Sen. Barrasso: Americans Want Health Care Options, Not Mandates

WASHINGTON, July 12 -- The office of Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., issued the following news release:

Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor on how Congress must act now to give Americans more health care options, not mandates.

Excerpts of Senator Barrasso's remarks:

"The pain of Obamacare continues to worsen.

"The health care crisis that we're seeing across this country continues to grow.

"Prices are rising, choices are disappearing, the American people are desperate for Congress to step in and do something to help rescue them from the rising costs and collapsing choices of the Obama health care law.

"When Democrats passed Obamacare, the Democrat leader, Harry Reid, said that we would all get 'an earful of wonderment and happiness' about how great the law was.

"Every weekend at home in Wyoming, we get an earful too - and it's not about wonderment and it's not about happiness over Obamacare.

"What I hear from patients and doctors at home and nurses is Obamacare is hurting them.

"I hear about the rising premiums, I hear about the declining number of options, the collapse of Obamacare.

"There are now 40 counties across America where no one will be selling Obamacare insurance next year.

"Not one single company selling Obamacare insurance.

"In Nevada, where prior Senator Harry Reid was from, only three counties are going to have anyone selling in the Obamacare exchanges.

"Only three counties in the entire state.

"That's the state Harry Reid represented in the Senate for many years.

"People living everywhere else in his home state will have one choice.

"The state health insurance exchange put out a statement that said that people living in the rest of the state face 'a health care crisis.'

"Democrats predicted 'wonderment and happiness' about Obamacare, but there is a health care crisis all across the country.

"People in that state are going to have no access to insurance plans that Democrats promised them under Obamacare.

"A lot of other Americans aren't much better off or in better shape right now.

"There was a headline in USA Today on July 3 that said '1,370-plus counties have only one ACA insurer.'

"The article is about a study done by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

"It found that people living in more than 1,300 counties have no choice when it comes to the Obamacare plan.

"There's just one company offering the mandated coverage that Washington says you have to buy.

"Remember when Democrats promised that Obamacare that there would be more competition?

"Essentially there is none and when you end up with less competition, you end up generally with higher prices.

"That's why a lot of people are finding out that they may still have access to coverage, but it's so expensive that they can't afford to buy it because they're down to one choice.

"Health insurance companies keep releasing information on how much higher they expect rates to go next year.

"Look at what's happening in Tennessee.

"Earlier this year, Aetna and Humana both said that they were dropping out of the Obamacare exchanges.

"Cigna is one of the last big companies still willing to sell these plans.

"They say that they want to raise premiums by 42 percent next year.

"Look at what's happening in Georgia, just across the border from Tennessee.

"Blue Cross Blue Shield is asking for an average rate hike of 41 percent in Georgia.

"The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper had an article about it just this last week.

"The newspaper says Blue Cross might charge as much as 75 percent more for one plan next year.

"It quoted one man saying: 'That's a breath taker.'

"Another woman quoted in the article responded to these price increases by saying simply: 'Yikes!'

"People all across America are having the exact same reaction as they see how much their own insurance companies are raising their rates all across the country.

"That's not the 'wonderment and happiness' about Obamacare that Democrats said we'd be hearing about.

"The high prices are a big reason why so many people are dropping their insurance coverage - the people most likely to drop are young people.

"Gallup came out with the results of a recent survey on Monday.

"They found that 2 million fewer Americans have insurance today than at the end of last year.

"In just six months, 2 million people have gone off insurance.

"They either lost their coverage, or they decided to drop their coverage - even though the law says they have to have it.

"Democrats said people would love Obamacare.

"They said Obamacare would bring down prices, it hasn't.

"They said it would increase competition, they didn't get that one right either.

"None of that has happened.

"So now Democrats have started to say that having Washington-mandated health insurance isn't enough.

"They're saying that we need health insurance to be run entirely by Washington -they call it single-payer health care.

"We all know that America's health care system needed reform.

"Obamacare was the wrong reform.

"Democrats were wrong then, and all of their talk about government-run health care is wrong today.

"We understand that we need a better solution than Obamacare.

"We need to put patients in charge, not the government.

"We need people at home making their own decisions, make their own choices, not Washington DC imposing a one-size-fits-all approach.

"We need to give people options, not mandates.

"That's what the American people want.

"That's what Democrats promised years ago, but they never delivered.

"That's what Republicans today are committed to giving people now."