{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=4b12e316-f48c-4e85-86d1-c34ef9377d83", "Enzi: I had a plan for fixing health care before President Obama became a senator", "2013-11-20", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "WY", "Michael Enzi", "E000285", "www.enzi.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "During a Senate Small Business Committee hearing today on the small business exchanges required under President Obama\u2019s health care law, U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., discussed solutions he offered to fix America\u2019s health care system long before President Obama became a U.S. senator. Enzi also discussed the benefit of allowing small businesses to shop across state lines and \u00a0moving forward with market-based reforms that would interject more competition into the health insurance market.\r\n\u201cOne part of my ten step plan to fix heath care was small business health plans. We had an opportunity to do that. That would have allowed small businesses to group together through their association, any association across state lines, nationwide so they'd have a big enough group they could effectively negotiate with any insurance company,\u201d said Enzi. \u201cAnother one of my proposals would have provided a lot of advantages to small businesses by allowing them to self-insure with those big groups.\u201d\r\nEnzi has repeatedly said that unfortunately, those are not available under Obamacare because the president refused to seriously consider alternative ideas at the time he campaigned for his health care law. \u00a0\u00a0\r\n\u201cSmall business owners of Wyoming are asking me what can be done. Wyoming didn't do an exchange. It's less populated than the District of Columbia. We only have two insurance companies that are interested in serving there. We only had two providers providing prescriptions until we bid Medicare Part D. One of the things that surprised us, 48 companies wanted the business in Wyoming. Even though it is a small populated state. And what was the effect? Before the law even went into effect, it dropped prices by 25% and gave people choices. We could have had that same thing here. But we don't.\u201d \nEnzi also discussed the burdens being placed on small business by Obamacare and how nothing is being done to unburden them from the regulations that are preventing hiring, slowing the economy, and undermining business\u2019 bottom line.\r\n\u201cWe often hear folks on both sides make remarks about small businesses being the backbone of the U.S. economy and the driver of our economic growth.\u00a0 How are we helping our small businesses expand their businesses, hire more employees and continue to grow our economy when we burden them with regulations and break promises made that affect their ability to provide health care coverage for their employees and themselves \u2013 effectively undermining their bottom line?\u00a0The short answer is, we\u2019re not,\u201d said Enzi.\r\nIn 2010, Enzi warned that businesses would lose the health insurance they liked for their employees and would be force to cut hours. His prediction, based on a reading of the Obama Administration\u2019s own regulations, has come true.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \r\nClick here to read an op-ed Senator Enzi recently wrote on the false promises of Obamacare.\r\nClick here to read more about Senator Enzi\u2019s 10 steps to transform health care.", 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.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=4b12e316-f48c-4e85-86d1-c34ef9377d83"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3202028349041939, "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"}