Barrasso: We Must Act Now to Rescue Americans from Obamacare

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor on how the draft Senate health care bill will rescue Americans from the disaster that is Obamacare.

Excerpts of Senator Barrasso's remarks:

"I come to the floor as the pain of Obamacare around the country continues to worSen.

"The health care crisis continues to grow. Obamacare is collapsing basically more and more every day.

"People in every state of this union have seen their health care costs skyrocket -happening everywhere around the country.

"We must do something to help the American people who are suffering under the heavy weight that Obamacare has placed on their lives.

"I was at a hospital this past weekend in in Casper, Wyoming -my hometown -and I talked with doctors, talked with nurses, and talked with patients.

"What I hear at home in Wyoming is that there is an urgent need to do something about the high costs and the limited choices under the Obama health care law.

"We're having discussions right now about the very best way to do that.

"Whatever we come up with is going to be a fundamental change in direction away from Obamacare.

"That's what America wants, it's what America needs, it's what the American people are asking us to do.

"One of the biggest steps that we need to take is to get rid of Obamacare's mandates and penalties.

"People hate the fact that there's a mandate that said they have to buy insurance that Washington says they have to buy - that the Democrats have said they have to buy -rather than what might work for them and their family.

"There are more than 19 million people across the country who have decided that they're either going to pay a penalty to the IRS, or they received a waiver so that they don't have to get Obamacare insurance.

"These are people who made the fundamental decision that Obamacare insurance was not a good deal for them.

"The second thing we need to do is -I believe -to repeal the burdensome and expensive Obamacare taxes.

"Health care costs have been soaring under Obamacare.

"One of the reasons is because the health care law added almost a trillion dollars of additional taxes onto the backs of hardworking Americans.

"There are the taxes that specifically raise the cost on people needing health insurance and health care.

"They put taxes on things needed by people who are in need of medical care -somebody that needs a pacemaker, someone needs a walker, a wheelchair, an artificial joint.

"Additional taxes on these users of medical devices, medical supplies, of over-the-counter pain medicines as well as prescription medications.

"When Democrats were debating and voting in support of the Obama health care law on this floor of the United States Senate, they conveniently failed to mention all these new taxes to the American people.

"A third important thing that Republicans are committed to doing is to give much more flexibility to the states when it comes to making and developing better health care solutions for the future.

"Obamacare increased the amount of money Washington sends to states that chose to expand their Medicaid programs.

"That is taxpayer money.

"Why should Washington collect money from people at home, and then send it back out to the states with all these new Washington mandates and restrictions on how the money is spent?

"I have much more confidence in the people of my home state of Wyoming than I do in any bureaucrat in Washington, DC.

"When it comes to developing good ideas about improving America's health care, I always believe the more flexibility and local control and patient control, the better.

"We need more flexibility in every state.

"If we give people and states more options - there will be more affordable options - for insurance as well as for care.

"Democrats tried their one-size-fits-all, Washington mandated approach. That's what Obamacare was all about and it did not work.

"I want to talk about one other thing that Republicans are committed to doing with our health care reform plan.

"That's stabilizing health insurance markets while other reforms take effect. The Obamacare exchanges are completely falling apart.

"Week after week, there is another story, another headline about the disaster that is Obamacare.

"Last week, we learned that another 77,000 people in Indiana will lose their Obamacare plans - two more insurance companies are leaving the market there.

"Across the country, there are more than 40 counties where no one is selling Obamacare insurance next year.

"Premiums have already doubled because of Obamacare in the last four years.

"Next year, people's rates may go up another 40 percent, 50 percent, well above that in other places.

"We cannot allow this to continue. The American people cannot afford it.

"We need to make sure that we help support people who do need help paying their premiums.

"We need to give insurance companies some flexibility to offer the kinds of plans that people actually want to buy.

"We need to give states the ability to support their markets - in ways that make sense for people in that state.

"The discussion draft of our plan includes ideas that help keep the individual market going in a much stronger way than under Obamacare today. It stabilizes the markets.

"The insurance company Anthem put out a statement on Monday.

"The company said that these kinds of ideas 'will markedly improve the stability of the individual market and moderate premium increases.'

"Anthem has been dropping out of exchanges across the country because the markets are unsustainable under Obamacare.

"That's got to be one of our goals as we continue to discuss legislation - stabilizing the markets and reducing premiums.

"There are a lot of good ideas on ways to do it.

"We're committed to exploring those ideas, and putting together a plan that will help give people the care they need, from a doctor they choose, at lower costs.

"That's what the American people want us to do. That's what we're working on.

"Now there are limits under the Senate rules that keep us from doing some things that we would all like to do.

"If Democrats are ready to work with us, be part of this conversation - I think we could do some things to make this bill even better.

"But the situation we had today is not working. Obamacare has collapsed. Health care is in a state of crisis.

"Those who have supported Obamacare and voted for it have caused it. We're just trying to clean up the mess."

Read this original document at: https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=D260947C-209A-418D-9311-2856A7132F7E