{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=F6DE1528-7DE8-49F5-B5C1-3672737A70F8", "Alexander to Tennessee Farmer: Weve Got a Christmas Present for You", "2017-12-08", "2017", "2017-12", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2017\u00a0\u2013 Senate health committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) urged\u00a0Congress\u00a0to deliver \u201ca very good Christmas present\u201d\u00a0by passing his bipartisan legislation to lower health insurance premiums by 18 percent --\u00a0that's according to Avalere, which is one of the leading health consulting firms in the country and made the announcement this week.\r\nThe senator said that the legislation\u00a0will not just reduce premiums,\u00a0but\u00a0will\u00a0also\u00a0reduce the amount of federal tax dollars that go to pay for Obamacare subsidies, according to the Congressional Budget Office, because \"if the premiums are lower, the subsidies are going to be lower. And if the\u00a0subsidies are lower, then the federal debt is going to be lower,\u201d Alexander said.\u00a0\r\nThe legislative package would include the Alexander-Murray bill to fund cost-sharing reduction payments for two years\u00a0that help low-income Americans pay for co-pays and deductibles. \u00a0It would\u00a0give states\u00a0more flexibility in \u00a0creating policies at a lower cost\u00a0and allow anyone\u00a0to buy a\u00a0\u201ccatastrophic\u201d\u00a0healthcare plan\u00a0with lower premiums and higher deductibles. \u00a0The package\u00a0would also include the Collins-Nelson bill, which is based upon the experience of Maine and Alaska in using invisible risk pools and reinsurance funds to create a pool of money to pay for the healthcare needs of the very sick, thereby reducing premiums by as much as 20 percent for everybody else.\r\nAlexander told the story of a Nashvillian he met who will pay $1,300 a month next year in premiums:\r\n\u201cOn Wednesday, I was in Nashville, and I went to Chick-fil-A on Charlotte\u00a0at about 2 pm in the afternoon. \u00a0I\u00a0ordered six chicken nuggets, some mac and cheese and some waffle fries.\u00a0As I\u00a0was about to leave, and a lady walked up to me and said, \u2018Senator, thank you for what you're doing to help me with insurance.\u2019\u00a0\r\n\u201cShe said, \u2018My name is Marty. I'm a self-employed farmer. And the year before Obamacare started, my monthly insurance premium was $300. Next year, it's $1,300, and it's very hard for me to afford.\u2019\u00a0\r\n\u201cI said, \u2018I guess you're one of those Americans who work hard and you don't get any government subsidy to help you pay for your health insurance.\u2019 She said, \u2018That's exactly right. I have to pay for the whole thing myself.\u2019\r\n\u201cI said, \u2018Well, Marty, I\u2019ve got a Christmas present for you if Congress can pass by the end of the month legislation that would lower your premiums in the year 2019 by 18%-- that's according to Avalere, which is one of the leading health consulting firms in the country\u00a0who\u00a0made\u00a0that\u00a0announcement yesterday.\r\n\u201c\u2018So if your premiums are $1,300 a month, that's a couple thousand dollars less you'll have to pay. That's still way too high. Or if the Senate and the House\u00a0in the tax bill\u00a0agree\u00a0to remove the\u00a0individual mandate\u00a0penalizing \u00a0you if you don\u2019t buy insurance\u00a0that will put upward pressure on those same rates but only by\u00a0about\u00a010%.\u00a0So you're still going to get an\u00a0average\u00a08% decrease in your rates in 2019, and that's about $1,000 in your pocket. Those are real dollars.\u2019\r\nThe average Tennessean has seen premiums rise 176% over the last five years and an additional 58 percent this year, the senator said.\u00a0\r\n\u201cSo a very good Christmas present for Marty and men and women like her across this country would be for this Congress, before the end of the month, to pass what we call the Alexander-Murray and the Collins-Nelson legislation which will lower premiums by 18%.\"\r\nWatch the rest of Sen. Alexander\u2019s floor speech\u00a0here.", 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://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=F6DE1528-7DE8-49F5-B5C1-3672737A70F8"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3709340710192919, "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"}