{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cochran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=35c0892b-aefe-49c0-82bd-8dc534b33b40", "COCHRAN:  MORE AMERICANS COULD BE UNINSURED UNDER OBAMACARE", "2013-12-16", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "MS", "Thad Cochran", "C000567", "www.cochran.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Cochran audio available below. \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 There is a real possibility, according to U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), that more Americans will be left without health insurance as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a partisan law intended to do just the opposite.\r\nCochran recently addressed problems with the implementation of the health insurance reform law passed in 2010 without a single Republican vote.\u00a0\r\n\u201cThe ongoing problems with the law\u2019s enrollment website conspicuously foreshadow the more significant failures that can be expected as this law is implemented,\u201d said Cochran, who pointed to last week\u2019s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid report showing fewer than 365,000 individuals had selected insurance plans from state and federal health insurance exchanges.\r\n\u201cIt has been estimated that more than 47 million nonelderly Americans were uninsured in 2012.\u00a0 This means that less than 1 percent of the uninsured population in the U.S. has selected a health insurance plan by way of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cIt is likely that on January 1st of next year, more Americans will be uninsured than were uninsured at the time that the health care law was enacted.\u00a0 This law\u2019s primary intent was to expand coverage, to encourage insurance, but it seems to be failing on both counts.\u201d\r\nCochran also said correspondence and messages from Mississippians indicate that full implementation of the law, sometimes referred to as \u201cObamacare,\u201d is affecting their health insurance options.\u00a0 He cited a self-employed couple from Oxford whose insurance policy was cancelled.\u00a0 Their new monthly premium will increase from just over $700 to almost $1,400--an increase of more than 90 percent.\r\n\u201cTo put that in perspective, that is more than $16,000 per year that a family would have to spend on health insurance premiums alone.\u00a0 These types of figures are not affordable for most Americans. So there is a sticker shock associated with this misguided effort to improve our nation\u2019s health insurance programs,\u201d he said.\r\nCochran said Congress \u201ccan do better\u201d to improve the American health care system, including reducing health care costs.\r\n\u201cHealth insurance is just one component of our nation\u2019s very complex health care system and we can do better,\u201d Cochran said.\u00a0 \u201cWe should get together and find common ground to improve the quality of health care in this country and to reduce overall health care costs.\u00a0 We owe that to our constituents, our economy, and to the future of health care in this country.\u00a0 This is simply too important not to.\u201d\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.cochran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=35c0892b-aefe-49c0-82bd-8dc534b33b40"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9264419786632061, "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"}