Drug Quality and Security Act-- Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

Mr. CRAPO. Madam President, before I make my remarks, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Reed from Rhode Island be recognized immediately following my remarks.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. CRAPO. Madam President, I rise today, also, to speak about a subject on the minds of all Americans and that is the rollout of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare.

Many of us have predicted the implementation of ObamaCare would result in difficulties for American families, businesses, and our still fragile economy.

We spoke about the tax hikes that would come, the rising premiums, the canceled policies, the benefit cuts to Medicare programs for seniors, and other problems in the flawed law. Still, the President insisted that he was right and that he knew best what Americans wanted.

Since then, countless opportunities have been provided for our colleagues to join us in defunding or at least delaying the implementation of this damaging law.

To further sow confusion, the administration has selectively changed the law to suit its political advantage.

And now that October 1 has come and gone, millions of Americans are becoming painfully aware of the reality of how ObamaCare will affect them.

The American people are seeing the effects of ObamaCare, not based on the rhetoric of politicians or the debate here in Congress, but by their own personal experiences in dealing with it.

The initial feedback is clear, and it is not pretty. The trillion dollars in new taxes that I led the fight against on the floor during the initial ObamaCare debate are now largely in effect.

And as I said, and many others warned, and the Joint Tax Committee has actually confirmed, a significant portion of those tax increases are hitting squarely on the middle-income families the President solemnly pledged to protect. He said that people in America who make less than $250,000 per couple or $200,000 per individual would not see one dime of tax increases as a result of the act.

Yet now we are seeing that the burden of this huge tax increase is falling squarely on those in what the President has defined as the middle class. The American people are also now experiencing for themselves the reality we have long warned against--that the President has also broken his promise that his health care plan would lower premiums by $2,500 on average for Americans.

In fact, the Washington Post fact checker gave that President's pledge a three Pinocchios score for not being true. Yet another promise proven to be false is the President's pledge to the American people that if you like your doctor and you like your current health care plan, you can keep it.

Again, the Washington Post reviewed this pledge. But this time it gave the President four Pinocchios saying, ``The President's promise apparently came with a very large caveat: If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan--if we deem it to be adequate.''

I recently received a letter from Nancy from Eagle, ID, about the loss of her husband's employer-provided coverage. The cancellation notification reads that ``due to the Affordable Health Care Act and unprecedented increases in healthcare costs, effective January 1, 2014 traditional comprehensive medical insurance will no longer be available.'' Instead, his employer will offer two preventive health care plans and refer them to the exchange to purchase his insurance.

After browsing the exchange Web site, Nancy and her husband have realized they will either be forced to pay $500 more a month on health insurance premiums or pay a lower premium rate which would result in limited access to providers and hospitals.

Simply put, this is wrong. But I fear that there will be many more like Nancy with similar experiences. This week I was contacted by Matt from Meridian, ID, about his wife who receives coverage through her employer. They will see their premiums rise and a considerably higher deductible due to the increased cost to her employer because of ObamaCare.

Just 1 month after the ObamaCare exchange rollout, at least 3.5 million Americans have received insurance cancellation notices. This number is expected to dramatically increase in coming months. Over 100,000 of those people live in Idaho, according to the Associated Press. According to media reports, the administration knew Americans would not be able to keep their current coverage, even though the President continued to push the message that people could.

After breaking this promise, the President is now telling millions of Americans who have had their insurance cancelled that they should shop around for policies that frankly could be more costly and require them to change their doctors.

Many of my colleagues in the Senate, as a response to this, are cosponsoring a measure known as the If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep It Act. This act is one the Senate should immediately take up and pass.

Idahoans are now learning that the flawed health care law will force them to change their plans and in many cases pay higher premiums. While this law was sold on the promise of providing health care coverage for the uninsured, it is creating new uninsured Americans who will be forced to enter the troubled Federal health care exchanges.

At the same time, the administration refuses calls for transparency and hides information about enrollment numbers. It is hard for me to believe that in the year 2013, when we have iPhones, tablets, Twitter and Google, the administration has no idea or ability to release enrollment numbers.

According to documents released recently from the House oversight committee, six people signed up for ObamaCare on day one. We understand that more are signing up now, but it could be that the administration has such low numbers of enrollments for their signature achievement that they do not want to present the accurate facts.

Many of us in this body are concerned also about the security risks posed by ObamaCare. Several weeks ago, Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee wrote to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, asking whether all Federal privacy and security standards were met prior to the launch of healthcare.gov, the Web site to sign up for ObamaCare.

We have asked Secretary Sebelius to provide answers and information to a series of questions detailing what levels of security and privacy measures were undertaken prior to the launch of the Web site to safeguard the privacy of those Americans signing up for coverage through healthcare.gov. This is a serious concern that must be addressed.

Additionally, because of the law, some businesses are cutting back on employees and on hours, making it harder for Americans to find full-time jobs. Those who do hold on to their full-time jobs could lose their employer-sponsored private insurance and are instead being dumped into the exchange or into the failing Medicaid system.

These are just some of the unfortunate realities we are facing with the implementation of ObamaCare. As these stories continue to pour in, I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, along with the President, to carefully listen to the American people, to American businesses and this feedback and work together to defund and repeal every element that proves not to work.

We must replace those failed policies with true reforms that are in the best interests of the American people and in the best interests of the American economy. From day one, the administration has continued to make excuses for why healthCare.gov is not functioning properly, even though they have had years to prepare and perform testing.

The American people see now that this law is more than just a Web site problem; it is a train wreck. This system was not ready and the law looks impossible to fix. Simply put, the promises of this law are nothing like its realities.

I yield the floor.

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