Co-Op Consumer Protection Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. DOLD. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend from Nebraska for yielding some time.
Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that we talk about crocodile tears.

There is nothing of the sort on this side of the aisle. Frankly, I find it fascinating because, when I talk to some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they recognize that there are issues and problems with the Affordable Care Act. Premiums have gone through the roof, deductibles are sky-high, and families are paying more and more each and every day in order to be able to provide health insurance for their families.
People say: I want to help fix, let's try to help fix. This is a very narrowly tailored bill, Mr. Speaker.

Let me tell you what this bill is not. This bill is not something that will abolish the individual mandate--far from it, far from abolishing the individual mandate.

Rising healthcare costs and uncertainty are plaguing communities and families across our country. In Illinois, the Land of Lincoln CO-OP collapsed in July, resulting in 49,000 people across the State losing their coverage. Now these families will need to switch plans and risk losing access to their doctors or pay a tax penalty at the end of the year, which will put affordability of quality care even further out of reach.

Mr. Speaker, here is just one example that I have heard from one of my constituents. They were paying nearly $2,500 a month in premiums through the Land of Lincoln plan. Their family paid $2,700 in their deductible and even put $5,000 toward their out-of-pocket maximum. Now they are being forced, because it has gone away, to start back at zero.

The plan ends on October 1.

So what this narrowly tailored bill would do, Mr. Speaker, is it would basically say, if you can't find a plan, if for some reason you don't get the memo back from the bureaucrat that you are not going to get a tax bill, it still requires that same family, come January 1, to go get insurance. But what we want to do is we want to say to these families that, if indeed you have not gotten your insurance in those 2 months, that you will not be given a tax penalty by the IRS.

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Mr. DOLD. Here is the bottom line, Mr. Speaker. Families like the one that I just mentioned all across Illinois are already losing their healthcare coverage. The absolute least we can do is help them get through this year by providing relief from a costly tax penalty.

The insurance that they lost, they lost through no fault of their own. They were doing the right things because they want coverage for their families. The least that we can do for these next couple of months--or should another CO-OP in the future fail midyear--is not give them a tax penalty from the IRS.

Moving forward, I remain focused on working with everyone who is willing to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work needed to drive down costs, increase access to quality care, and make our healthcare system work for everyone.

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