{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.heller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/videos?ContentRecord_id=84afacfb-723b-4727-892c-8f55e51aa509", "ICYMI: Heller Shares Nevadans\u2019 Obamacare Stories", "2013-11-13", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "NV", "Dean Heller", "H001041", "www.heller.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "(Washington, D.C.) \u2013 Today on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) shared stories he has received from Nevadans whose healthcare costs are rising, or whose plans have been cancelled under ObamaCare. Heller\u2019s speech centers on President Obama\u2019s promise to the American people that if they liked their health insurance plan, they could keep their health insurance plan.\r\nLast week, Heller cosponsored the If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep It Act (S.1617) introduced by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), which allows Americans to keep their current health insurance plan.\r\nExcerpts from the speech below:\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ve all heard from the law\u2019s supporters that ObamaCare would give uninsured Americans access to health insurance. Time and time again, they promised that people who already had a health plan they liked could keep it.\r\n\u201cIn fact, President Obama made that exact promise on numerous occasions.\r\n\u201cBut one of my constituents sent me a letter last week telling me that wasn\u2019t the case. Sunny from the Las Vegas area wrote \u2018I wanted to tell you that we have lost our wonderful health insurance plan.\u2019 Sunny\u2019s family received a letter from their insurance company telling them that their existing plan didn\u2019t qualify under the Affordable Care Act. They were automatically reassigned to a new plan that costs about $400 more per month.\r\n\u201cBut yet another one of my constituents, Kirk from northern Nevada, was just notified that his current health insurance has been cancelled. He went to the exchange to find a new policy and shared his story with me. He wrote, \u2018\u2026despite higher deductibles and higher co-pays, my new insurance under this devastating law will be more than 250% of what I am paying now.\u2019\r\n\u201cMarc received a letter telling him that his current plan is no longer offered. The plan, the letter detailed, was cancelled in order to \u2018meet the requirements of the new laws.\u2019\u00a0 Marc was given the option to keep his plan for one additional year if he accepts a rate increase, even though he just saw a rate increase in September.\r\n\u201cI think Steven from Washoe County would likely take issue with that promise.\u00a0 He told me that he now has health care that costs $293 per month. However, he just received a letter from his health care provider informing him that the cost of his health care will increase to $546 per month on January 1st. That means health insurance costs will nearly double next year. There\u2019s nothing affordable about that. There\u2019s nothing secure about that.\r\n\u201cI have a letter here from a father from Reno. He writes, \u2018I\u2019m writing you to tell you that I\u2019m now eating crow. A few weeks back I wrote to you and expressed my support for health reform and my dissatisfaction with the government shutdown. Since then, I\u2019ve received notification from my insurance company informing me that my current policy is being discontinued. I then began shopping for new policies for myself and family and have found that rates are two to three times of what I\u2019m currently paying and that my max out of pocket will double, all for basically the same plan as what I have now. In essence, I\u2019ve been put into a situation where I can either save for my kids\u2019 college education or buy healthcare.\u2019\r\n\u201cThese stories don\u2019t fit with the narrative we\u2019ve heard for nearly five years. Now, President Obama is trying to backtrack on the dozens of times he made his promise to the American people.\r\n\u201cThese personal stories are why I\u2019m proud to cosponsor the \u2018If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep It Act,\u2019 introduced by my colleague, Senator Johnson from Wisconsin. This is a simple, but necessary, bill to give Americans the ability to keep their health plans if they like them. The people of Nevada deserve better, and they deserve to have a government that keeps its promises.\u201d", 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.heller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/videos?ContentRecord_id=84afacfb-723b-4727-892c-8f55e51aa509"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8069570176303387, "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"}