{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221090224/http://black.house.gov/press-release/tennessean-new-health-bill-has-cure-obamacare", "The Tennessean: New Health Bill has Cure for Obamacare", "2013-11-21", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Diane Black", "B001273", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "In Case You Missed It: \nNew Health Bill has Cure for Obamacare\nBy Congressman Diane Black\nPublished November 21, 2013\nThe first numbers are in, and they are ugly. The Affordable Care Act\u2019s central promise of expanding access to health coverage is under threat as millions of Americans across the country are receiving notices that their existing policies are being canceled, while only about 106,000 have enrolled through the exchange websites.\nIn Tennessee, only 992 people have selected plans through the federal exchange, yet so far at least 94,000 Tennesseans across our state are at risk of being dropped from their existing plans. This is in direct contrast to President Obama\u2019s famous promise that \u201cif you like your plan, you can keep it \u2014 period.\u201d\nWith sagging poll numbers and growing turmoil among congressional Democrats, Obama attempted to \u201cfix\u201d the problem of mass cancellation notices by executive fiat. This is far from what is necessary to guarantee his promise, and my House colleagues and I swiftly moved to pass bipartisan legislation that would help protect people\u2019s existing coverage, the Keep Your Health Plan Act, which the president has cynically threatened to veto.\nBut canceled policies are not the only broken promise Americans are suffering from. With different plans come different doctors and hospitals. And rather than reducing premiums by $2,500 a year for the average American family as Obama promised, \u201cObamacare\u201d is causing premiums to skyrocket. On average, a 30-year-old male nonsmoker can expect a 260 percent increase in his premium, according to one study.\nIt\u2019s no secret that I have long opposed Obama\u2019s health care law. As a registered nurse for more than 40 years, I know that something had to be done to address problems in our health care system. But rather than a top-down federal rewrite of one-sixth of our economy, we need to expand access and work to lower costs with a more patient-centered, market-based approach.\nNow that Obamacare is rapidly careening off the tracks, I am often asked what can be done to fix it. The sad reality is that it can\u2019t simply be fixed; while there are steps that can be taken to ease the pain on some Americans now, these measures will often lead to unintended consequences for others. This is why the only true fix is to repeal Obamacare and replace it with smarter reforms.\nThis is why I have co-sponsored HR 3121, the American Health Care Reform Act, introduced by my fellow Tennessee Rep. Phil Roe, a physician who knows the ins and outs of the health care system. This bill has received the support of more than 100 members of Congress.\nThe first thing this legislation does is give us a blank slate to work from by repealing Obamacare. It then focuses on reducing health care costs and increasing access by allowing Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines. Furthermore, common-sense medical malpractice reform is put in place that would limit lawsuit abuse in the health industry and help lower costs associated with doctor and hospital visits.\nOur plan would protect individuals with pre-existing conditions by bolstering state-based high-risk pools and extending existing guaranteed availability protections under HIPAA. We expand access to health savings accounts and level the playing field for families and individuals by giving them the same tax deductions for health care costs that businesses and employers enjoy.\nObamacare is failing to live up to even its most basic expectations and is creating havoc on our health care system and exposing Tennesseans and Americans across the country to dropped coverage, reduced access and dramatic premium increases. This cannot sustain itself and must be stopped. The time has come for President Obama to stop with the politics and work with Congress to protect Americans from this disastrous law.\n###\nCongressman Diane Black represents Tennessee\u2019s 6th Congressional District. She has been a registered nurse for more than 40 years and serves on the House Ways and Means and Budget Committees.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221090224/http://black.house.gov/press-release/tennessean-new-health-bill-has-cure-obamacare"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2853411026299, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}