Military Justice Improvement Act
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, Webster's dictionary defines the word success as ``the correct or desired result of an attempt.'' I want to discuss the definition of the word success as we consider the Affordable Care Act.
On the day the bill was signed into law, President Obama said the following:
Today we are affirming that essential truth, a truth every generation is called to discover for itself, that we are not a nation that scales back its aspirations.
Such grand words for where we are today on that piece of legislation. Today the success of the law that now bears his name, ObamaCare, is defined in much more meager terms. Today success is when the folks at Health and Human Services got up this morning, ObamaCare had not shut down, and when the folks at HHS go to sleep tonight, their day will have been a success if ObamaCare did not have to shut down.
Think of all that, think of all that we have been through to this point after 4 years, the fight over the bill and the extreme legislative means used to pass it through Congress. Then think about the 2010 and 2012 elections. Think about the Supreme Court decision that effectively repealed half of the law's coverage. Think of all the changes made to the law through regulation to make sure ObamaCare launched. Think of the postponing of the employer mandate. Think of the postponing of lifetime limits. Think of the impact this law has had on our economy. It has had quite an impact on the economy--people losing jobs, people losing health insurance they currently have, because if you like what you have you may not be able to keep it. Let's talk about that issue for a minute.
``If you like what you have, you can keep it'' was the promise the President made to the American people on at least 36 separate occasions. It is a great sound bite. It is easy to say. It rolls easily off the tongue.
It is also not true. It was never true. It was obviously not true when the law was written. It was obviously not true when the first proposed regulation came out. This is what I said on the Senate floor September 2010. Quoting myself:
Only in the District of Columbia could you get away with telling the people if you like what you have you can keep it, and then pass regulations 6 months later that do just the opposite and figure that people are going to ignore it.
It is not that I have some magic crystal ball. Simple--we all knew it. The administration certainly knew the day would come when millions of people would receive cancellation notices of their insurance policy. Now my constituents clearly know it. I have heard from many Iowans who found out the hard way that the President made a bunch of pie-in-the-sky promises that he knew he couldn't keep, constituents such as this one from Perry, IA, saying:
My husband and I are farmers. For 9 years now we have bought our own policy. To keep the costs affordable our plan is a major medical plan with a very high deductible. We recently received our letters that the plan was going away.
Effective January 1, 2014, it will be updated to comply with the mandates of ObamaCare. To manage the risk of much higher premiums, our insurance company is asking us to cancel our current policy and sign on to a higher rate effective December 1, 2013 or we could go to the government exchange.
We did not keep our current policy. We did not get to keep our lower rates. I now have to pay for coverage that I do not want or will never use. We are not low-income people that might qualify for assistance. We are the small business owner that is trying to live the American dream. I do not believe in large government that wants to run my life.
Or a constituent living in Mason City, IA:
My wife and I are both 60 years old and I have been covered by an excellent Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield policy for several years. It is not through my employer. We selected the plan because it had the features we wanted and needed ..... our choice. And because we are healthy we have a preferred premium rate. Yesterday we got a call from our agent explaining that since our plan is not grandfathered, it will need to be replaced at the end of 2014. The current plan has a $5,000 deductible and the premium is $511 per month. The best option going forward for us from Wellmark would cost $955 per month--a modest 87 percent increase--and have a $10,000 deductible.
And because we have been diligent and responsible in saving for our upcoming retirement, we do not qualify for any taxpayer-funded subsidies.
These are just two of many letters, emails, and phone calls I have received from Iowans. Thousands have contacted me asking what can be done now that we clearly see that what the President sold the American people was a bag of Washington's best gift-wrapped hot air.
I ask the President, I ask my colleagues here in the Senate, to look at all we have been through as a country, all the grandiose talk about the importance of this statute, and what we ultimately have is an optional Medicaid expansion with a glorified high-risk pool and a government portal that makes the DMV look efficient.
Americans deserve better. They voted for better. But this administration will somehow trudge ahead; keep the doors open; thousands of people enrolled instead of millions. They just released a number this week for the 36 States using the malfunctioning Federal exchange: fewer than 27,000 people.
Including people who have not actually committed to purchase the plans--those who have put it in their shopping cart--less than 27,000 people. That is about 19 people per day per State. So the administration will limp along with this pitiful signup process hoping to get people properly assigned to health plans.
If the assignment of individuals to plans fails miserably on January 1, the administration will dig in and sort it out. If the risk pools are a disaster, the administration will use extraregulatory--by any means necessary--tools to keep this program afloat. Because for all the talk of this bill being--as we saw and heard the Vice President on TV--a big expletive deal, success is not defined in the desires of 2010 but in making sure ObamaCare exists in some form or fashion on January 20, 2017.
We saw more of this digging in and sorting out on this very day when the President spoke. Insurance companies sent 4 million cancellation notices to comply with the President's law. They did it to comply with the law. Let's be clear about it. In other words, these insurers read the law, and then do you know what they did. They did what every company ought to do: Follow the law. Unfortunately for them, the President did what he has been doing for 3 years: He has taken out his pencil and eraser and rewritten or delayed his law on the fly when it is not working.
So what does it now mean for insurers who were simply trying to follow the law as written, as you would expect them to follow the law? Let me tell you what one insurance company had to say:
This means that the insurance companies have 32 days to reprogram their computer system for policies, rates, and eligibility, send notices to policyholders via US Mail, send a very complex letter that describes just what the differences are between specific policies and ObamaCare compliant plans, ask the consumer for their decision--and give them a reasonable time to make that decision--and then enter those decisions back into their system without creating massive billing, claim payments, and provider eligibility list mistakes.
That was a quote from the consultant who was commenting on what the President did today by delaying or by making sure you could keep your program.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 4 more minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. GRASSLEY. So the only thing the President has accomplished with his announcement today is that he is delaying his broken promise for another year. I have to wonder: What will it take for him to admit his law is not working and at least call for a full delay?
Remember how all these big health insurance companies back in 2009 got behind the President's program for nationalizing our health insurance program. They put up a lot of money to sell it. Their lobbyists lobbied for it. What they ought to do is tell the American people what a big mistake they made because they are getting stuck with it right now--as I just quoted from this consultant from an insurance company.
It is time for us to admit that ObamaCare has not achieved the correct or desired results of an attempt--in other words, the definition of success as I stated earlier in my remarks. It has not been a success by any measure, unless, of course, you lower your standard to the point that the mere act of keeping the doors open is a success. How sad is it that after all we have been through--and we have been through a lot. Maybe, just maybe, it is time to admit that the massive restructuring has failed. It may be that partisanship has failed. Perhaps it is time to sit down and consider commonsense, bipartisan steps we could take to lower costs and improve quality. Perhaps we could enact alternative reforms aimed at solving America's biggest health care problems, such as revising the Tax Code to help individuals who buy their own health insurance; allowing people to purchase health coverage across State lines and form risk pools in the individual markets; expanding tax-free health savings accounts; making health care price and quality information more transparent; cracking down on frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits; using high-risk pools to insure people with preexisting conditions; giving States more freedom to improve Medicaid, such as Rhode Island got a few years ago and which seems to be a success; and using provider competition, consumer choice to bring down costs in Medicare, throughout the health care delivery system. The American people need to know this failed program is not the only answer.
I yield the floor.
I thank the Senator from New York for yielding to me. I forgot to say that earlier.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source