The Laudable Pursuit: Fighting to Fix Your Health Care

March 31, 2017

"to elevate the condition of men--to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance, in the race of life." --Abraham Lincoln

Chairman's Note: Fighting to Fix Your Health Care

When I was first elected to the Senate in 2010, I ran on a promise to repeal Obamacare.

When I ran for reelection last year, I again ran on a promise to repeal Obamacare.

For more than six years, I've made finding a way to make health care more affordable for Utahns my top priority as a United States senator.

Unfortunately, the American Health Care Act, which the House of Representatives rejected last week, would have failed to reduce health care premiums for Utahns.

That is why I urged my House colleagues to vote against it.

But that is also why I am more committed than ever to finding legislation that can pass both the House and Senate and reduce health care costs.

The heart of the problem is the Washington-created, one-size fits all regulations that treats Utah's unique population the same as that of Florida or Massachusetts.

Each of our 50 states has different populations with different health care needs. There is no reason we should all be forced to buy the same "essential health benefits" package when we shop for health insurance. What is essential to one family or individual may not be essential to another. That is a decision for our diverse states, communities, and families to make, not bureaucrats and politicians in Washington.

As Americans, we should also be free to pay for the amount of health care we want, when we want it. If your family wants a high-deductible health care plan that would only cover big emergencies, you should be able to buy that plan. And if you want a more expensive plan that covers every trip you make to the doctor, you should be free to purchase that plan too.

If we could repeal these and other Obamacare regulations, we could significantly drive down the health care insurance premiums Utahns are forced to pay every month. According to actuarial experts at the Milliman consulting firm, Americans are paying between 44.5 and 68 percent more in premiums due to Obamacare's federal insurance regulations.

The worst thing Congress could do is abandon health care reform entirely. We've come too far and we were too close to a deal last week to give up now. Especially after we devoted just 17 legislative days to debating the Republican Obamacare repeal and replace plan. In 1996, welfare reform took 56 days. In 1986, tax reform took 323 days. And it took President Obama 187 days to pass Obamacare. An issue as complex as healthcare clearly deserves more than 17 days of hasty discussion.

The heart of the problem is the Washington-created, one-size fits all regulations that treats Utah's unique population the same as that of Florida or Massachusetts.

If we want to get this policy right - and we owe it to the country to try - then it would be a dereliction of duty to give up on health care reform after just over two weeks of trying.

Americans, including many Utahns, are suffering every day under the dysfunction of our federal health care system and it would be cold-hearted to turn our backs on this issue.

In just the past year the number of health insurance plans being offered in Utah has dropped from 4 to 3. Twenty out of 29 counties only have one health insurance provider. Premiums have risen by 30 percent. I've talked to countless Utahns who've been forced - literally forced - to pay more in health insurance premiums each month than they pay for the monthly mortgage payment that puts a roof over their heads.

These people are why I am still fighting to fix your health care. They need help now. And they deserve more than a two-and-a-half-week effort.

Judge Gorsuch Will Be Confirmed. Period.

Issue in Focus: The Return to Work Act of 2017

Few things make Americans more upset than a threat to the Social Security program that they have spent years paying into. That is why a Facebook video of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) raising a point of order against the 2015 budget deal has been viewed more than 76 million times.

That vote, taken in the dead of night, would have stopped a $150 billion transfer from the Social Security Trust Fund to the Social Security Disability Insurance System, which was, and still is, going bankrupt.

Some of us in the Senate wanted to reform SSDI and put it on a stable fiscal path. But instead, the majority of senators thought it would easier to steal $150 billion from the Social Security Trust Fund, thus moving up the date that that system is scheduled to go bankrupt, and provide a temporary patch to SSDI instead.

SSDI spending has grown more than six-fold in the last 40 years, and in the last 10 years alone we've added almost 3 million more people to the SSDI payroll. Inflation alone cannot account for this growth rate, and with the advances made in medical technology, enrollment rates should be going down. However, that is not the case, and we can't keep stealing from the Social Security Trust Fund to bail out the SSDI program. We need real reforms that will both make it easier for recovering Americans to return to work and make the program solvent.

This is why, earlier this month, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tom Cotton (R-AR), and I introduced the Return to Work Act of 2017.

When SSDI was originally created and passed, very few lawmakers saw it applying to temporary, physical ailments. Rehabilitation and moving people off the SSDI program and back into the workplace was not one of the programs main goals. As the years continued, this remained an issue as SSDI continued to grow and bloat with well-intentioned inefficiencies. While SSDI was originally intended to be a temporary safety net, it more often became a long-term snare.

The Return to Work Act of 2017 addresses these problems by creating new SSDI categories based on expected chance for recovery, the applicant's ability to work while on disability, and their timeline to re-entry into the workforce. It also creates flexibility in case rehabilitation plans do not go as expected. In other words, this legislation makes it easier for those who can recover to return to work, while also making the program solvent. If we can raise the return to work rate of SSDI beneficiaries by even one percent, we will save billions of dollars and stop SSDI from going insolvent.

Passing The Return to Work Act of 2017 is one of many steps we can take this Congress to curb government inefficiencies and spur community and self-reliance. It helps turn SSDI into a nuanced, solvent safety net, and stops the fiscally irresponsible cycle of stealing money from one program to try and save another.