Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2020

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, before I begin, I want to say I was sad to hear of the death of former Senator Kay Hagan yesterday. Kay represented the State of North Carolina in the Senate.

She was a very dedicated public servant. I think she was someone whom all of us who were here at the time enjoyed working with and always was a very bright presence. As I said, she was tremendously dedicated to the people she represented and the issues she cared so deeply about. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family today. I ask all Members to continue to lift her family up. H.R. 3055

Mr. President, I also congratulate the Senator from Maine on the work she is doing on the appropriations process as it is moving forward. She chairs a very important subcommittee on the Appropriations Committee and also is involved in so many other issues.

One thing she was speaking about that I certainly wanted to mention was the work she does to protect seniors across this country. It is a very vulnerable population--vulnerable to the fraud attempts made by bad actors out there. She mentioned robocalls. She has been a leader on the legislation to try and ban the types of robocalls that prey on our senior citizens and lead to all that fraud that happens--the billions of dollars she referenced every single year. It is important because there are so many perpetrators of schemes out there that are designed to prey on and take advantage of those populations in our country, particularly our elderly who are susceptible to that. I thank her for her leadership on that, as well as many other issues that are involved in the appropriations bill she mentioned earlier. Health Insurance Plans

Mr. President, later this week, we are going to vote on a Democratic resolution to repeal guidance the President issued to give States more flexibility to design insurance plans that meet the needs of their residents. Democrats have tried to portray this resolution as a move to protect people with preexisting conditions. That is just a smokescreen. Democrats know very well that Republicans are committed to protecting those with preexisting conditions.

In reality, this is just another political messaging bill. It is also another attempt by Democrats to maximize Washington control of American's healthcare. In keeping with their push toward socialism, Democrats want to make very sure the States don't have the chance to escape from any of ObamaCare's bureaucracy.

Let me back up a minute and talk about the waiver and guidance from the President the Democrats are attacking. Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act--the law the Democrats enacted on a completely partisan basis--allows States to apply for waivers from certain ObamaCare requirements. The requirements that can and cannot be waived are the same today as they were the day ObamaCare passed. Let me repeat that. The ObamaCare requirements that can or cannot be waived are the same today as they were the day ObamaCare passed.

The 2018 guidance from the White House did not change anything about what requirements can and cannot be waived under section 1332. Let me be very clear, 1332 waivers do not allow States to waive ObamaCare's preexisting condition protections; they do not allow health plans to utilize preexisting condition coverage exclusions; they do not allow health plans to refuse coverage for people with preexisting conditions; and they do not allow plans to charge individuals more based on a preexisting health condition.

So what do 1332 waivers do? The waivers give States the opportunity to take action to stabilize insurance markets and try out new ways of providing coverage to individuals who might not otherwise be able to afford insurance. My colleagues across the aisle would have the American public believe these waivers will ``allow States to greenlight substandard, junk insurance plans.'' Well, let me remind my colleagues that these plans that they deride as ``junk plans'' are the very same short-term, limited-duration plans that were permitted in 7 out of the 8 years of the Obama administration.

Another refrain that we will hear from my Democratic colleagues is that the administration's guidance will permit States to waive certain health benefits, or what we call EHBs. I remind them that the Affordable Care Act itself permits the waiving of EHBs by States. The Trump administration guidance does not change this. Again, while the Democrats would have people believe the Republicans are destroying essential health benefits, States can already choose to waive them but, to date, have not.

Most of the States that have applied for waivers have wanted to use them for reinsurance programs in order to drive down premiums. Again, waivers give States some relief from ObamaCare's one-size-fits-all requirements, which allows them to try out new ways to drive down prices and help individuals afford care. It is about choice. It is about empowering Americans to decide what type of coverage meets their needs.

We might not be having this conversation today if ObamaCare had lived up to the rosy promises that were made when it was passed. Yet I don't have to tell anyone that it didn't come anywhere close to living up to those promises. ObamaCare was supposed to give Americans without health insurance access to affordable care while it preserved the health insurance of the millions of Americans who were satisfied with the plans they already had. As everyone knows, what actually happened was quite different.

Millions of Americans lost their plans. Health insurance premiums went up, not down. Also, premiums and out-of-pocket costs on the exchanges were unaffordable for many people from the very first day. The average monthly premium for a family plan on the exchanges has increased by $742 over the past 4 years. That is close to the average mortgage payment in my home State of South Dakota. So it is not surprising that States would be looking for ways to help families afford care through these 1332 waivers.

Waivers are, in fact, helping to lower premiums. Seven States that received waivers saw the average premiums for a benchmark silver plan drop by 7\1/2\ percent from 2018 to 2019. States are using these 1332 waivers to make healthcare more affordable and ObamaCare premiums less burdensome. They are not using the waivers to do anything to undermine protections for people with preexisting conditions, which is something, as I said earlier, they cannot legally do anyway.

It is worth noting that more than one State with a Democratic Governor--not a Republican Governor but a Democratic Governor--has applied for a 1332 waiver this year. So are Democratic Senators here suggesting that these Governors want to undermine the protections for people with preexisting conditions? I don't think so.

Numerous Americans are struggling to afford their ObamaCare premiums, and many others have been priced out of the ObamaCare market altogether. It only makes sense to give States as much flexibility as possible to address ObamaCare's problems and expand insurance access for their residents. Yet the Democrats are so set on maximizing Washington's control of American's healthcare that they are determined to oppose any ObamaCare flexibility even if that flexibility results in there being lower premiums for the American people.

Today's resolution is just another example of the Democrats' prioritizing their political ideology over the welfare of the American people, and I hope it will be defeated.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source