John Thune

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 476.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 70.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, later today, we will vote on the Democrats' partisan messaging bill, which is a clean, 3-year extension of the Biden COVID bonuses. And when I say ``clean,'' all that I mean by that are no reforms, straight-up extension--3 years of a program without any reforms, any revisions, any changes that would actually help drive down healthcare costs instead of increasing healthcare costs and get rid of the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in this program. The Democrats' plan--that the Democrat leader called it on the floor the other day. It is their ``plan.'' Apparently, they think that a 3- year extension with no reforms to try and disguise the real impact of ObamaCare's spiraling costs is actually a plan. I don't know how you can call it a plan. I came down here yesterday to talk at length about some of the many problems with ObamaCare and the perverse incentives it provides to move employees off of employer-provided insurance and into taxpayer- subsidized plans that have rampant year-over-year increases in premiums; the perverse incentives it provides to insurance companies to enroll Americans--some of whom don't even know that they have been enrolled--so that the insurance companies can rake in even more subsidies. And then this so-called plan is rampant--and I say ``rampant''--with fraud and abuse. A Government Accountability Office report released just last week found a whole host of problems, including the successful enrollment of fake individuals, Social Security number fraud, failure to verify or sometimes even request documentation, improper payment of subsidies, and the list goes on. I want you to take a look at this. This is the finding that came out of that study that was done by the Government Accountability Office. This was their conclusion: ObamaCare subsidies granted without documentation to 90 percent of fake accounts set up by government watchdog. Ninety percent--not 10 percent, not 5 percent. I mean, if you had a program that had 10 percent fraud in it, I think that would be a huge red flag, right? Wouldn't you be alarmed by that? I think most people would. I think most people would go: Wow, that is a huge number. We need to do something to fix that. This program that we are talking about today, that they want to do a straight-up extension on--no reforms, no revisions--was found by the Government Accountability Office--an entity and Agency the Democrats love and support found that 90 percent of the accounts that were set up in the ObamaCare exchanges were fake--fake. Think about that. You can't make this stuff up. We are talking about tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse on a yearly basis. They don't want to do anything about it. They just want a straight-up extension on a program that the Government Accountability Office says has a 90-percent fraud rate. That is obviously a huge problem, but I haven't even gotten to the central problem. That is that ObamaCare has utterly failed to control healthcare costs. Since 2013, ObamaCare enrollees have seen a 221-percent increase in premiums. Let me just repeat that. Since 2013, ObamaCare enrollees have seen a 221-percent increase in premiums--221 percent. That means ObamaCare premiums have grown at approximately five times the rate of inflation-- so much for making healthcare more affordable. This graph, I think, illustrates that. Actually, this understates the problem because this shows that since 2014--in the first year of its inception, when the Obama exchanges went live, there was a huge increase that the insurance companies built into their premium costs to cover all the things they had to cover in the new program. So since 2013, that number is 221 percent, but even since 2014, when the exchanges were fully up and operating, it has had a 129-percent increase in premiums at the same time that the group market--in other words, the large- and small-group market where a lot of people get their insurance coverage through their employer--was going up at about half that rate; 68 percent in the small- and large-group market, which is about where 150 million people get their insurance. Frankly, the more people we could push into that market, it would not only lower their costs, but it also spreads the risk among a bigger pool. That, ultimately, is the way, in the long term, you want to spread your costs. But what ObamaCare does, because it uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize and pay insurance companies directly--premiums go directly to the insurance companies, so insurance companies are making bank. They are getting enriched by this. But what it does at the same time is there is no incentive to control costs, and it is pushing people into that market. If you are an employer or employee, for that matter--because most people respond to incentives--and you are told that you can get into a market where the taxpayers are going to cover it, the employer is going to say: Well, why should I pay for health insurance coverage for my employees if I can have the taxpayers pay for it? So it is pushing more and more people out of the group market, this market right here, where there is a 68-percent increase--still way too much--over the last decade, pushing more and more people out of that market into this market, which has double the rate of increase in premiums. That doesn't include, as I said, the first year of its inception. If you add that first year back in there, that number is 221 percent. So you have this system that is pushing more and more people into insurance coverage where the rates are skyrocketing, where the payments are going directly to the insurance companies, and where lower income taxpayers are subsidizing higher income taxpayers because there are no income levels. So now you can have people making $500,000, $600,000 a year who are getting subsidized by the Federal taxpayer--people making $40,000 or $50,000 a year--at a cost to the Federal taxpayer, in their bill alone, which is just a 3-year extension, of $83 billion. You tell me in what universe that makes sense. That is astonishing, to have a program where 90 percent of the people who are fraudulently enrolled got approved; a program where the rate of increase is twice the rate in the group market and three times the rate of inflation, the Consumer Price Index, over the same time period. Insurance companies are getting rich. Lower income taxpayers are footing the bill so more affluent Americans can have coverage. The American taxpayer is paying $83 billion just for the 3-year extension-- waste, fraud, and abuse, higher rates, fiscally irresponsible, and the list goes on. Mr. President, even Democrats have to be well aware of the fact that ObamaCare has utterly failed to do what it promised. As I mentioned yesterday, we had one Democrat Senator come down to the floor during the shutdown, and, to his credit, he admitted the truth. This is what he said: We did fail to bring down the cost of healthcare. That is a direct quote: ``We did fail to bring down the cost of healthcare.'' So what are Democrats proposing to do about that failure? As I said, exactly nothing. Democrats' so-called plan is a 3-year extension of the status quo--no reforms, no revisions, no rethinking of the way that ObamaCare works; just a 3-year extension of the status quo which, I might add, was put in place in response to the pandemic. When they extended these subsidies back in 2022, it was in August. The pandemic was long over--long over. As I said, you can't make this stuff up. So it is not going to do anything to address the perverse incentive to push Americans out of the employer-sponsored healthcare system and onto taxpayer-subsidized plans. It is not going to do anything to address the perverse incentives that encourage insurance companies to enrich themselves at the taxpayers' expense and do nothing to address the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in ObamaCare. Most of all, it will do nothing to bring down healthcare costs. Nothing. Zero. Under Democrats' plan, insurance premiums will continue to spiral. American taxpayers will find themselves on the hook for ever-increasing subsidy payments. And don't think all those payments are going to be going to vulnerable Americans. As I said, the Democrats' decision to remove any income cap on the Biden COVID bonuses has Americans making as much as half a million dollars or more qualifying for taxpayer subsidies--half a million dollars. Do Democrats really think middle-class families should subsidize healthcare premiums for those making half a million dollars? Democrats don't have a healthcare plan. They want to extend the status quo--a failed, flawed, fraud program that is increasing costs three times the rate of inflation. On the other hand, Republicans today will offer something that does actually lower costs. Earlier this week, we introduced legislation-- drafted by the chairmen of the relevant committees, Senators Crapo and Cassidy--to make structural reforms to the individual health insurance market. In contrast to the Democratic bill, our bill would actually lower, as I said, ObamaCare premium costs, and it would redirect government savings from the bill into health savings accounts for eligible ObamaCare enrollees earning less than 700 percent of the Federal poverty level, paired with more affordable insurance plans. These accounts would help individuals to meet their out-of-pocket costs, and for many individuals who don't use their insurance or who barely use it, it would allow them to save for healthcare expenses down the road. We have two paths here--one, a plan to start addressing the spiraling healthcare costs in ObamaCare and make structural reforms that would drive down premium prices; two, a proposal for a 3-year extension of the status quo. So you tell me who is serious about actually addressing the affordability of healthcare. Democrats may talk about helping Americans, but their bill is nothing more than a political messaging exercise that they hope they can use against Republicans next November. So I hope that after today, they will feel like they have checked the messaging box and will get serious about actually doing something about the spiraling healthcare costs under ObamaCare. Republicans are ready to get to work. I am not sure yet the Democrats are interested. I yield the floor.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I understand that the Senate has received a message from the House to accompany S. 1071.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate the House message to accompany S. 1071, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment to S. 1071.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk for the motion to concur.

Mr. THUNE. I move to concur in the House amendment with an amendment.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask that the reading be dispensed with.

Mr. THUNE. I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I have an amendment at the desk to the motion to concur with amendment.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask that the reading be dispensed with.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 593.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 594.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. I move to refer the House message on S. 1071 to the Committee on Armed Services with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment numbered 3963.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on my motion.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I have an amendment to the instructions.

Mr. THUNE. I ask that the reading be dispensed with.