Senators Discuss Better Care

SKYROCKETING OBAMACARE RATES

SEN. BARRASSO: ‘Obamacare Has Sabotaged The Insurance Market’

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): “Obamacare has sabotaged the insurance market in the country to the point now where now in half the counties around the country people are down to either zero, one, or two choices. You have over 40 counties where no one was selling Obamacare insurance.” (Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday,” 6/25/2017)

MEDICAID

SEN. BARRASSO: ‘Obamacare Actually Made It Worse For Patients Who Were Originally Designed To Be Helped By Medicaid’

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): “Medicaid was set up for poor women, for children and for people with disability. Obamacare used Medicaid as a dumping ground for able bodied, working aged individuals. There are ways to modify Medicaid. Mike Pence, Vice President, when he was Governor of Indiana, did a wonderful job of that with the local control that we are asking for all across the country. The growth will continue for Medicaid. We need to do it in a responsible way. But to just talk about these things as being cuts, it's just not the case. And when they put all of these additional people onto Medicaid, it made it that much harder for the poor women, children, and people with disabilities to get the treatment they need because now more and more doctors, actually a third of doctors are saying I just can't see any new Medicaid patients. So Obamacare actually made it worse for patients who were originally designed to be helped by Medicaid.” (Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday,” 6/25/2017)

 SEN. TOOMEY:  ‘I Have To Strongly Disagree With The Characterization That We're Somehow Ending The Medicaid Expansion’

SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R-PA): “…I have to strongly disagree with the characterization that we're somehow ending the Medicaid expansion. In fact, quite the contrary. The Senate bill will codify and make permanent the Medicaid expansion, and in fact we'll have the federal government pay the lion's share of the cost. Remember, Obamacare created a new category of eligibility: working age, able-bodied adults with no dependents for the first time became eligible for Medicaid if their income is below 138% of the poverty level. We’ll continue that eligibility. No one loses coverage. What we are going to do, gradually over seven years, is transition from the 90% federal share that Obamacare created and transition that to where the federal government is still paying a majority, but the states are kicking in their fair share, an amount equivalent to what they pay for all the other categories of eligibility.” (CBS’ “Face The Nation,” 6/25/2017)

SEN. TOOMEY: ‘It's Important To Note, The Federal Government Spending On Medicaid Is Going To Grow Every Year. It’s Never Going To Be Cut.’

SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R-PA): “This bill provides very generous tax credits, considerably more generous than the House. They’re more oriented toward lower-income people, and those are the people who obviously need it. I would also point out, I think it's important to note, the federal government spending on Medicaid is going to grow every year. It’s never going to be cut. It’s never going to shrink. It will eventually be growing at a slightly slower rate, and we need that in order to make the program viable and to deal with these massive deficits in the mounting debt that we have.” (CBS’ “Face The Nation,” 6/25/2017)

SEN. TOOMEY: ‘We're Trying To Do Is Free The States And Free The Marketplace To Discover Ever-Better Ways To Deliver Services. ... This Legislation At Least Takes Us In That Direction’

SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R-PA): “What we're trying to do is free the states and free the marketplace to discover ever-better ways to deliver services. There’s wonderful innovation that's happening all across the country. In Pennsylvania, whether it's Independence Blue or Geisinger, an insurer and a health care provider, they are finding great new ways to deliver ever-better care at lower costs but there are constraints on the ability of insurance companies and providers to do that. We want to diminish those constraints so that we can continue through a creative process to discover better ways to do this. This legislation at least takes us in that direction.” (CBS’ “Face The Nation,” 6/25/2017)

TAXES

SEN. BARRASSO: ‘Obamacare Raised Taxes On Every American Who Uses Health Care In America. … We Want To Eliminate All Of Them’

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): “Obamacare raised taxes on every American who uses health care in America. They put it on over the counter medicines, prescription medicines, medical devices which are so often used for the disabled population the most. …We want to eliminate all of them. They put taxes on people that buy health insurance. So anybody using the health insurance, the cost of that has actually gone up by the taxes under Obamacare.” (Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday,” 6/25/2017)