{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=cd36ef9b-c511-49a6-b5cf-71ac292d09dd", "Alexander: Obamacare Delivers Unwelcome Christmas Present, Unhappy New Year for Many Tennesseans", "2013-12-19", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Says Obamacare is increasing costs and reducing health care choices for Tennesseans, businesses and school districts\r\n***\r\n\u201cUnfortunately, at least 82,000 Tennesseans are losing their health policies this year, and that\u2019s an unwelcome Christmas present. Even more unfortunately, an Unhappy New Year is coming in which hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans could lose the employer-sponsored policies they have and like when Obamacare\u2019s burdensome mandates on employers kick in.\u201d \u2013 Lamar Alexander\u00a0\r\nWASHINGTON, Dec. 19 \u2013 In a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate yesterday, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) highlighted the ways Obamacare has increased costs and reduced choices for Tennesseans in 2013, and warned of more widespread consequences in the New Year.\r\n\u201cThe fact t least 82,000 Tennesseans will begin to lose their individual health insurance policies starting Jan. 1 is an unwelcome Christmas present,\u201d Alexander said. \u201cAnd it\u2019ll be an unhappy New Year for many more Tennesseans who get their insurance on the job when Obamacare\u2019s burdensome mandates on employers kick in.\u201d\r\nThe senator discussed how Obamacare\u2019s mandates have outlawed many insurance plans \u2013 despite the president\u2019s promise that \u201cIf you like your health insurance, you can keep it\u201d \u2013 will increase costs for individuals and businesses and is even burdening school districts.\r\nAlexander\u2019s remarks as prepared are below:\r\nFor the last couple months, we\u2019ve heard countless stories from constituents who are losing the health plans they purchased on the individual market.\u00a0\r\nAccording to America\u2019s Health Insurance Plans, there are 19 million Americans in the individual market.\u00a0The Obama administration knew in 2010 that the rules it wrote for health plans would mean at least 47 percent to 60 percent of those policies could not be legally offered under Obamacare by 2014.\u00a0 Yet the President still said to people:\u00a0\u201cIf you like your health insurance, you can keep it.\u201d\r\nBy now we all know what the president said wasn\u2019t true. According to news reports collected by my staff, at least 5 million Americans, including 82,000 Tennesseans, will lose their individual plans starting Jan. 1. That\u2019s an unwelcome Christmas present for at least 82,000 Tennesseans (16,000 Tennesseans are losing their CoverTN plan; 66,000 Tennesseans will also lose their BlueCross Blue Shield of Tennessee coverage). \u00a0\r\nMy constituent Emily from Middle Tennessee told me in a recent letter: \u201cI cannot keep my current plan because it does not meet the standards of coverage. This alone is a travesty. CoverTN has been a lifeline \u2026.With the discontinuation of CoverTN, I am being forced to purchase a plan though the Exchange\u2026My insurance premiums alone will increase a staggering 410 percent. My out-of-pocket expense will increase by more than $6,000 a year \u2013 that includes subsidies. Please help me understand how this is \u2018affordable.\u2019\u201d\r\nUnfortunately, Emily is not the only one experiencing \u201crate shock.\u201d\u00a0 Millions of Americans are losing their insurance plans and then being forced to buy new plans with higher premiums, deductibles, and co-insurance.\r\nAccording to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, Tennesseans can expect to pay up to three times more on the exchanges being set up under Obamacare for the health insurance they now have.\r\n \r\nIn 2013, a 27-year-old man in Memphis could buy a private insurance plan for as low as $41 a month.\u00a0On the exchange for insurance coverage in 2014, the lowest state average is $119 a month\u2014a 190 percent increase.\u00a0\r\n \r\n \r\nToday, a 27-year-old woman in Nashville can also buy a plan for as low as $58 a month.\u00a0 On the exchange, the lowest-priced plan in Nashville is $114 a month\u2014a 97 percent increase.\u00a0 Even with a tax subsidy if she made $25,000 a year, that plan is $104 a month, almost twice what she could pay today if the $58 plan was all she felt she needed.\r\n \r\n \r\nToday, women in Nashville can choose from 30 insurance plans that cost less than the administration says insurance plans on the exchange will cost, even with the new tax subsidy.\u00a0\r\n \r\n \r\nIn Nashville, 105 insurance plans offered today will not be available in the exchange.\r\n \r\nAccording to HealthPocket, Inc., a consumer-oriented health research firm, the average individual deductible for a bronze plan on the federally run exchange is $5,081 a year.\u00a0\r\nThat is 42 percent more than the average deductible of $3,589 for an individually purchased plan in 2013.\r\nAnd according to Deloitte, that is 348 percent more than the $1,135 average deductible for an employer health plan in 2013.\r\nAccording to Avalere Health, 90 percent of bronze plans require patients to pay 40 percent of the cost of their Tier 3 and 4 drugs out of their own pockets, compared with 29 percent of employer-sponsored plans that most Americans currently use. Most silver plans also require patients to pay 40 percent. For cancer patients and those with chronic illnesses, this kind of cost-sharing could mean they will pay thousands of dollars out of pocket or go without the drugs they need to stay healthy.\r\nAmericans had to wait until the exchanges opened on October 1st to find out just how much they were going to have to pay for insurance in 2014.\r\nWith such dramatic hikes in premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, it\u2019s no wonder Americans are outraged.\r\nAnd then, just before Thanksgiving, we learned that the Obama administration is delaying open enrollment for 2015 until after the mid-term elections in November.\r\nThe only American consumers this change will help are Democratic politicians\u00a0who voted for Obamacare,\u00a0because it delays disclosure of some of the law's most insidious effects until after the election.\r\nSenators Barrasso, Enzi, and I today introduced a bill called the \u201cPremium Disclosure Act\u201d to change the open enrollment date back to October and to provide Americans notice of their premiums and cost-sharing requirements 30 days in advance so that they can plan for the future knowing their health care costs for the next year.\r\nThis is a common-sense proposal that I hope my colleagues across the aisle will join me in passing.\r\nAs my colleague Senator Barrasso likes to say, what we now know about Obamacare is just the tip of the iceberg.\u00a0\r\nMuch of the media attention has focused upon the disastrous rollout of the website and the19 million Americans in the individual market. But just below the tip of the iceberg are nearly 160 million Americans who the Congressional Budget Office says have insurance through their employers and who will also soon start to feel the effects of Obamacare.\u00a0\r\nThink about issues like restrictive grandfathered plan rules, limits on the number of hours employees can work and be considered part-time, the mandate that employers provide government-approved insurance or pay a fine, and the millions of dollars in new taxes on health plans. All of these issues will have an impact on employer-sponsored health insurance in both the public and private sectors.\r\nWe\u2019re already starting to see the effects of the law and it hasn\u2019t even gone fully into effect. Employers such as Sea World, Trader Joe\u2019s, The Home Depot, and other companies have publicly said they are reducing worker hours or dropping part-time employee health benefits.\u00a0\r\nThe CEO of Ruby Tuesday told me that the cost to implement Obamacare is equal to the profit his company earned last year.\r\nIn case you think these are isolated examples, the National Association of Manufacturers says more than three-fourths of manufacturers cited rising health care and insurance costs as their most important business challenge.\u00a0\r\nThe U.S. Chamber of commerce also has a membership survey which says 74 percent of businesses are reporting that the health care law makes it harder for their firms to hire new workers.\r\nMany of these businesses self-insure, meaning they design and pay directly for the health plans they offer to their employees.\r\nAccording to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 100 million Americans currently have an employer-sponsored health plan that is self-insured.\u00a0\r\nSelf-insurance is a method of providing health insurance that has worked well since its inception in 1974 and should be preserved.\r\nLast month, Senators Rubio, Risch, McConnell and I introduced a bill to ensure the Obama administration does not change the rules that allow companies to insure themselves against a medical claim that could bankrupt them. \u00a0\u00a0\r\nAny effort by the Obama administration to change the rules on companies that self-insure will break the president\u2019s promise to millions more hardworking Americans. It won\u2019t matter if they like their employer\u2019s health care plans; many won\u2019t be able to keep them.\r\n\u00a0\r\nIt\u2019s not just the private sector facing fiscal challenges because of Obamacare. Our nation\u2019s schools, colleges, and universities are also being hit hard.\r\nThere\u2019s no shortage of examples in Tennessee of local leaders dealing with the burdens of Obamacare:\r\n \r\nFranklin Special School District has begun limiting substitute teachers to working four days a week, in order to avoid paying between $1 million to 4.5 million more per year in health care costs.\r\n \r\n \r\nMaury County Schools is also limiting its substitute teachers to no more than 28 hours a week for the same reason. As one school board member told the local news, \u201cStudents struggle enough having one substitute teacher, but then now we\u2019re going to have to possibly split the substitute time between two substitute teachers. It just makes it hard on the students to learn.\u201d\r\n \r\n \r\nWilson County Board of Education wrote to tell me that Obamacare\u2019s \u201creinsurance fee\u201d will cost the district an additional $165,000 in 2014 alone.\r\n \r\n \r\nAt least nine other Tennessee school districts are reportedly limiting employee work hours or entire jobs, including:\r\n\r\nClarksville County Schools\r\nRutherford County Schools\r\nJohnson City Schools\r\nCarter County Schools\r\nWashington County School District\r\nOneida Special School District\r\nScott County School System\r\nStewart County School System\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\nCumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, has adopted a new policy to limit adjunct faculty to no more than three courses each term \u2013 meaning that they will not be allowed to offer a course even if they are the most qualified instructor available.\r\n \r\nThe impact of Obamacare on education is by no means limited to Tennessee.\u00a0 Investor\u2019s Business Daily has identified well over 100 school districts and institutions of higher education nationwide that have made cuts and/or limited employee work hours because of Obamacare.\u00a0 That number is climbing daily, again suggesting that this is just the tip of the iceberg.\r\nWho pays the price for this? Our children. Cash-strapped schools simply do not have the resources to absorb these costs, so they\u2019re forced to make difficult choices that will impact our nation\u2019s education system.\r\nFor these reasons \u2013 broken promises, higher costs, fewer choices \u2013 Obamacare was an historic mistake. It expanded a health care delivery system we already knew cost too much, and left Americans with fewer choices.\r\nNow, what would we do differently, as Republicans, if we could elect a Republican Senate in 2014, and a Republican president in 2016? We would repeal and replace Obamacare. We would replace it with step-by-step reforms reduce health care costs and put patients in charge by giving them more choices.\r\nHere are some of the steps we would take to transform health care so Americans could afford it:\r\n \r\nMake Medicare solvent so seniors can depend on it to be there for them and their grandchildren.\r\n \r\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2.\u00a0Give Governors more flexibility with their state Medicaid programs so \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 they can lower costs, improve health outcomes, and have more money \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 for other programs like education and roads.\r\n \r\nStrengthen innovative workplace wellness programs that empower employees with more incentives to make healthy lifestyle choices.\r\n  \r\nLet small businesses pool their resources and offer lower cost insurance plans for their employees.\r\n  \r\nProvide families the opportunity to purchase insurance across state lines, creating greater competition between insurance companies and lowering premiums for everyone.\u00a0\r\n \r\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a06. Expand access to Health Savings Accounts and catastrophic health  \u00a0insurance plans, giving people more affordable insurance options that fit  \u00a0their lifestyles.\r\n \r\nIncentivize the growth of private health insurance exchanges to give consumers expanded health insurance choices and allow them to keep insurance between jobs.\r\n  \r\nMake it easier for patients to compare prices and quality of doctors and medical services.\u00a0\r\n  \r\nIncentivize states to reform junk lawsuits that drive up health care costs for everyone and are driving medical professionals out of their profession.\r\n \r\nWhen Irving Kristol died not long ago, James Q. Wilson wrote a tribute in the Wall Street Journal that struck me. He said that when they began their association as neoconservatives they were \u201cpolicy skeptics.\u201d He said that was their common view. And by that I think he must have meant that they did not believe that Washington could through a comprehensive piece of legislation fix our entire health care system, that what Washington should do \u2013 particularly in this iPhone age \u2013 is go step by step in a direction that allows for more personal freedom to Americans so they can live longer, live healthier, live safer, and be happier.\r\nThat\u2019s what Republicans would like to do.\r\nBut unfortunately, at least 82,000 Tennesseans are losing their health policies this year, and that\u2019s an unwelcome Christmas present. Even more unfortunately, an Unhappy New Year is coming in which hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans could lose the employer-sponsored policies they have and like when Obamacare\u2019s burdensome mandates on employers kick in.\r\nWe\u2019re ready to go in a different direction. We want to create a way for Americans to have more choices, more competition, and insurance they can purchase at a lower cost.\r\n\r\n# # #", 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?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=cd36ef9b-c511-49a6-b5cf-71ac292d09dd"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6575830522924662, "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"}