{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://roby.house.gov/press-release/video-roby-shares-constituent-health-care-stories-house-floor", "VIDEO: Roby Shares Constituent Health Care Stories on the House Floor", "2013-11-14", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "AL", "Martha Roby", "R000591", "roby.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. Representative Martha Roby (R-AL) today shared personal stories from local Alabama residents about the impact that the Affordable Care Act is having on their families\u2019 health insurance. Rep. Roby also highlighted her support for the \u201cKeep Your Health Plan Act,\u201d which is due for a vote in the House on Friday. After reports surfaced of thousands of Alabama health insurance policyholders seeing plan cancellations or rate hikes, Rep. Roby reached out to constituents asking those who experienced such difficulties to share their personal stories.\u00a0 After receiving hundreds of responses, Rep. Roby shared a handful of health care stories from constituents in Dothan, Montgomery, Greenville, and Prattville. On Friday, the House is expected to vote on the \u201cKeep Your Health Plan Act,\u201d authored by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI). The bill would ensure individual policy holders who like their healthcare are truly allowed to keep it as the President originally promised. Constituents can still share their ObamaCare stories with Rep. Roby on Facebook or Twitter, by email, or by calling Rep. Roby\u2019s Washington, D.C. office at 202-225-2901. Below is the complete transcript of Rep. Roby\u2019s floor speech.  \n\t\u00a0  \n\tMr. Speaker, I rise today to share some of the stories of Alabamians who are being negatively affected by implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Over the last several weeks, thousands of health insurance policy-holders in Alabama have received notice that their plans have been cancelled or altered, and their costs have risen \u2013 some quite dramatically. This despite President Obama\u2019s often-repeated and unmistakable promise to the contrary. He promised of the Affordable Care Act, quote: \u201cIf you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan you be able to keep you health care plan. Period. No one will take it away, no matter what.\u201d Mr. Speaker, we now know that this wasn\u2019t true. To make matters worse, the disastrous roll out of the ObamaCare website has made it nearly impossible for those affected to search for alternatives. The president didn\u2019t tell the truth, and Americans who took him at his word are paying the price. I recently reached out to Alabamians asking those who have experienced health plan cancellations or rate increases because of ObamaCare to tell me their stories. The response has been overwhelming, and Mr. Speaker, I would like to share just a few stories here in the House this morning. Allyson Strickland, a wife and homeschooling mother of four from Dothan, writes: \u201cWe are a family of six with one income, and our premiums doubled from $420-$940 a month. We are already under great financial strain and this is not helping relieve any of the tension. At this point we are very unsure what we are going to do. With 4 growing children we know insurance is vital but at what cost to the daily needs of our family? We are very disappointed in the Obama administration.\u201d Shaun Cunningham of Montgomery writes: \u201cI am a married father of 2 beautiful little girls. My jaw dropped when I found out my family's premium was going from $400 a month to $722. I called Blue Cross first thing Monday morning but was told I needed to contact Healthcare.gov for assistance. After 6 hours on the phone with them trying to apply for a subsidy, I did manage to find out that there was a cheaper premium. I could choose the Blue Saver Bronze at a rate of $545 per month, which was still an increase over the plan I liked. The other problem? My individual deductible would be $6,350 and my family deductible would be $12,700. \u201cI fail to see anything \u2018affordable\u2019 about this.\u201d Chris Vuccovich of Montgomery: \u201cWas notified that my policy was not ACA compliant. Paying $390 for family coverage, just found out comparable plan, \"Silver\", would be $704, my out of pocket went up, so did deductibles and copays. We make too much money and will not qualify for, nor do I want, a subsidy.\u201d Leigh Hayes Wiatt of Montgomery: \u201cOur premium went up to $1374 a MONTH\u201d Angela Zacchini of Greenville: \u201cOur family of 4 is paying $417 a month and it is going to $765 a month.\u201d Jim Harrell of Prattville: \u201cMy doctor retired and told me that he was not going to deal with all the changes in the Affordable Care Act. So, I could not keep my doctor.  \n\tBoth of my adult daughters got letters indicating their policies were cancelled due to not meeting all the requirements of the new law. New policies being issued will be about 33 percent more expensive. One has a specialist doctor who is now going to charge patients a costly fee up front each year, and then pay for services rendered All these affects are negative to my family.\u201d Mr. Speaker, these individuals and families aren\u2019t statistics. They are real people from Alabama\u2019s Second Congressional District whose lives are being made more difficult because of ObamaCare. \u00a0 I don\u2019t know why the president repeatedly misled the country about the true implications of his healthcare law. This is the kind of Washington political doublespeak people are so fed up with \u2013 and this time it is hurting people in a very real way. We have an opportunity here in the House this week to make it right by acting to protect Americans from these rate hikes and plan cancellations. That\u2019s why I\u2019m co-sponsoring the \u201cKeep Your Health Plan Act,\u201d which will allow health care plans currently being offered to continue next year, just like the president promised. This bill also ensure that Americans choosing to maintain their health plans will not face a tax penalty under ObamaCare. I appreciate the leadership of Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan in bringing forth this legislation. The \u201cKeep Your Health Plan Act,\u201d won\u2019t fix every problem with ObamaCare, but it will offer real choices and peace of mind to Americans affected by these changes. Mr. Speaker, this isn\u2019t a partisan issue. Republicans and Democrats alike recognize the basic unfairness that has occurred here. So I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the \u201cKeep Your Health Plan Act.\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": ["http://roby.house.gov/press-release/video-roby-shares-constituent-health-care-stories-house-floor"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1139269918203354, "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"}