releases: http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=997e4cad-076d-4b3a-890f-aaa7375a84c9
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
This data as json
| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 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. Transcript of Senator Barrassos remarks: We are soon to be debating the future of Obamacare. The American people have told us that they want Congress to repeal this so-called health care law. They have told us to start over with real health care reform. You know, this actually shouldnt be a very controversial vote. Its clear even to the laws supporters that the Obama health care law has not worked out in any way that they had specifically expected. The Obama health care law is collapsing whether the president wants to admit it or not. Democrats really should be eager to join us to join us to help fix the damage thats been done by this law. So 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. Last 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. The president would not admit to a single problem with this law. He insisted, he said: It has been a success. Well, 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. Now, 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. But 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. Now that was a study by the McKinsey Center for U.S. Health System Reform. They found that the median increase for bronze plans is 13 percent from this year to next year. Thats just the average. That means for half of the people, theyre going to pay more than that. For the silver plans, its up 11 percent. Platinum, 12 percent. For gold plans its up 15 percent. These are double-digit price increasesthese are not a success. Democrats have come to the floor and talked about some of the people whove gotten insurance coverage since the law took effect. What they wont tell you, is that having coverage, having insurance coverage, is not the same thing as getting medical care. The 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. They 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. The article tells the story about David Reines from Jefferson Township, New Jersey. Hes 60 years old, has a history of chronic knee pain. This 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. President Obama, this is not a success. Democrats who support the health care law say that it created these marketplaces, where people can shop for insurance. What they wont tell you is that companies have been pulling out of the marketplaces, pulling out of the exchanges, all across the country. More than half of the state co-ops have gone out of business, have failed. The largest health insurance company in America says that it may drop out of the program entirely next year. In Wyoming, theres just one company participating in the Obamacare exchange. Thats the choice on the Wyoming exchange: one. Does the president call that success? Democrats say that a lot of people like their insurance plans. Well they wont tell you about the Gallup poll last month that found the American people are far from happy. Just 33 percent of Americans said that health care coverage in this country is either excellent or good. One out of three. Only one out of five are satisfied with the total cost of health care. Both of these numbers are worse than were when President Obama took office. So 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. Another survey last month by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that just 38 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the health care law. Is that that the way President Obama measures success? Is that what he calls success? Why wont the Democrats come to the floor and talk about these surveys? Democrats come down to the floor and say that Obamacare has put millions of people on Medicaid. Im 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. They wont say anything about what a failed program, they wont admit to the fact that Medicaid is a failed program. A 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. The Democrats say to celebrate the fact that they have all of these new people on Medicaid, this is not a success. Democrats dont want to talk about any of this. Nobody on this side of the aisle is denying that there are people who have been helped by the health care law. Why 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? Why wont Democrats admit, why wont the president admit that the law has not lived up to his promises? Why 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? None of this had to happen. None of this is what people were asking for when Democrats wrote their law behind closed doors, back there. It is certainly not what people are asking for today. This health care law has been an expensive, disruptive, and devastating. It is headed for collapse and if Democrats wont admit that, then they are just kidding themselves. Republicans are ready to move, to move on with a better approach. We will work to lower costs, and make insurance affordable for all Americans. We will make sure that people who need insurance can actually get usable insurance. That means making coverage equal carethats what it should do. Coverage ought to equal care. We 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. Well protect consumers, by making insurance predictable and stable, so people dont have to switch their coverage and their doctor every year. Finally, were going to fix Washington by making Medicare and Medicaid stronger for the people who absolutely rely on these programs. President Obama and Democrats in Congress do have a choice. They can join with Republicans in accepting the inevitable. They can act now to reform our health care system in a way that works. Or they can stand by, and watch as the wheels come off of Obamacare. The program is collapsing its unavoidable. Congress should not allow this health care law to harm the American people for one day longer. Democrats should work with us to create a replacement that actually delivers care, not just unusable coverage. ### https://www.barrasso.senate.gov | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |