Health Care

Health Care

The president’s health care law remains an unpopular, massive intrusion of the federal government into the individual lives of Hoosiers. The list of the law’s broken promises seems to grow longer each day:

  • President Obama promised that if you like your health plan you can keep it, yet his administration estimates up to 69 percent of all businesses could lose the ability to keep what they have as a result of regulations regarding so-called “grandfathered health plans.”
  • The president promised not to cut Medicare, yet approximately seven million seniors will lose access to their Medicare Advantage plans under his law.
  • He promised that his plan would not raise taxes on the middle class, but then he broke that pledge by adding more than $550 billion in new taxes and penalties in the law – most of which will fall on the shoulders of the middle class.
  • President Obama promised that his health care law would not add one dime to the deficit. The law is estimated to increase the deficit by more than $700 billion and cost taxpayers at least $2.6 trillion over 10 years.
  • The president promised that his plan will “lower the cost of health care for our families, our businesses, and our government.” Instead Obamacare raises premiums, increases health care costs and burdens state governments.
  • Nonpartisan experts from the Congressional Budget Office reported health insurance premiums will increase by an average of $2,100 per family policy as a result of the health care law. One study forecasted that the law will escalate national health care costs by $311 billion in the first 10 years alone.
  • Obamacare also forces states to expand Medicaid rolls, adding more pressure to deeply strained budgets. Indiana will have to absorb an estimated up to $3.1 billion in new costs over the next decade if the 1.2 million eligible Hoosiers enroll in Medicaid. Additionally, if the law is left in place, 40,000 Hoosiers may be dropped from the Healthy Indiana Plan, an innovative state-based, patient-centered health care plan.

Whether it’s increasing health care costs, forcing Hoosiers out of health care plans, raiding Medicare or crippling state budgets, Obamacare represents one broken promise after another. The law has failed to drive down costs, failed to improve access and failed to ease the burden on states and the economy.

On June 28, the Supreme Court upheld the president's health care law. In a 5-to-4 decision, the High Court ruled that the individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance is constitutional because the Court deemed the fine for not buying insurance a new tax. This ruling confirmed that President Obama broke his promise to Americans that his law would not raise taxes on the middle class. I gave the following speech on the Senate floor after the Court issued its ruling:


The work to reform our health care system is far from over. I am committed to working with my colleagues to repeal the president’s health care law and give Hoosiers – not Washington – the power to make their own health care decisions. A one-size-fits-all, government-run health care system is not the answer for Indiana. I believe we need to repeal the President’s health care law and replace it with common-sense solutions that increase access to quality care without increasing costs.

The primary goal for reforming our nation’s health care system should be to reduce the skyrocketing costs of health care costs. We should pursue initiatives to drive down costs by increasing competition and transparency, reforming medical malpractice, making health insurance portable, promoting pooling options for small businesses, and giving states greater flexibility in delivering health services. I believe a health care system built upon free market principles will produce quality health care at a lower cost to Hoosiers. Americans deserve a health care system that puts individuals back in charge of their health care, rather than a government-run plan that puts bureaucrats between doctors and patients.