School Safety

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President was presiding before and I heard several speeches by my colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle speaking about the 1332 waiver process that the Trump administration is using to lower insurance premiums, and the kind of common refrain is: This is a terrible thing. We are eroding protections in the Affordable Care Act, and we should preserve the Affordable Care Act as it is. This is so ironic because the people who want to get rid of Obamacare right now are running for President on the Democratic side of the ticket.

If you ask Bernie Sanders if he wants to get replace Obamacare, he raises his hand. If you ask Elizabeth Warren if she wants to replace Obamacare and force people to give up their employer-provided insurance, she raises her hand.

Now, why do the Presidential candidates--Democratic Presidential candidates sit there and say: Hey, let's get rid of Obamacare? And when the administration does something to lower premiums, my Democratic colleagues stand up and decry this kind of assault upon whatever value they are speaking to.

What I think is the Democratic candidates running for President are so aware that healthcare costs under Obama have skyrocketed. Let me see if I can find my figures here, but it's quite remarkable.

Let's just speak a little bit about what has happened. Since 2013, the deductible for someone with single coverage has increased by 53 percent. And despite deductibles going up, say, $10,000, premiums have increased 20 percent. So the patient's out-of-pocket exposure is increasing both in the deductible and with their premium. For a family of four in Louisiana--we looked on healthcare.gov just walking here-- $25,000 for the policy with an over $10,000 deductible.

Now, this is not affordable. So clearly there is a concern about affordability. That is what the Trump administration has been trying to address. And frankly, that is what Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren wish to have Americans sacrifice their employer-sponsored insurance to address.

But my Democratic Senate colleagues don't want to do this. They would rather have all the protections of Obamacare, even if you cannot afford the policy. And truly, that is what we are doing now. And now, we get to speaking about the waivers that the Trump administration is giving, somehow they are saying these are terrible things.

Let me point out that, in the seven States with 1332 waivers granted under the Trump administration, health insurance premiums have decreased by 7.5 percent. Some States have had a double-digit reduction. Maryland, for example--and I will come back to Maryland--has had a 30-percent reduction in their health insurance premiums under the 1332 waiver given by the Trump administration. North Dakota had a 20- percent reduction.

And what about if you didn't get a waiver? In my State, which didn't apply for a waiver, premiums are expected to rise 10 percent this coming year--10 percent. So the family of four paying $25,000 a year with a $10,000 deductible will pay $27,500 next year, with a $12,500 deductible, meaning they will be out almost $40,000--$40,000 for their health insurance.

I suspect there is a lot of families in my State that wouldn't have minded if we applied for a waiver if we could just lower premiums, instead of seeing out-of-pocket expense continue to rise.

Now, there is a little bit of an irony here. Maryland has a legislature dominated by Democrats, and they actually got a 1332 waiver. So my Democratic colleagues who are speaking about how terrible these waivers are, they should look back to States which Democrats control who are applying for these waivers.

I am told that Montana has a waiver, Montana with a Democratic Governor who is running for President on the Democratic side of the ticket. Apparently, that person felt it was something that he would sign into law and otherwise approve because it would be beneficial to the people in the State.

I don't know why, in the Senate, my Democratic Senate colleagues want Americans to pay more for insurance. Why do they insist on continuing to advocate for policies which make healthcare, health insurance, so unaffordable?

This is personal for me. Besides being an American wanting all to have coverage, for 25 years, I worked in a hospital for the working poor, for the uninsured, trying to bring healthcare to those who could not otherwise afford it. It has been my life mission, if you will, as a physician, to try and get healthcare to those who cannot have it.

And so when folks want to give them this great policy, but you can't afford it, but don't worry, it is a great policy if you can afford it, I have to smile. Like the Greek myth Tantalus--where we get the word ``tantalize'' from--where the prize is always just beyond the reach, just beyond the reach, always there to tempt, but you can never have.

So you have a family making $120,000 a year having to pay $25,000 for insurance, with a $10,000 deductible. They are sacrificing so many things. It is tantalizing, but we are sure this is a better state of affairs.

Now, what the administration has done, they have given States flexibility to craft affordable options for families that do not have subsidies. It respects the fact that some States are different than other States. Imagine that.

Alaska is different than Rhode Island--Alaska, if you laid it across a map of the lower 48, would stretch from Georgia to California, but has fewer people than Rhode Island, and Rhode Island, which is a postage stamp compared to Alaska. Those States are different, so allow them to have different healthcare systems.

By the way, when we do this, we are assured by the administration that they continue to enforce protections for those with preexisting conditions and all other things that we as Americans, that we as Republicans, that I as a physician who have spent my life caring for the uninsured, value--so that, if healthcare is not affordable, it is not available. And what we have seen by the folks on the left who are concerned about healthcare costs is a doubling down on government control.

They want to go for Medicare for All. They want to take away your employer-sponsored insurance. But at least they acknowledge that cost is a problem. What my Senate colleagues are not doing, the ones who are speaking today, is acknowledging that cost is a problem, and you can have the greatest plan in the world and, if it is unaffordable, then that greatness is ironic. It is on a piece of paper, but it is not real in someone's life.

What we have seen is that States, when they come to the Federal Government requesting permission to put in a program which is specific to the circumstances in their State, they are not only covering the citizens in their State, continuing to have protections for those with preexisting conditions, but they are also lowering premiums by as much as 30 percent. And that is a good thing, and I have no clue why my Democratic colleagues do not want to see premiums lowered by 30 percent.

(At the request of Mr. Schumer, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

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