Sen. Wicker: Senate Should Deliver on Health-Care Promises

WASHINGTON, July 28 -- The office of Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., issued the following news release:

In a speech to the Senate today, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., made the case for repealing a collapsing Obamacare system. Wicker voted in favor of an amendment that would have moved the debate to a conference of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Key excerpts of Wicker's speech include:

"I believe millions of Americans are at work today, or at home, or getting home from their offices, from their shops, from their factories, and they are turning on the media. They're checking online, they're turning on the radio, and they are wondering if a campaign promise is going to be kept by this party that they have given the reins of government to in four straight elections. We're close to keeping that promise. We're closer than we have ever been. And we can take a big step tonight on making good on that promise."

"They have lost their freedom to make their own health-care decisions, and that has been sacrificed in favor of a big-government approach. People are hurting, as has been explained on the floor tonight. Families in my state who do not have employer-based health insurance are paying nearly $3,000 more per year in premiums than they did four years ago. In my state, it's a 116 percent increase in premiums under the 'Affordable Care Act.' Over this short period of time, I guess we should be thankful that we're not the 201 percent increase in premiums that our neighbors from Oklahoma had or the 223 percent increase in health-care premiums that our neighbors across the line in the state of Alabama had."

"My wife and I have never moved our family to Washington, D.C. We have kept our home on the same street in Tupelo, Mississippi. We raised our kids in Mississippi. When the last bell rings this weekend, I will be on a plane back home to my state. Moving around the state, talking to Mississippians, speaking to people that gave me this great opportunity to serve in this great body in this great system of government.

"I want to be able to tell them when I go home after this vote that I've taken a big step in keeping the federal government out of the business of deciding health care for their families. I want to be able to tell them that they are now going to have more options to choose the plan that works for them. I want to tell people back home that put me in office that we put more power in the hands of the states, not unelected Washington, D.C., bureaucrats.

"I want to be able to tell them that we passed a bill that answered the concerns about preexisting conditions and takes care of those people with low incomes who need assistance in buying insurance, and I want to assure the people back in my home state and all across America that the Medicaid program will continue. As a matter of fact, it will continue to grow, but at a rate that is more sustainable so that we can afford it today and so that we can afford the Medicaid program in future generations."

"These reforms are now in reach. We should take advantage tonight of this opportunity to deliver on what was promised to the American people, to relieve Americans who are hurting from the current Obamacare system, and to give them a better opportunity for affordable and accessible health care."