{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=58D60E5E-21ED-4FBD-ABCE-D81020B7C6C5", "Barrasso: Americans Face Obamacare Sticker Shock", "2016-09-27", "2016", "2016-09", "Republican", "House", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014 Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding Americans facing sticker shock from the cost of their Obamacare plans.\r\nExcerpts of Senator Barrasso\u2019s remarks:\r\n\u201cThe Senate minority leader, Senator Reid, came to the floor a couple of days ago, and talked about health care.\r\n\u201cHe said if people would just look at the newspaper they would see that Obamacare has changed America for the better.\r\n\u201cMillions of Americans do pick up the newspaper.\r\n\u201cI would like to point out to Senator Reid that there have been headlines in the paper, repeatedly, including one in the Reno Gazette-Journal this month that said: \u2018Nevada ranked 48th in health care by finance website.\u2019\r\n\u201cThey\u2019re talking about just how bad the health care law has been for the people of his home state in Nevada.\r\n\u201cThis was about a new survey that looked at things like health care costs and access to care, and how they impact people at home.\r\n\u201cSo if Obamacare was so great, at least as great as Senator Reid says it is, then why is his home state ranked almost dead last?\r\n\u201cAmericans are seeing headlines like the one that appeared the day that the senator came to the floor, the front page of the Washington Times, had he picked up the paper and looked at it on the way to the floor, he would have seen a headline on the front page saying: \u2018Failures of Obamacare\u2026\u2013 Democrats see need for fallback plan.\u2019\r\n\u201cIf Obamacare is so great, why do the Democrats need a fallback plan?\r\n\u201cPeople across the country are seeing headlines like this every day.\r\n\u201cWashington Post headline: \u2018Health care exchange sign-ups fall short of forecasts.\u2019\r\n\u201cNew York Times: \u2018Obamacare Options? In Many Parts of the Country, Only One Insurer Will Remain.\u2019\r\n\u201cAnother New York Times: \u2018Cost of Health Law\u2019s Plans Set to Rise More Sharply.\u2019\r\n\u201cThis in the paper The Hill: \u2018Dems to GOP: Help Us Fix Obamacare.\u2019\r\n\u201cThose are the headlines people are seeing all across the country, so I\u2019m not sure exactly what newspaper the minority leader is reading, but he\u2019s not reading the same newspapers Americans all across the country are reading.\r\nHealth Care Premium & Costs Are Rising for Most Americans\r\n\u201cAll across the country, people are hearing about their rates going up.\r\n\u201cIn Georgia, 33 percent. Illinois, 45 percent. Tennessee, 59 percent. People are feeling the pinch from this rising cost of the Obama health care law.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s hurting the people who buy insurance through Obamacare exchanges, and it\u2019s hurting people who get their insurance through their jobs.\r\n\u201cA new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation says that for people who get their insurance at work, the deductibles have risen four times faster than the premiums did.\r\n\u201cAnd all of those are new costs as a result of the health care law.\r\n\u201cThe American people are feeling it in their wallets \u2013 and millions of Americans are rejecting Obamacare insurance because they know that it\u2019s not a good value for them personally.\r\n\u201cAccording to one article, 8 million people faced tax penalties this year for not buying Obamacare coverage.\r\n\u201cThese are people who can\u2019t afford this expensive, second-rate insurance, or they don\u2019t think that it\u2019s right for them and their family.\r\n\u201cThe Democrats who wrote this law are now asking for help in \u2018fixing it\u2019 \u2013 they don\u2019t really care, they just want people to write their checks to the IRS, their penalties because of the mandates of the law, the taxes, the fines.\r\n\u201cThese are for people who have no options. No options is exactly the situation that most Americans are facing.\r\nInsurance Companies Are Dropping Out of Obamacare\r\n\u201cMajor insurance companies have decided to leave most of the Obamacare markets.\r\n\u201cHumana is selling coverage in 19 states this year, and it\u2019s going to be in just 11 states next year. Look at United HealthCare: 34 states this year \u2013 down to three next year.\r\n\u201cAetna will go from selling Obamacare plans in 15 states this year, to just four states next year.\r\n\u201cOn November first, millions of Americans will go to sign up for Obamacare and find that their insurance plan has disappeared.\r\n\u201cCompanies are running for the exits. The program is collapsing.\r\n\u201cThe co-ops, 23 co-ops under the health care law \u2013so far 17 of them have failed, including the one in Senator Reid\u2019s home state of Nevada\u2014went out of business at the end of the last year.\r\n\u201cWith all of these companies shutting down and dropping out, people living in one third of the country are going to be left with just one option for where to buy Obamacare coverage in November.\r\n\u201cOne option is no choice. It\u2019s not a marketplace, it\u2019s a monopoly.\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": ["http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=58D60E5E-21ED-4FBD-ABCE-D81020B7C6C5"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9379549883306026, "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"}