Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Madam President, with less than 2 weeks remaining before the deadline for people who need to sign up for health insurance that

starts for them to be insured on January 1, there is a significant amount of anger as well as anxiety across the country. The Web site where people are supposed to go to buy that insurance has been plagued with problems that everyone in the country seems to know about, and that has caused huge amounts of anxiety. I heard about it last week in Wyoming, I hear about it on Capitol Hill with staff members, and I hear it pretty much anywhere I go.

What people have been learning is that the problems with the Web site are actually just the tip of the iceberg. The Obama administration has been saying that it has been fixed, that the problems with this health care law are fine, that everything is good, that a majority of people are having good experiences. I remember listening to the President not long ago, sitting with Bill Clinton, saying: Easier to use than Amazon.

Well, that is not what the American people found. He also said: Cheaper than your cell phone bill. He said: You will be able to keep your doctor if you like them.

But the law continues to leave so many Americans struggling-- struggling with higher costs, with greater confusion--and really with a lot less confidence in the administration. People all around the country are worrying about whether the administration even knows what it is doing.

So when I talk about the Web site being just the tip of the iceberg, people around the country are running into higher premiums, canceled coverage, finding out they cannot keep their doctor. They are running into fraud and identity theft issues and issues in terms of higher copays and out-of-pocket costs and deductibles.

People at home in Wyoming--and I went not just around communities in the State, traveling to a number of different communities, but I also went to my own medical office where I practiced as an orthopedic surgeon at Casper Orthopedics for 24 years--were telling me how worried they were about the higher costs they are seeing regarding paying for insurance for next year.

I got a letter from one man in Cody, WY. He talked about how the rates he has been quoted are going to go up from about $860 a month that he pays now for a family of four to $2,400 a month--$860 to $2,400 a month. He said: ``I'm not sure what planet they think I live on, but there is no way I can spend more than half of my monthly income on insurance.'' Well, I hear the same thing from people all around Wyoming. People are having this same sticker shock all over the country.

We know that more than 4.7 million Americans in 32 States are being told they cannot keep the insurance they had. When we take a look at the map, we know we do not have the numbers yet on certain States, including the State of Wisconsin. We do not have Illinois. We do not have Ohio. We do not have Texas. We do not have Virginia. So we really do not know how many people have lost their coverage. But we know that at least 4.7 million Americans were told they cannot keep the insurance they had in spite of what the President may have promised them. Now what they have to do is buy new Washington-approved health coverage that really may not be the right coverage for them and may likely cost more than they were paying before. Millions of Americans are going to be forced to use money that in the past was used to pay rent or put their children through school or to invest in their communities or in a business or to help make repairs to their homes--now that money is going to go to pay for higher premiums as well as the incredibly high deductibles people are seeing related to the health care law.

It is interesting, looking through the papers--this was yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Monday, December 9. Above the fold on the front page: ``Deductibles Fuel New Worries of Health-Law Sticker Shock.'' The article says:

The average individual deductible for what is called a

bronze plan on the exchange--the lowest-priced coverage--is

$5,081 a year, according to a new report on insurance

offerings in 34 of the 36 states that rely on the federally

run online marketplace.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

That is 42% higher than the average deductible of $3,589

for an individually purchased plan in 2013 before much of the

federal law took effect.

So what people are seeing--and the Wall Street Journal reports above- the-fold on the first page--are higher deductibles by a lot.

It is not just the Wall Street Journal. In the New York Times yesterday, Robert Pear had an article: ``On Health Exchanges, Premiums May Be Low, But Other Costs Can Be High.'' It says:

. . . as consumers dig into the details--

Dig into the details--something this body never did. Members of that part of the body who voted for this health care law never did dig into the details.

It says:

. . . as consumers dig into the details, they are finding

that the deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs are often

much higher than what is typical in employer-sponsored health

plans--the plans many of these people have had in the past.

So what we are seeing are not just the higher costs, not just the higher deductibles, the higher copays; there is also a lot of confusion about the health care Web site itself, and I think that is only going to get worse. Ten weeks after the Web site launched, there is still an awful lot that is broken, including the parts that actually get people the insurance they think they signed up for.

A number of my staff have applied, and they believe they have signed up for health insurance. They are not sure. They have not yet gotten confirmation. And I know Members on Capitol Hill who have staff signing up are experiencing the same thing.

Last month one of the officials from the Department of Health and Human Services testified in the House of Representatives that as much as 40 percent of this Web site's system still has not even been built yet. The Web site still has trouble transmitting information to the insurance companies once someone has chosen a plan.

The Web site was down again earlier today. It still has not figured out how to automatically pay the portion of premiums covered by any government subsidy.

There are still many, many security holes that can be exploited by con artists, by hackers. Certain branches of the government have been warning citizens to be cautious when going on the Web site because of the concerns about exploitation, people who are trying to use this in a fraudulent way.

And then you hear that the administration is bragging. It is really sad that almost 9 weeks after the Web site opened the administration is now bragging that it only has an error rate of 10 percent on one important step of the Web site. Madam President, 1 in 10 is their error rate. This is a President who said the Web site was going to be running like amazon.com. He said that 3 or 4 days before the Web site opened. Now, 9 weeks later, he is delighted that the error rate is still 1 out of 10. Does the President actually believe Amazon would accept a 10- percent error rate in their customers not being able to finish their purchases?

I believe all of these flaws and failures have led to a dramatic loss of confidence by the American people in their government. According to a new Gallup poll, 52 percent of Americans are in favor of scaling back the health care law or repealing it entirely. People continue to turn against the law for a number of reasons, and it is not just the Web site, it is the higher premiums, it is the canceled coverage, it is that they cannot keep their doctor, and it is fraud and identity theft, higher copays, higher deductibles, and confusion about what is going to go wrong next because so many things the President and his administration have said--have looked into the camera and told the American people would be one way--turned out to be something very different. There have been so many changing stories coming out of the White House.

The President said: If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance, and then he actually said ``period,'' with a punctuation mark, that that was it; no ifs, ands, or buts--just the period. People now know all across the country--those who voted for him, those who did not--what they all know is that what the President said was not true.

The President said: If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Well, on Sunday one of the architects of ObamaCare went on FOX News and admitted also that was not true. This is Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel-- the brother of

Rahm Emanuel, the former Chief of Staff of the White House--who is a medicine professor. What he said was, if you like your doctor and you want to keep your doctor, you can pay more for insurance that includes your doctor. There are a lot of places where you cannot even buy insurance that will cover that doctor. This is not at all what the President promised.

It is interesting, even in the Financial Times yesterday, ``Healthcare insurers cut costs by excluding top hospitals.'' So you cannot even go to the hospitals. There is a picture here of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. ``Plan will not cover treatment at Houston cancer center.'' So we have somebody who has lost their insurance who has been going to that cancer center where their doctors are--they are losing their insurance on January 1, knowing they cannot keep their doctor, they cannot keep their hospital. We see children's hospitals around the country, people who are not going to be included in these exchanges. So children with leukemia, come January 1, are going to lose their doctor, lose their hospital. But that is what the President and that is what the Democrats in this body who voted for this health care law have given to the American people.

Just before Thanksgiving, the Obama administration announced it would have to delay a health insurance exchange that was supposed to let small businesses shop for insurance. I remember hearing speeches on this floor about small businesses being able to find affordable insurance. Well, it turns out, once again, the administration knew at least 6 weeks before that they were going to have to delay the program. Did they admit it to the American people? Did they tell the truth? No. They waited.

One broken promise after another, one statement after another that the administration knows is not true. So is it a surprise, then, that the President of the United States is viewed as untruthful by a majority of the people of this country? It is a terrible situation for anyone to put their country in.

Back when we first started talking about the health care law, Republicans offered ideas on how to give people what they really wanted, which was reform that lowered costs and improved access to care. That is what people were concerned about. So many of the complaints we have heard around the country have had to do with the cost of care.

So President Obama and Democrats in Congress refused to listen, ignored all of the warning signs, and used raw majority power to force this bad law on all of the American people. I remember the vote in this body, Christmas Eve morning, voting on a health care law. We watched it crammed through on party-line votes.

Now Democrats in the Senate have decided to make another power play and have broken the rules of the Senate just a couple of weeks ago to change the rules of the Senate. They took a drastic and unwarranted step so that they could have the power once again to force more bad ideas like the Obama health care law onto the American people.

They say we do not need the 60 votes now; all we need is a simple majority. Let's change the way the Senate has run for well over 100 years, because, once again, the Democrats say: We know better than the American people. We know better than you.

That is what the President said with his health care law. Now the American people are realizing what they knew all along. This is not what they wanted with health care reform. Regrettably it is what they are living with now, and they are seeing the higher premiums, the canceled coverage, losing their doctor, the fraud and identity theft, higher copays, and higher deductibles.

It is interesting; even today in the Washington Post, the front page above the fold said: ``Under health law, insurers limiting drug coverage.'' Costs may soar. It talks about many different ailments, including for those with HIV. That is a result of the health care law. If this health care law would not have passed, forced down the throats of the American people with the President telling one falsehood after another, deliberately designed to mislead the American people, you would never have seen a headline like this today.

If President Obama really wants to help the American people, he is going to sit down with the Republicans and talk about the real issues to reduce costs, to get rid of all of this confusion that he and the Democrats have caused and to restore people's confidence in America, as well as in him.

There is a better way. Republicans agree we need to reform America's health care system. We think that those reforms could have been done without the kind of harm caused by the President's health care law.

I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Joel Defebaugh for his hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC Office. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Joel is a native of Casper, WY and a graduate of Natrona County High School. He is also a recent graduate of the University of Wyoming, where he earned a degree in political science. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Joel for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his next journey.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Abbie Golden for her hard work as an intern in the Senate Republican Policy Committee office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office.

Abbie is a native of Little Rock, AR and a graduate of Episcopal High School. She is also a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a degree in political science. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Abbie for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Amanda Jones for her hard work as an intern in my Riverton, WY office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Amanda is a graduate of Lander Valley High School. She is from Riverton, WY and currently attends the University of Wyoming, where she is majoring in criminal justice. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Amanda for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Natasha John for her hard work as an intern in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Natasha is a native of Oklahoma and a graduate of Concordia College. She is also a candidate for a masters of arts in global studies and international relations from the University of Central Oklahoma. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Natasha for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Amy Lee for her hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Amy is a native of Cheyenne, WY. She is a recent graduate of Marquette University where she earned a bachelor of arts in political science. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Amy for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Ryan Lojo for his hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC office. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Ryan is a native of Casper, WY and a graduate of Kelly Walsh High School. He is also a recent graduate of Gonzaga University, where he earned a degree in business administration-economics. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Ryan for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his next journey.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Matthew Spenny for his hard work as an intern in my Cheyenne, WY office. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Matthew lives in Laramie, WY and is a graduate of the University of Wyoming, where he earned a degree in communication and journalism. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Matthew for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his next journey.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Jennifer Trabing for her hard work as an intern in my Cheyenne, WY office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Jennifer is a native of Buffalo, WY where she graduated from Buffalo High School. She is also a graduate of the University of Wyoming where she earned a bachelor of arts in international studies. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Jennifer for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, how much time remains?

Madam President, I come to the floor today and would note a headline on the front page of Politico today regarding the ObamaCare Web site. ``Tech Chief: Up to 40% Work Is Left On ObamaCare. Financial management tools are unfinished.''

This Web site has been a debacle. People all around the country are angry. They are anxious, frustrated, and bothered, but mostly I am hearing anger from people in Wyoming. And it is not just the Web site. The Web site is just the tip of the iceberg. People are furious when they get letters of cancellation, when they have coverage canceled and then they see higher premiums. All across the country people are finding out that because of the health care law, they can't keep their doctor. They are hearing stories about fraud, identity theft, and higher copays and deductibles. So I bring to the floor today a couple of letters I have received from people in Wyoming.

Last week, Veterans Day, I was in Douglas, WY, for the flag-raising ceremony at the American Legion at 7 a.m. talking to folks--some who had gotten cancellation letters. Let me read a letter from a family in Douglas, WY, a small community in Converse County. They say:

We just found out that our current health insurance policy

with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming (which is a $20,000

deductible for our family) will not be allowed after January

1st . . . that only those under age 30 will be able to have

catastrophic plans. We ranch, work very hard, have been

healthy . . . can't afford and don't believe a lower

deductible makes sense for us.

So this is a family who decided what was best for them as a family-- not what the government told them they had to buy but what worked for them as a family. They say that what they bought was something that made sense for them.

Continuing to read from their letter:

. . . basically have had insurance to avoid losing our cows

and land if something catastrophic happened to us. Don't know

what we will do if you guys don't get this derailed.

Madam President, as someone from the Rocky Mountain West, I can tell you that in a community of lots of ranchers and farmers, what they are trying to do is insure against this catastrophic loss.

They go on to say:

Quick side note--we think most people expect health

insurance to cover everyday costs--it wouldn't make sense and

it would cost way too much to get insurance to cover new

tires, oil changes, washer fluid, new batteries (regular

expected upkeep) for our vehicles--if we only had insurance

for the big health issues, it wouldn't cost as much for all

of us in the end.

Of course, that is what they wanted to do.

They go on:

Obamacare doesn't deal with any of the issues of why health

care in America costs what it does and truly seems to make it

all worse.

Thank you for what you do--we know you already understand

this. We just thought you should know what we are dealing

with.

That is a ranch family in Douglas, WY, in Converse County.

This past Saturday night I was in Lusk, WY, in Niobrara County, and I have an email I wish to share with you from Lusk, WY. Again, this is somebody who has had coverage canceled, higher copays, and all of the things we are talking about.

Just for a second, let me show the list of the number of people who have been canceled. Some 4.7 million Americans have had their health insurance canceled in 32 States, and we don't even have the numbers for a number of other States. This is what people all across the country are seeing.

Let me read this email from Lusk, WY. This individual says:

I have supported the President and the Affordable Health

Care act since the beginning. That changed on Thursday. All

along we have been told if we have insurance, and we are

satisfied, no changes will be necessary. That is a misleading

statement. I was informed by my company my policy will be

canceled in December. Then they will offer me another policy

but with huge changes. My premium will go up . . . my

deductible will rise . . . That is not the same as my current

policy. I feel like, after decades of paying my own

insurance, I am being penalized. I won't call it lying, but

the President certainly misled a lot of us middle aged

Americans.

I do have one alternative I am pursuing. I can buy

insurance that does not meet the guidelines of the Act.

However, I will be forced to pay the penalty for

noncompliance. I can afford my insurance and the penalty.

Once again, Americans do not like to be misled from the top

leadership down. It simply helps to solidify the mistrust we

have in government.

Thank you for your solid leadership.

That is why I am here today on the floor. We need to hear more stories from people around the country--not just Republicans but Democrats need to hear these stories. Tweet us your story at hashtag ``your story.''

Republicans have better ideas about ways we can actually help people get the care they need from a doctor they choose at a lower cost.

This health care law is hurting many millions of Americans. We now know that the President knew it at the time he continued to repeat the line--which we now know is a misleading line--to the American people. Very soon we will find that the line ``if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor'' was misleading as millions more will be losing their doctor. There is great damage continuing to be done. We need to start over.

Madam President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I go home every weekend to talk to people. I was home last weekend for Veterans Day and was in the Target store in Casper and ran into a small business owner of a small electric company he runs. He has about four people who work with him. He is somebody on whom I have operated. He is a former patient of mine. He told me he was one of those 4 million Americans who had gotten that letter that they had lost their insurance.

He said: The President promised this would be easier to use than amazon.com. I can't get on. He said it would be cheaper than your cell phone bill. Well, that has not been the case. He said that the President said: If you like what you have, you can keep it. Clearly, that is not the case. He said: What is wrong? What is wrong with this? How can we fix it?

I got another letter from a rancher that I need to read. She is from New Castle, WY. She says:

We are ranchers who buy our own health insurance.

Currently, we pay $650 a month for an 80/20 policy with a

$3,500 deductible. Our maximum family out-of-pocket is

$10,000 a year. We do not carry maternity insurance because

we have completed our family. I am 45 years old. I have had a

hysterectomy.

I recently called my insurance agent out of fear our policy

could be canceled. Well, he said it would be canceled at the

renewal time.

She said that he told her that their policy did not meet ObamaCare's requirement because of maternity coverage and they would have to choose a policy from the exchanges. Now, remember, she has had a hysterectomy. She does not need or want or will ever use maternity coverage.

She said the insurance agent quoted her rates for a comparable policy at $1,300 to $1,600 per month. Remember, they are now paying $650. She said the insurance agent also told her they could take a bronze policy--much less coverage than they currently have--for $900, which is still $250 a month higher than they would have to pay, but the out-of- pocket cost then was much higher, much more difficult for the family.

She said:

We are being forced out of a good policy, which we pay for

with hard-earned money and which we choose, into a dangerous

financial and health care situation with less coverage and

which puts my husband and I, who are proud of our

sustainability, onto what we consider the welfare rolls by

needing a government subsidy to afford a plan that we do not

want or need.

She said:

To say that we are angry is an understatement. Why is this

happening? Why can Obama force me into this? We feel

helpless. What are we supposed to do, just follow like sheep

until we are either bankrupt or welfare recipients?

This is not what President of the United States promised the American people. It is not what every Democrat in this body who voted for this health care law promised the American people. The American people deserve better. They deserve to be able to get the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs. None of that has come true under this health care law.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, it has now been more than 6 weeks since the Obama administration launched its health insurance marketplace. This afternoon, the Obama administration finally confirmed how few people have been able to select insurance through the exchange. According to the White House, only 106,185 people have selected coverage since October 1. This doesn't mean people actually bought their coverage, it just means they selected a plan.

For most of these, it was through the State-based exchanges. People may be wondering how the Washington-run exchange did. Only 26,794 people selected a plan through healthcare.gov. It is safe to say, if this were a commercial Web site, the plug would have been pulled by now. They came, they saw, they did not buy it.

Low expectations met with even lower reality. The numbers paint a bleak picture of the confidence the American people have in the health care law and the faulty Web site created to sell it. The administration's goal was for a half million people, 500,000 Americans, to sign up in the month of October, the month of October alone. Instead, we now know that only a little over 100,000 people have actually signed up.

The reason the numbers are so low and so disappointing is that the Web site is totally broken and the American people are discovering that the coverage offered on the exchange often costs them more than they can afford, and more than they were previously paying. So far, the ObamaCare exchanges have only succeeded at crashing people's computers or lightening their wallets.

To make matters worse, for every one person who has selected an ObamaCare plan--either from the State or Federal exchanges--40 people have received cancellation notices. This is not what the President repeatedly promised and it is not what the American people deserve.

Enough is enough. It is time to give Americans what they wanted all along: access to quality, affordable health care. It is time to stop this train wreck and ease the damage being done by this terrible law.

To help make that happen, Senator Graham and I will soon introduce a bill that lets States opt out of some of the health care law's most burdensome provisions. Under the State Health Care Choice Act, States could opt out of the individual mandate that requires people to buy government-approved health insurance or face a tax penalty. They could opt out of the employer mandate that will force businesses to provide government-approved health insurance or pay penalties.

Under our bill States could also opt out from the health care law's benefits mandates. These are the requirements that health insurance plans provide numerous expensive services that many people may not want, may not need, will never use, cannot afford, and do not want to pay for. The Obama administration has already issued hundreds of waivers to businesses and it has delayed the employer mandate by a year. States should have the same opportunity to give relief to their citizens.

We know the numbers coming out of Wyoming. In Wyoming we see over 3,000 people have received cancellation notices. Yet only 85 people have been able to select a plan. I was at the Target store in Casper this Saturday. A former patient came up to me, somebody I had operated on. He told me he had received a cancellation notice. He is a small businessman, works hard for himself and for his family, and the insurance he had worked for him. It was something he could afford. What he told me is he will now have to pay a higher premium and also more out-of-pocket costs in terms of a higher copay and higher deductibles. Frankly, he is not sure what he is going to do.

The people I talk to tell me about all of the mandates, the higher costs, the bad side effects of the President's health care law, and they tell me this is not what they wanted in health care reform.

I got a letter from one woman from Newcastle, WY. She told me she is losing her health insurance plan also. The reason she is losing it is it does not meet the President's requirements that she have maternity coverage. As she points out, she doesn't need maternity care, she said, because she has had a hysterectomy and she doesn't like Washington telling her that she has to pay twice as much to get a plan that covers it--something she doesn't want, will never use, doesn't need, cannot afford.

When it comes to health care and health care coverage, one size does not fit all. States should be free to help the citizens of those States get the care they need from the doctor they choose at lower costs. A lot of people in this country do not want all these new mandates, all the burdens and the higher costs. All they actually wanted was President Obama to keep the promises, to allow them to have what the President promised them: that they could keep the insurance and the doctor they already had. After all, that is what the President said.

We have millions of people getting letters from their insurance company canceling their insurance plans. As of today I know that number is over 4.2 million--42 people canceled for every 1 that actually got insurance through the exchange. One of the reasons for all of the insurance plans being canceled, in spite of what the President told the American people repeatedly, is something called the grandfather regulation that the Obama administration actually wrote. The President's own people wrote the regulation so that people cannot keep the insurance they want, in spite of the President's repeated promises. This was a rule the Obama administration wrote to force more people off the insurance plans they had before the law was passed, and force them into new Washington-approved plans.

Three years ago Republicans saw that this regulation was going to lead directly to the millions of cancellation letters that have now gone out across the country. My colleague from Wyoming, Senator Enzi, took the lead and he took to the Senate floor to try to stop this destructive rule from the Obama administration. He introduced a bill that would immediately overturn the administration's restrictive regulations about people keeping their plans. Senator Enzi pointed out back then, 3 years ago, that the administration's rule would have caused millions of people to lose the insurance they had and that they liked. He was right, and the Washington Democrats, here on the floor of the Senate, did not seem to care. Every Democratic Member of this body, every Democrat in the Senate, voted to make sure that the restrictive regulations stayed on the books. Because of that vote, now we have over 4 million Americans looking for new insurance plans that satisfy Obama administration mandates, but they have lost their insurance in spite of the President's repeated promises that if

they like what they have, they could keep it.

Many of them--such as my friend and former patient whom I ran into this past weekend in Casper--are learning that their copays and their deductibles will be much higher than the plans they have lost. Once they get those plans, many of them are going to find out that their costs have increased--but not just that; their choice of doctors has shrunk as well. They may not be able to go to their family doctor because he or she will not be covered by their new plan anymore.

Last week President Obama finally admitted he and his administration were not, as he said, ``as clear as we needed to be.''

Not as clear as he needed to be? That is what the President regrets, that he was not as clear as he needed to be? For the millions of people who are losing their doctors, they don't want an apology; they don't want a new government handout. What they want is what they had before this law came into effect. They want President Obama to live up to his promise and to allow them to keep the coverage they had and they liked and that worked for them. Even former President Bill Clinton has called for a change. Remember, the Obama administration has called President Clinton the so-called ``Secretary of Explaining Stuff.'' They had him traveling the country, trying to convince people that their health care law was going to work out well for everybody. Now it looks as though he is trying to explain to President Obama how badly the President's own health care law has hurt Americans who are losing access to their insurance plans and to their doctors.

Bill Clinton said it just the other day. He said:

. . . even if it takes a change to the law, the president

should honor the commitment the federal government made to

those people and let them keep what they got.

Well, that is exactly right. Not only should President Obama take steps to keep his promise to the American people, he should support Republicans who want to help all Americans who are being harmed by the President and the Democrats' terrible health care law. Today's enrollment numbers show what a disaster that law has been, and the President should support the Health Care Choice Act so that States can serve their citizens and opt-out of this terrible law.

I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I just returned from spending a weekend in my home State of Wyoming, traveling around the State and visiting with people in Natrona County and Casper as well as in Rock Springs, WY. I attended a marvelous event held every year in Sweetwater County called Cowboys Against Cancer. There were 700 people there to celebrate successes and remember those whom we have lost in these battles. I was there along with Senator Enzi as well as our Governor and others talking about an issue facing the Nation--an issue, of course, that is on everyone's mind--the health care law. This has been a very rough 5 weeks for hard-working Americans who are concerned about their health, and this obviously came up for significant discussion at the Cowboys Against Cancer event Saturday night in Wyoming.

Many people were hoping the Democrats' health care law would actually help decrease costs; that it would actually help increase access to quality health care. But all America knows that hasn't happened. On October 1, the Obama administration launched its health care exchange. This was to be the biggest moment of the President's signature achievement in office. It was one where people were looking forward to the opening of the exchanges, and it flopped. It completely flopped. The Web site crashed and fell right on the heads of the people who were already anxious about their health care. People all across the country saw this collapse, and even the late-night comedians have made a lot of jokes about the incompetence and the mismanagement of the Obama administration.

But I have to say the failure of the exchange is no laughing matter, because this is much more than a failed Web site. Real people are facing real health care problems and are being hurt because of this administration's failed health care law. Because of this law, millions of people are getting letters saying their insurance has been canceled. I talked to some of them this past weekend in Wyoming. There are at least 3\1/2\ million people impacted by this across the country, and the number continues to climb every day. The Obama administration says that is no big deal. They say only 3\1/2\ million people are losing the insurance plans they have now. But this administration's goal--their goal--was just 7 million people covered in the exchanges. So why does the White House think 3\1/2\ million Americans losing their coverage is no big deal when their goal this year was to cover 7 million Americans?

President Obama and Democrats in Congress promised over and over: If

you like your insurance, you can keep it. But that wasn't true. The Washington Post Fact Checker looked into the President's claim. These are the folks who decide if something is truthful or not truthful. They gave the President the full four Pinocchios for completely false claims.

The Fact Checker wrote:

The President's promise apparently came with a very large

caveat: ``If you like your health care plan, you'll be able

to keep your health care plan--if we deem it to be

adequate.''

Well, the President never said that. If the White House had been honest about people losing their health insurance, this law would never have passed. But the law did pass and people across the country are learning how much it is going to actually hurt them personally.

For millions of people who are losing the insurance they have, they are finding the options available under the Democrats' health care law much more limited and much more expensive. The rates are higher, the deductibles are higher, their copays are higher. It is not the kind of reform people wanted or needed, but that is what the Washington Democrats gave them.

The cost increases and the canceled insurance policies are just the beginning. A lot of people are now starting to realize they are no longer going to have access to their family's doctor. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. President Obama said this in 2009:

We will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you

will be able to keep your doctor. Period.

That is what President Obama said. If the White House had been honest about how many families were going to lose access to their doctors, this health care law would never have passed. But the White House did make that promise, Democrats did pass that law, and American families all across the country are suffering as a result.

Coming back from Wyoming this morning I picked up USA Today. The editorial page of this newspaper supported the President's health care law, but their view today is:

Coverage cancellations belie Obama's promise. Obamacare is

starting to resemble a patient bleeding from self-inflicted

wounds. A month after launch, the online health exchanges

where individuals are supposed to shop for insurance remain

slow or unusable, except in states that opted to run their

own marketplaces and did a more competent job than the

administration.

States were more competent than the administration.

Continuing to quote the article:

As if that weren't trouble enough, critics are justifiably

mocking President Obama for his repeated, untrue promise that

if people liked their health plans, they could keep them.

The editorial on the opinion page of today's USA Today says:

Oops. Hundreds of thousands of people are getting

termination notices from plans that don't meet the strict new

requirements of the Affordable Care Act. Presumably, not all

those people disliked their plans.

Referring to the President, they go on to say:

Now he can't seem to admit he overpromised and

oversimplified. He and his aides compound their credibility

problem by suggesting that people whose plans are being

canceled ``just shop around in the new marketplace''--a

laughable impossibility while HealthCare.gov is plagued by

bugs.

So that is what I read in this morning's USA Today as I was coming back from Wyoming. Then I picked up the Wall Street Journal and turned to another column, and this is a guest column: ``You Also Can't Keep Your Doctor.''

You also can't keep your doctor. And there is a little subheadline that reads: ``I had great cancer doctors and health insurance. My plan was cancelled. Now I worry how long I'll live.''

I am sorry the Senate Chamber isn't full of all those people who voted for this health care law as this woman worries how long she will live. The Wall Street Journal says it is an absolutely devastating piece by one woman who is suffering because of the health care law. Her name is Edie Littlefield Sundby. She wrote about her experience fighting stage 4 gallbladder cancer. She had a health care plan with affordable access to good doctors who she points out saved her life.

As a doctor, I will tell you stage 4 gallbladder cancer has a very small chance of success and survival. She has beaten the odds because of those taking care of her. But now she has been told that the plan she has is being canceled because of the President's health care law. Here is what she wrote:

What happened to the President's promise, you can keep your

health plan? Or the promise that, you can keep your doctor?

Thanks to the law, I have been forced to give up a world-

class health plan. The exchange would force me to give up a

world-class physician.

She has had some of the best physicians in the world--MD Anderson in Texas and California at Stanford, as well as in her home community of San Diego.

Washington Democrats knew their law would harm people such as Edie Littlefield Sundby who writes today in the Wall Street Journal. They knew that people like her all across the country would lose their insurance and lose their doctors. They just didn't want the American people to know it.

It was in the regulations that they wrote and they supported. The issue has to do with a section of the health care law that says that anyone who had an insurance policy on March 23, 2010, and continued to renew it, could keep it even after the ObamaCare exchange is launched. It is called a grandfather clause, and it is to protect people from the law's new rules and mandates--to let people, if they had something they liked, keep what they had.

But less than 3 months after the President signed his health care law, the administration issued a regulation setting very specific criteria these health plans had to meet in order to be grandfathered. The regulation dismantled the section of the law by placing unreasonably tight restrictions on grandfathered policies. Now, any routine change made to a grandfathered insurance plan immediately breaks the Democrats' promise that Americans can keep their health insurance.

A lot of consumers want the freedom and flexibility to increase their plan deductible, or copayments, rather than face a higher monthly premium. It is natural that people want to do it--with their health insurance, car insurance, or homeowners insurance. Looking and making decisions for you and your family is just part of being responsible. The Obama administration's regulations took away that choice.

Republicans saw this train wreck coming, and we tried to stop it. My colleague Senator Enzi from Wyoming in 2010 brought S.J. Res. 39 to this floor. This was a Resolution of Disapproval, which would have immediately overturned the administration's burdensome grandfather regulations.

What Senator Enzi brought to the floor for a vote of the entire body would have, if passed, allowed everyone to keep the insurance they had if they liked it--basically, to uphold the President's promise.

Republicans supported this resolution. Senate Democrats voted against it in lockstep. Absolutely every one of them said no. They kept the regulation on the books and made sure people would not be able to keep the insurance policy they had if they liked it.

Now Democrats don't want to hear about people like Edie with stage 4 gallbladder cancer. Republicans do want to hear about people like her-- people who are losing their coverage because of this health care law. We want people to tell us their stories by tweeting with the hashtag ``YourStory.'' We want to make sure that nobody in the Obama administration forgets that these are real people and they have been hurt by this health care law which the President has continued to, on party lines, force down the throats of the American people in its passage, and then continue to deliberately deceive the American people with his quotes, not very long ago, and repeated so many times: If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

Republicans support real health care reform. We support ideas such as allowing people to buy insurance across State lines. That would increase access to coverage and to care, not decrease it. That would increase competition and bring down prices--not raise them. But the Democrats' health care law is doing just that. That would be a reform that would help the American people. But the Obama health care law took the exact opposite approach.

Here is how Edie Littlefield Sundby put it in her story. She wrote:

Before the Affordable Care Act, health-insurance policies

could not be sold across state lines; now policies sold on

the Affordable Care Act exchanges may not be offered across

county lines.

That should change. President Obama and Washington Democrats wanted a political win. They were willing to do anything and say anything--to say whatever they needed--to get that win, whether it was true or not. If they had been honest with the American people, they would have never gotten this law passed. But the Democrats' health care law today in America is hurting people, hurting families, hurting Americans. This must end.

The President should come to the table. He should work with Republicans to pass real reform, to help the American people who have been hurt and continue to be hurt by his health care law.

Mr. President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I wish to add in a bipartisan way my thanks to Senator Chiesa for his service and add to the kind words the Senator from Delaware has spoken of our friend and our colleague.

In Wyoming we talk about the code of the West, and there are 10 parts to that code, but No. 1 is live each day with courage; and No. 2 is take pride in your work. Members on both sides of the aisle have seen that sort of code lived day by day by the Senator from New Jersey who has joined us.

I join my colleague from Delaware in thanking our friend from New Jersey. I say that with great admiration, great appreciation, and deep respect for his time in the Senate, and I know we are going to continue to hear great things from him in the future.

I thank the Presiding Officer, and I yield the floor.