{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=SpeechesFloorStatements&ContentRecord_id=90881e7a-cb4d-4c88-b081-c898cb6b3f85", "Floor Speech: Obamacare Delivers Unwelcome Christmas Present", "2013-12-18", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "I congratulate the Senator from Missouri for his comments.\u00a0 Sometimes I think Republican Senators especially should begin and end every speech with an answer to the question, \u201cWhat would the Senator do if he were in charge?\u201d\u00a0 And the Senator from Missouri has said that very eloquently.\u00a0 It is not the first time what Republicans would do has been said on this floor.\u00a0 He mentioned that the law was passed 3 1/2 years ago.\u00a0 We counted it one time. We mentioned 173 times on this floor the Republican step-by-step proposal for a different approach to health care in this country.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We said, \u201cDon't expect Senator McConnell or any other Republican to come in with a 3,000-page Republican bill in a wheelbarrow.\u201d\u00a0 We don't believe in that.\u00a0 We believe in a different direction, a different approach.\u00a0 We don't believe we are wise enough in Washington to write 3,000 pages of rules to govern every aspect of our health care system in America that takes 18 or 19 percent of the economy.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We live in the iPhone age, where we want to increase the personal freedom of Americans to live longer, better, safer, and healthier.\u00a0 We want people to be able to do these things for themselves.\u00a0 We want to increase choice, competition, and in that way lower costs.\u00a0 If we lower costs, then more people will be able to afford to buy health insurance.\u00a0 That is the real way to expand health insurance in America -- make it more affordable; make it so people can afford it.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So I am beginning these short remarks with a salute to the Senator from Missouri for talking about what we would do if we were in charge, and I am going to end in that way as well.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For the last couple of months, we have heard countless stories from constituents who are losing the health plans they purchased on the individual market.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According to America's Health Insurance Plans, there are 19 million Americans in the individual market.\u00a0 The Obama administration knew in 2010 that the rules it wrote for health plans would mean that 47 to 60 percent of those policies could not be legally offered under Obamacare by 2014.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the President still said, \"If you like your health insurance, you can keep it.\"\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now we all know that wasn't true.\u00a0 According to news reports collected by my staff, at least 5 million Americans, including 82,000 Tennesseans, will lose their individual plans starting January 1.\u00a0 That is an unwelcome Christmas present for those 82,000 Tennesseans.\u00a0 16,000 Tennesseans are losing their CoverTN plans; these are people who especially need help. \u00a0There are also 66,000 Tennesseans who will lose their Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee coverage.\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I heard from a woman named Emilie, who is from Middle Tennessee.\u00a0 She is 39 years of age and has lupus.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She wrote:\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI cannot keep my current plan because it doesn't meet the standards of coverage.\u00a0 This alone is a travesty.\u00a0 CoverTN has been a lifeline....With the discontinuation of CoverTN, I am being forced to purchase a plan through the Exchange....My insurance premiums alone will increase a staggering 410 percent.\u00a0 My out-of-pocket expense will increase by more than $6,000 a year -- that includes subsidies.\u00a0 Please help me understand how this is \u2018affordable.\u2019\"\r\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Unfortunately, Emilie is not the only one experiencing rate shock.\u00a0 Millions of Americans are losing their insurance plans.\u00a0 They are being forced to buy new plans, many of them with higher premiums, deductibles, and coinsurance.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According 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.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 2013, a 27-year-old man in Memphis can buy a private insurance plan for as low as $41 a month.\u00a0 On the exchange, the lowest state average is $119 a month -- a 190-percent increase.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today, a 27-year-old woman in Nashville can buy a plan for as low as $58 a month.\u00a0 On the exchange, the lowest priced plan in Nashville is $114 a month -- a 97-percent increase.\u00a0 Even with a tax subsidy, if she made $25,000 a year, the plan would be $104 a month -- almost twice what she could pay today if the $58 plan was all she felt she needed.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today, 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.\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In Nashville, 105 insurance plans offered today will not be available in the exchange.\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According 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 That is 42 percent more than the average deductible of $3,500 for an individually purchased plan in 2013.\u00a0 According to Deloitte, that is 348 percent more than the $1,135 average deductible for an employer health plan in 2013.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 These are a lot of numbers, but Americans -- millions of them -- are getting familiar with these numbers because this has gone from being political to very personal.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According 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.\u00a0 Most silver plans also require patients to pay 40 percent.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Americans had to wait until the exchanges opened on Oct.1 to find out just how much they were going to have to pay for insurance in 2014.\u00a0 With such dramatic hikes in premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, it is no wonder that Americans are outraged.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then, just before Thanksgiving, we learned that the Obama administration is delaying open enrollment for 2015 until after the midterm elections in November.\u00a0 The only American consumers this change will help are Democratic politicians who voted for Obamacare because it would delay disclosure of some of the law's most insidious effects until after the election.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Senators Barrasso, Enzi, and I introduced today the Premium Disclosure Act.\u00a0 We want to change the open enrollment date back to October and 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.\u00a0 This is a commonsense proposal that I hope my colleagues will support.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As my colleague Senator Barrasso likes to say, what we know now about Obamacare is just the tip of the iceberg.\u00a0 Much of the media attention has focused on the disastrous rollout of the website and the 19 million Americans in the individual market.\u00a0 But just below the tip of the iceberg are 160 million Americans -- nearly 10 times more than have individual policies -- who the Congressional Budget Office says get their insurance through the job, employer insurance.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Think about issues such as 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.\u00a0 All of these issues will have an impact on employer-sponsored health insurance in both the public and private sector.\u00a0 We are already seeing that.\u00a0 Employers such as Sea World, Trader Joe's, The Home Depot, and other companies have publicly said they are reducing worker hours or dropping part-time employee health benefits.\u00a0 The chief executive officer of Ruby Tuesday, a restaurant company, told me that the cost to implement Obamacare would be equal to the profit his company earned all of last year.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In case you think these are isolated examples, the National Association of Manufacturers says that more than three-fourths of manufacturers cited rising health care and insurance costs as the most important business challenge.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The U.S. Chamber also has a membership survey saying that 74 percent of businesses are reporting that the health care law makes it harder for their firms to hire new workers.\u00a0 This is at a time when jobs are supposed to be the principal concern in our country.\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Many of these businesses self-insure, meaning they design and pay directly for the health plans they offer their employees.\u00a0 According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 100 million Americans currently have employer-sponsored health plans that are self-insured.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Self-insurance is a method of providing health insurance that has worked well since its inception in 1974.\u00a0 It needs to be preserved.\u00a0 Last month Senators Rubio, Risch, McConnell and I introduced a bill to make sure the Obama administration doesn't change that, doesn't change the rule that allows the companies to insure themselves against a medical claim that could bankrupt them.\u00a0 Any effort by the Obama administration to change the rule on companies that self-insure will break the President's promise to millions of Americans.\u00a0 It won't matter if they like their employers' health plans; they won't be able to keep them.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is not only the private sector facing fiscal challenges because of Obamacare.\u00a0 Our Nation's schools, colleges and universities are also being hit hard.\u00a0 There is no shortage of examples in my State of Tennessee of local leaders dealing with the burdens of Obamacare.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Franklin Special School District has begun limiting substitute teachers to working 4 days a week in order to avoid paying between $1 million and $4.5 million more per year in health care costs.\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maury County Schools, south of Nashville, is also limiting its substitute teachers to no more than 28 hours a week for the same reason.\u00a0 One school board member told the local news:\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Students struggle enough having one substitute teacher, but then now we're going to have to possibly split the substitute time between two substitute teachers.\u00a0 It just makes it hard on the students to learn.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wilson County Board of Education wrote to tell me that Obamacare's reinsurance fee will cost the district an additional $165,000 in 2014 alone.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At least eight other Tennessee school districts are reportedly limiting employee work hours or entire jobs, including Clarksville, Rutherford County, Johnson City, Carter County, Washington County, Oneida Special School District, Scott County and Stewart County.\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cumberland University in Lebanon has adopted a new policy to limit adjunct faculty to no more than three courses each term, meaning they won't be able to offer a course even if they are the most qualified instructor available.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The impact of Obamacare on education is by no means limited to Tennessee.\u00a0 Investor's Business Daily has identified well over 100 school districts and institutions of higher education nationwide that have made cuts or limited employee work hours because of Obamacare. That number is climbing daily, again suggesting this is only the tip of the iceberg.\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Remember, what we are hearing about today are individual policies.\u00a0 What we are going to hear about next year are employer policies being cancelled, new costs, and there are 10 times as many Americans with employer policies as individual policies.\u00a0 Who pays the price for this?\u00a0 Our children.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cash-strapped schools simply don't have the money to absorb these costs, so they are forced to make difficult choices.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For these reasons -- broken promises, higher costs, fewer choices -- Obamacare was an historic mistake.\u00a0 It expanded a health care delivery system that already costs too much and left Americans with fewer choices.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I said at the beginning of my remarks that I would like to end in\u00a0the same way, and I will do that with an answer to this question:\u00a0 What would we do if we were in charge?\u00a0 What if we elected a Republican Senate and even a Republican President in 2016?\u00a0 We would replace Obamacare, not by moving backward, but by moving in a different direction.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Remember, Obamacare's real problem was it expanded a delivery system that already costs too much.\u00a0 What we would do instead is go step by step to introduce new ways to increase choices, to have more competition and to lower costs.\u00a0\u00a0 We would make Medicare solvent, so seniors can depend on it.\u00a0 We would give governors more flexibility with Medicaid so they can create programs with lower costs.\u00a0 We would repeal the Obamacare wellness regulation -- the Senator from Missouri talked about that -- and replace it with one that makes it easier, not harder, for employers to give employees lower health insurance costs if they live a healthy lifestyle.\u00a0 We would let small businesses pool their resources and offer low-cost insurance plans for their employees.\u00a0 The Congressional Budget Office says that Senator Enzi's bill would allow coverage for 750,000 more Americans at a lower cost if we did that.\u00a0 We would allow families to purchase insurance across state lines.\u00a0 If there is a policy regulated by Kentucky that fits my needs, and I want to buy it, why shouldn't I be able to do it if I can afford it?\u00a0 We will expand health savings accounts.\u00a0 We would incentivize the growth of private health insurance exchanges.\u00a0 That is beginning to develop all across our country, giving more choices to employees.\u00a0 We would make it easier for patients to compare prices and quality of doctors and medical services.\u00a0 We would incentivize states to reform junk lawsuits.\u00a0 Those are the steps in the right direction where we would like to go.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When Irving Kristol died not long ago, James Q.\u00a0 Wilson wrote a tribute in The Wall Street Journal which struck me.\u00a0 He said when they began their association as neoconservatives -- they were mostly Democrats -- he said we were policy skeptics.\u00a0 He said that was mainly what our common view was.\u00a0 By that, I think he must have meant they did not believe Washington could, through a comprehensive piece of legislation, fix our whole health care system; that what Washington should do, particularly in this iPhone age, is to go step by step in a direction that gives more personal freedom to consumers, to Americans, so they can live longer, live healthier, live safer, and be happier.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That is what we would like to do.\u00a0 That is how we would like to change Obamacare, and we would like to have that opportunity.\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So unfortunately, an unwelcome Christmas present this year for 82,000 Tennesseans is that they are losing their individual policies.\u00a0 Even more unfortunately, an unhappy New Year is coming, in which hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans will lose their employer policies -- the policies they get through their employers -- because of Obamacare. We are ready to go in a different direction and create a way for Americans to have more choices, more competition, and insurance they can purchase at a lower cost.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\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=SpeechesFloorStatements&ContentRecord_id=90881e7a-cb4d-4c88-b081-c898cb6b3f85"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.2907720413058996, "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"}