The Obamacare Status Quo is Unsustainable and Indefensible
‘Senate Republicans are working together to move past the problems of Obamacare and to help those who have been hurt by it. We would love for Democrats to join us. Democrats have already effectively conceded that Obamacare has failed, now the question is — will they work with us to actually fix this mess, or will they waste more time in some futile attempt to now redirect blame?’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the failures of Obamacare:
“What has happened in the years since Democrats forced Obamacare on our country? Health choices plummeted downward, year after year after year. Health costs skyrocketed higher, year after year. And what have Democrats, who promised the opposite, done all these years since — all these years since, as Republicans repeatedly warned we had to act before Obamacare hurt more Americans on its inevitable path to collapse? Well they’ve done basically, nothing.
“They said we were exaggerating — they were wrong. They said things would get better — they got even worse. Rather than work with us to fix health care, they pretended things were fine while more Americans got hurt. So you can imagine my surprise when Democrats recently sent a letter that essentially conceded that the status quo of Obamacare is unsustainable. Was it because they actually wanted to work together on reform? I sure wish that was the case, but so far it seems part of a new strategy to — get this — blame someone other than themselves for the failures of Obamacare. Do they actually think anyone is going to buy this? Come on!
“Just the other day, a bombshell report came out that reminded us exactly where the blame for Obamacare’s failures has always belonged — the blame belongs with Obamacare. The official report said that, since Obamacare’s full enactment in 2013, premiums had on average doubled in the vast majority of states that use Obamacare’s federal exchange — and premiums even tripled in a handful of others. Think about that. Premiums doubled in the vast majority of these states. Premiums tripled in a handful of others. There’s just no serious way to now try and spin away these years and years of Obamacare failures on cost. By the same token, there’s no serious way to try and spin away or ignore the years and years of Obamacare failures on choice.
“Forty-nine percent of the counties in my state now have only one insurer. Half of the counties. One choice. That really isn’t a choice at all, and it’s the latest in a long-term trend we’ve seen under Obamacare. To add insult to injury, predictions show that next year could be even worse for families when it comes to their choices under this law. Unfortunately, my state is not alone either. This year, there are 26 states with at least one county where residents have just one insurance option under Obamacare. That means millions of Americans, living in more than 1,000 counties across our country, really have no choice at all.
“And, thanks to Obamacare, things could again get even worse next year. Just yesterday tens of thousands of Missourians across 25 counties, from small towns to Kansas City, learned that they may join the ranks of Americans without a single insurance option to choose from next year — not one — thanks to Obamacare and its years-long trend of fewer and fewer choices. Does any of that sound like what Americans were promised? A mother in Louisville recently wrote to my office begging for members of Congress to address the failures of Obamacare. ‘Middle class Kentuckians are hurting because of Obamacare,’ she said. ’Residents [have] little choice for health plans’ and ‘our family is not the only one suffering from the high costs of health insurance.’
“‘I hope,’ she concluded, that ’you will push hard to fix our health care system.’ I know many of my colleagues have received letters like this one from their constituents too. Obamacare has caused so much pain for families across our country, and it’s not going to just magically somehow get better on its own. I know that, like so many families across the country, I am not satisfied with the Obamacare status quo, and I don’t think it’s acceptable for its failures to be considered the new normal. As the people of Kentucky have shown, in election after election, they don’t either.
“Senate Republicans are working together to move past the problems of Obamacare and to help those who have been hurt by it. We would love for Democrats to join us. Democrats have already effectively conceded that Obamacare has failed, now the question is — will they work with us to actually fix this mess, or will they waste more time in some futile attempt to now redirect blame? The Obamacare status quo is unsustainable, it’s indefensible, and we have to move beyond it before more Americans get hurt.”
Related Issues: Health Care, Obamacare
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