S.Amdt. 343

SA 343. Mr. THUNE (for himself, Mr. Barrasso, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr.
Burr, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Daines, Ms. Ernst, Mr.
Inhofe, Mr. Hagerty, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Romney, Mr.
Scott of Florida, Mr. Scott of South Carolina, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Young,
and Mr. Hoeven) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him
to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 5, setting forth the
congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year
2021 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal
years 2022 through 2030; which was ordered to lie on the table; as
follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. ____. SENSE OF THE SENATE RELATING TO REJECTING EFFORTS
TO PURSUE A ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL GOVERNMENT RUN
HEALTH CARE SYSTEM.

(a) Findings.--Congress finds as follows:
(1) Medicare for All, Medicare ``buy-in'', and the so-
called ``public option'' are all one-size-fits-all government
run health care systems.
(2) Approaches such as Medicare for All, Medicare ``buy-
in'', and the so-called ``public option'' would fail to
protect the Medicare program under title XVIII of the Social
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395 et seq.) since, according to the
Congressional Budget Office, the Medicare program will be
officially bankrupt in 2024, at which time Medicare will no
longer be able to pay full benefits to seniors and the
disabled.
(3) According to one leading economist, Medicare for All
would increase costs to the Federal Government by an
additional $38,000,000,000,000 and require significant tax
increases on hard-working, middle-class Americans in order to
fund this massive new program spending.
(4) 60 percent of women in the United States under the age
of 65 are covered by health insurance obtained on the job,
and would be unfairly targeted by these government-centered
approaches.
(5) Under a one-size-fits-all government run health care
system--
(A) more than 180,000,000 Americans covered by health
insurance obtained on the job would lose their health
insurance coverage;
(B) if you like your current health insurance plan, you
will lose it;
(C) government bureaucrats would be put in charge of
deciding which procedures and drugs would be covered;
(D) Americans would face increased wait-times or be forced
to seek care outside of their communities, especially in
rural and underserved areas, because of hospital closures
resulting from a government-run health care system;
(E) Americans would lack access to the latest prescription
drug therapies and medical device innovations, due to
government price-controls similar to those imposed in the
United Kingdom and Canada; and
(F) the longstanding, bipartisan tradition of protecting
Federal taxpayer dollars from funding abortions could be
eliminated.
(b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate
that--
(1) Medicare for All, or any one-size-fits-all government
run health care system, would--
(A) eliminate private insurance that hundreds of millions
of Americans currently utilize;
(B) increase costs on middle-class families;
(C) lead to delays in accessing care;
(D) raid the Medicare program; and
(E) result in hospital closures and a loss of access to
health care services in rural America amidst the COVID-19
pandemic; and
(2) efforts to enact such a proposal should be rejected.
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