Mr. Speaker. The average family health insurance premium now tops $24,000 a year. That is more than a lot of folks pay in their mortgage or rent. That is insane.

Barack Obama stood right here in this Chamber and promised us affordable care. He said that if we like our doctor, we can keep him; and if we like our plan, we can keep it.

That was determined to be the biggest lie of 2012.

What we got instead was the most expensive healthcare system on the Earth with hospitals and insurance companies cashing in while working families foot the bill.

In the last 25 years, medical costs have gone up over 121 percent, and since ObamaCare passed, healthcare spending has exploded another 60-plus percent. Even Bernie Sanders admits that the status quo isn't working.

Just last week Kelly from St. Clair Shores called my office. Her family of four is staring at a $40,000 bill because of a medical emergency under the so-called Affordable Care Act. Eileen in Shelby Township is as healthy as can be. Yet her premium just jumped $10,000 this year. That is the ACA in a nutshell: You are in trouble if you are healthy, and you are really in trouble if you get sick.

This is what affordable care looks like in their world. This isn't what care is in the real word. Mr. Speaker, everywhere else you see it works when patients and people make their own decisions.

Mr. Speaker, if you need a plumber at 2 a.m., there is no problem. He is at your door in 1 hour, Mr. Speaker. If you show up at the ER, though, Mr. Speaker, bring a book and a sandwich because you are going to be there for a while.

Michigan has the longest wait times on average of any State in that immediate region and some of the longest wait times in the country. If you want a flat-screen TV, Mr. Speaker, you can have one delivered to your doorstep in hours. However, a lifesaving dialysis machine will cost you $30,000 and might take you weeks to get.

Do you know why, Mr. Speaker?

It is because government doesn't meddle in television manufacturing and people have choices.

Mr. Speaker, you can fix your eyes for $1,500, but if you need your heart fixed, it will cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Do you know why, Mr. Speaker?

It is because people have choices.

Here is the truth: Every single time Washington gets its mitts deeper into healthcare, prices go through the roof and care gets worse.

That is why I introduced the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act. The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act is pretty simple. Before a person walks into a hospital or to a doctor's office, he ought to be able to know what the heck something costs: No more games, no more surprises, and no more $47 aspirin.

This is bipartisan, bicameral, and commonsense stuff. In literally every part of life elsewhere, buying a car, groceries, or a cell phone, you know the price before you swipe your card and before you put your hard-earned cash on the register, Mr. Speaker. You can shop around, find a better deal, and walk away if it is too rich for your blood. It is your choice, Mr. Speaker. Only in healthcare do they hide the price until after you have already gone on the table, Mr. Speaker. Then they send you a bill that ruins your life and puts you in debt.

While hospitals and insurance companies rake in record profits, American families are drowning in medical debt, more medical debt than credit cards, car loans, and everything else combined. My bill ends this nonsense and gives the power back to you, Mr. Speaker.

Every hospital in America will have to post their real prices online in plain English where everyone else can see them. If they don't hold the prices, we fine them and hold them accountable to the people. Fines will actually mean something.

Mr. Speaker, insurance companies will have to give you a straight answer online, on the phone, or in the paper about exactly what your care is going to cost you before you get it. For the first time, they will have to publicly post their real rates and drug prices, too.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and that is all the people demand.

Mr. Speaker, the people back home know how to spend their money better than the Federal Government. We give them a price, and they will find the best deal. Give them the power, and the prices will come down. That is how the real world works.

We are keeping a promise that should have been kept a long time ago: real transparency, real competition, and real power will be back in the hands of patients.

I am asking every one of my colleagues to join our bipartisan bill, Republican and Democrat, to stand with the families getting hammered by these bills.

Mr. Speaker, cosponsor the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act. Let's finally give the American people, all of the people who sent us to represent them, honesty and the control they deserve.

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