{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=997e4cad-076d-4b3a-890f-aaa7375a84c9", "Barrasso Previews Senate Obamacare Repeal Vote", "2015-12-01", "2015", "2015-12", "Republican", "House", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor highlighting how the presidents health care law continues to fail Americans in advance of this weeks vote in the Senate to repeal the law.\r\nTranscript of Senator Barrassos remarks:\r\nWe are soon to be debating the future of Obamacare.\r\nThe American people have told us that they want Congress to repeal this so-called health care law.\r\nThey have told us to start over with real health care reform.\r\nYou know, this actually shouldnt be a very controversial vote.\r\nIts clear  even to the laws supporters  that the Obama health care law has not worked out in any way that they had specifically expected.\r\nThe Obama health care law is collapsing  whether the president wants to admit it or not.\r\nDemocrats really should be eager to join us  to join us to help fix the damage thats been done by this law.\r\nSo far, theyve been much more focused on protecting President Obamas legacy, than on protecting the American people and the health of the American people from Obamacare.\r\nLast month, President Obama did a radio show in which he was asked about the law and problems with the law, because people all across the country are seeing significant problems with the law.\r\nThe president would not admit to a single problem with this law.\r\nHe insisted, he said: It has been a success.\r\nWell, I go home to Wyoming every weekend, Im a doctor who practiced medicine in Wyoming for 25 years, and the people who I talk to, my patients, my neighbors, people from all around the state, people I run into in my travels, they do not consider Obamacare a success.\r\nNow, Democrats come to the floor and they say that its ok that insurance rates are rising, remember the president said theyd go down by $2,500 per family? Its ok, the Democrats say, that insurance rates are rising because they say the rates always went up before the law.\r\nBut what they wont tell you is that premiums arent just going up a little theyre going up a lot next year. Actually, theyre going through the roof.\r\nNow that was a study by the McKinsey Center for U.S. Health System Reform.\r\nThey found that the median increase for bronze plans is 13 percent from this year to next year.\r\nThats just the average.\r\nThat means for half of the people, theyre going to pay more than that.\r\nFor the silver plans, its up 11 percent. Platinum, 12 percent. For gold plans its up 15 percent.\r\nThese are double-digit price increasesthese are not a success.\r\nDemocrats have come to the floor and talked about some of the people whove gotten insurance coverage since the law took effect.\r\nWhat they wont tell you, is that having coverage, having insurance coverage, is not the same thing as getting medical care.\r\nThe New York Times ran an article about two weeks ago with a headline: Many say high deductibles make their health law insurance all but useless.\r\nThey dont even call it health insurance, they call it health law insurance. Because its insurance to comply with a law, not to actually give you health care.\r\nThe article tells the story about David Reines from Jefferson Township, New Jersey.\r\nHes 60 years old, has a history of chronic knee pain.\r\nThis man says that his $3,000 deductible makes it impossible to actually go to the doctor. He says, We have insurance, but cant afford to use it.\r\nPresident Obama, this is not a success.\r\nDemocrats who support the health care law say that it created these marketplaces, where people can shop for insurance.\r\nWhat they wont tell you is that companies have been pulling out of the marketplaces, pulling out of the exchanges, all across the country.\r\nMore than half of the state co-ops have gone out of business, have failed.\r\nThe largest health insurance company in America says that it may drop out of the program entirely next year.\r\nIn Wyoming, theres just one company participating in the Obamacare exchange.\r\nThats the choice on the Wyoming exchange: one.\r\nDoes the president call that success?\r\nDemocrats say that a lot of people like their insurance plans.\r\nWell they wont tell you about the Gallup poll last month that found the American people are far from happy.\r\nJust 33 percent of Americans said that health care coverage in this country is either excellent or good. One out of three.\r\nOnly one out of five are satisfied with the total cost of health care.\r\nBoth of these numbers are worse than were when President Obama took office.\r\nSo how are you doing now compared to where you were when Barack Obama went to the White House? People will tell you that when it comes to health care, it is worse.\r\nAnother survey last month by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that just 38 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the health care law.\r\nIs that that the way President Obama measures success? Is that what he calls success?\r\nWhy wont the Democrats come to the floor and talk about these surveys?\r\nDemocrats come down to the floor and say that Obamacare has put millions of people on Medicaid.\r\nIm not sure how many of them have a full understanding of Medicaid. As a doctor who practiced medicine for 24 years, I can tell you a lot about Medicaid.\r\nThey wont say anything about what a failed program, they wont admit to the fact that Medicaid is a failed program.\r\nA new study last month found that cancer patients with Medicaid in Californiawe have two senators from California who voted for this lawMedicaid in California, patients with cancer are less likely to get recommended treatment  and they have lower survival rates than people with other types of insurance.\r\nThe Democrats say to celebrate the fact that they have all of these new people on Medicaid, this is not a success.\r\nDemocrats dont want to talk about any of this.\r\nNobody on this side of the aisle is denying that there are people who have been helped by the health care law.\r\nWhy wont any Democrat come to the floor of the United States Senate and admit that for every person who has benefited, someone else may have been harmed, may have suffered?\r\nWhy wont Democrats admit, why wont the president admit that the law has not lived up to his promises?\r\nWhy did we need a 2,000 page law that upended the entire health care system in this country to basically expand the broken Medicaid program?\r\nNone of this had to happen.\r\nNone of this is what people were asking for when Democrats wrote their law behind closed doors, back there.\r\nIt is certainly not what people are asking for today.\r\nThis health care law has been an expensive, disruptive, and devastating.\r\nIt is headed for collapse  and if Democrats wont admit that, then they are just kidding themselves.\r\nRepublicans are ready to move, to move on with a better approach.\r\nWe will work to lower costs, and make insurance affordable for all Americans.\r\nWe will make sure that people who need insurance can actually get usable insurance.\r\nThat means making coverage equal carethats what it should do. Coverage ought to equal care.\r\nWe will give people freedom, flexibility and choice to allow patients to make the decisions that are best for them and their familynot Washington and President Obama telling them whats best for them or their family.\r\nWell protect consumers, by making insurance predictable and stable, so people dont have to switch their coverage and their doctor every year.\r\nFinally, were going to fix Washington by making Medicare and Medicaid stronger for the people who absolutely rely on these programs.\r\nPresident Obama and Democrats in Congress do have a choice.\r\nThey can join with Republicans in accepting the inevitable.\r\nThey can act now to reform our health care system in a way that works.\r\nOr they can stand by, and watch as the wheels come off of Obamacare.\r\nThe program is collapsing  its unavoidable.\r\nCongress should not allow this health care law to harm the American people for one day longer.\r\nDemocrats should work with us to create a replacement that actually delivers care, not just unusable coverage.\r\n###\r\nhttps://www.barrasso.senate.gov", 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=997e4cad-076d-4b3a-890f-aaa7375a84c9"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9796931408345699, "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"}