Congressman Andy Barr (KY-6) today argued in favor of H.R. 3762, the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Barr cited the recent collapse of Kentucky Health Cooperative in addition to the bankruptcies of cooperatives in other states as evidence of Obamacare’s continued failures, and the need for a new approach to expand access to care and lower costs.
Among other provisions, the bill would repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate, the employer mandate, the tax on high cost health plans, the medical device tax, the Prevention and Public Health slush fund, and the Obamacare auto-enrollment mandate. The bill would reduce the deficit by $130 billion over the next ten years.
H.R. 3762, passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 240-189.
Click here for video of the Congressman Barr’s speech.
Remarks as prepared:
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of HR 3762, the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act.
Too many Americans all across the country are the victims of Obamacare’s many broken promises.
We all remember the chaos that ensued when the law was first rolled out – a billion dollar website that didn’t work, millions of Americans losing their insurance and being forced to find a new plan, often at a higher cost. Now, hundreds of thousands of Americans, including at least 51,000 Kentuckians, are once again losing their health insurance because of the failure of Obamacare health cooperatives.
In his State of the Union Address, President Obama cited Kentucky as an example of Obamacare’s working in a red state. But as we learned last week, Obamacare does not work in Kentucky.
In the past two weeks, Obamacare co-ops have failed in my home state of Kentucky, Tennessee, Colorado, Oregon, and South Carolina. Co-ops have already failed in Nevada, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, and Louisiana. And these failures were entirely predictable because the model was not sustainable. The Kentucky co-op lost nearly 60 cents for every premium dollar it collected. Now, hardworking taxpayers will be stuck with the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars that will never be paid back.
Combined with low enrollment numbers, the result of these failures will ultimately be borne by the American people through consolidation in the health care market, fewer choices for consumers, and higher insurance costs. This is not the reform we were promised.
The bill we are debating today would repeal the most harmful mandates and taxes imposed by this law – and give us an opportunity to get a repeal bill on the President’s desk that would make life easier for the American people.
I encourage all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this needed reform.
Thank you, I yield back.