Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor of the Senate today to remind people what the far-left Democrats want to do with our healthcare.

I am a doctor. I think it is a right people have to know what the Democrats are proposing. They are peddling what to me is an extreme one-size-fits-all healthcare plan. It is a scheme, as I look at it, because, essentially, Democrats want Washington to take over your healthcare and my healthcare and the healthcare of all Americans and actually control all healthcare in this Country. They want to take private health insurance away from 180 million people who get their insurance through work.

Under this system, the health plans that many people like will be gone--not just for today, not just for tomorrow, forever gone. There will be no more individual plans, just Washington's one-size-fits-all plan.

Democrats have been lining up to support this socialist scheme all across the country. Many leading Democrats running for President have done so. They back it, and 112 Democrats who are Members of the House of Representatives are behind it as well.

Radical Democrats, led by Senator Bernie Sanders, have decided that Washington bureaucrats--not you, not me, not your doctor--should call the shots. What care do you need? Washington, DC, bureaucrats will decide. How soon will you get the care? Washington, DC bureaucrats will decide. Where can you get the care? Washington, DC, bureaucrats will decide.

The problem with this scheme is it will have a dramatic impact in this country on patient care. As a doctor with decades of experience, I know Washington shouldn't control your medical decisions. That should be up to you and members of your family. You should make your own decisions after you consult with your doctor, not with a faceless bureaucrat.

For decades, I have given medical health advice on the radio and on television. Each time, in giving one of these reports, I close with the line: ``Here in Wyoming, I am Dr. John Barrasso, helping you care for yourself.''

Helping you care for yourself--you see, you and your doctor are partners working together, and a good doctor will focus on what is best for you. Doctors in local communities know who their patients are, and they know what their patients need.

What doctors don't need is a Washington bureaucrat telling them how to do their jobs. The point is to protect patient care and to protect patient choice. For example, Medicare is a medical lifeline for our seniors. Still, with 60 million people relying on Medicare, the program is being stretched to the breaking point.

Waste, fraud, and abuse have made the problem worse. In 2018, the Government Accountability Office found $48 billion in improper Medicare payments. The government's watchdog wants reforms, and we need reforms to protect our seniors, so we must strengthen this vital program for our seniors.

Just think if we pack every American into one government system, which is what the Democrats are proposing. They call it Medicare for All, which would quickly become Medicare for None. One-size-fits-all care will kill the doctor-patient relationship.

This massive plan is expected to cost a dramatic amount of money. Those who looked into this have estimated the cost to be $32 trillion. It is a hard number to comprehend. And that is just for the first 10 years.

Washington is going to have to find ways--and they will be looking for ways--to save money, and we have heard what ways they will be. The Wall Street Journal notes that any savings would have to come from cutting payments to doctors, cutting payments to providers, cutting payments to hospitals, and restricting care. They are talking about rationing care--limiting the care that you need, that you want, that the government now will say you cannot have.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office looked at this. They agree. They say ``the public plan might not be as quick to meet patients' needs.'' It may not be as quick to meet patients' needs? So you are diagnosed with cancer, and they are not going to be quick enough to face your needs? Care will be rationed both in treatment and in technology.

Democrats, of course, don't want you to know about healthcare rationing. You need to know. You have a right to know. You deserve to know what they are proposing. The care you get will be entirely the government's call because the Democrats' plan bans all private insurance in the country. If you have it through work, you will lose it.

What about paying your doctor directly for services? Well, Washington Democrats have a plan for that. They want to put an end to that as well. Doctors would have to leave the government-run system. They couldn't take care of any other patients who are on that system if they entered into a private contract with individual patients.

Even the Washington Post newspaper admits the plan has problems. The Post recently ran this headline: ``No matter what Sanders says, there's no Medicare-for-all without tradeoffs.''

I agree. And the tradeoffs could turn out to be fatal. Democrats' one-size-fits-all healthcare means you will pay more to wait longer for worse care.

As a Senator and a doctor, my focus continues to be on improving patient care. Real healthcare reform is needed in this country. Reforms are needed to lower the costs without lowering the standards. Regrettably, what the Democrats are proposing lowers the standards and raises the costs--the exact opposite of what is so vitally important for all of us.

These are the issues that Republicans are working on right now: empowering you to buy coverage that works for you, lowering the cost of your prescription drugs, protecting you when you have a preexisting condition, and eliminating surprise medical bills. But with the Democrats' one-size-fits-all care, you would lose the insurance you get through work, and you would lose Medicare Advantage if you are a senior who is one of the 20 million people who gets their insurance through that program.

They call it Medicare Advantage because there are advantages for seniors who are on it. It coordinates care. There is preventive care. Those are the advantages.

You will likely lose the doctor-patient relationship that you have depended on for years and lose the freedom to make your own medical decisions.

I say it is time to reject this one-size-fits-all scheme that would make all of us pay more and wait longer for worse care. Instead, let's work together to give patients the care they need from a doctor they choose, and do it at lower costs.

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