Graham Addresses the "Unaffordable" Care Act in Senate Floor Speech

[00:00:00] Thank you. So, here we are on a [00:00:04] Saturday. Beautiful outside. Every day [00:00:07] gets better for us. If you're trying to [00:00:10] get through the airport today, probably [00:00:12] not true. If you're working for the [00:00:16] government, not getting paid, not a good [00:00:18] day for you. Not a good day for us. Not [00:00:21] a good day for the country. This has [00:00:23] been going on way too long. Too many [00:00:25] people are being damaged for no good [00:00:26] purpose. Uh we're not going to be [00:00:28] extorted, held hostage. You're not going [00:00:30] to terrorize the country to make us do [00:00:32] something that makes no sense. We'd like [00:00:35] to work on healthcare, but we're not [00:00:37] going to extend the debacle called [00:00:39] Obamacare. So, every day gets better for [00:00:42] us. Um you need to ask yourself in [00:00:44] America, is that true for you? I don't [00:00:46] think so. Let me tell you who has a good [00:00:49] day today. [00:00:52] the healthc care insurance companies. In [00:00:56] 2024, [00:00:57] United Healthcare made $817 [00:01:01] per day under Obamacare. So, it's [00:01:05] definitely a good day for them. [00:01:07] Sigma 677 [00:01:10] uh Anthem Elements whatever they are 480 [00:01:15] million [00:01:16] Centine 447 million CVS [00:01:21] 358 Humanana 322 and lowly Molina [00:01:28] 112 million a day that's what [00:01:33] health care companies get under [00:01:35] Obamacare every day. So when as Senator [00:01:39] Schumer says it gets better for us, I [00:01:41] guarantee you every day we keep this [00:01:44] system in place is a great day for the [00:01:48] healthc care insurance companies who [00:01:49] have been making out literally like [00:01:51] bandits under Obamacare. [00:01:57] [clears throat] [00:01:58] In case this job doesn't work out for [00:02:00] any of us, you want to go in the healthc [00:02:02] care business, big upgrade. United [00:02:05] Health Group CEO made 26.3 million, [00:02:09] Sigma 23.3, [00:02:12] Molina 21.9, [00:02:15] Centine 20.6, [00:02:17] Eleance Health Anthem 20.5, CVS 17.8, [00:02:24] Humanana lagging to fill at 15.6. [00:02:28] [laughter] [00:02:29] These people are doing very well. [00:02:31] The problem is [00:02:34] health insurance companies do great [00:02:35] every day from Obamacare. All these [00:02:38] health care CEOs are doing fantastic. [00:02:42] But you, the consumer, not so much. You [00:02:45] were promised when Obamacare passed in [00:02:47] 2010. President Obama said, "Every [00:02:50] family in America who participates in [00:02:52] this thing will have about a $2,500 [00:02:55] savings in premium reductions." It's [00:02:59] been like a 100% increase. You just [00:03:03] didn't miss it a little bit. You missed [00:03:05] it a lot. This thing is unsustainable. [00:03:10] Why do you call something the Affordable [00:03:12] Healthc Care Act when every five minutes [00:03:14] you're asking me and the presiding [00:03:16] officer to dump 350 billion in it to [00:03:18] keep it afloat? It's not affordable. [00:03:20] It's never been affordable. The only [00:03:22] people winning from this are health [00:03:24] care, health care insurance companies, [00:03:26] CEOs, and it needs to stop. And why is [00:03:30] the government shut down? The government [00:03:32] has shut down because our friends on the [00:03:34] other side are insisting we continue [00:03:37] this program for another year. I'm not [00:03:39] going to continue it for another day. [00:03:42] I'm not going to pour tens of billions [00:03:43] of dollars through Obamacare into health [00:03:47] care insurance companies with the result [00:03:49] being your premiums have increased by [00:03:51] 100%. We're going to stop that. We'd [00:03:54] like to work with you to come up with a [00:03:55] better deal. Here's the good news. It [00:03:57] wouldn't take much to make it a better [00:03:59] deal. [00:04:02] But if you're wondering what kind of [00:04:03] deal it's been for health care [00:04:05] companies, [00:04:07] United Healthc Care Group 1,177% [00:04:13] increase in their stock prices since [00:04:15] Obamacare. Look at these numbers. [00:04:18] I mean 822, 414, 490, 859, 604, 595% [00:04:25] increase in stock prices after the [00:04:28] passage of Obamacare. These are the big [00:04:31] winners, not you. And we're going to [00:04:33] break this health care cartel. We're [00:04:36] going to take this money that's flowing [00:04:39] to insurance companies and we're going [00:04:41] to try to get it directly to you, the [00:04:43] consumer, so you can have more [00:04:45] purchasing power and actually over time [00:04:47] create more competition and lower your [00:04:50] health care prices. [00:04:52] Something Obamacare is not doing. And to [00:04:56] illustrate my point, I've gone from no [00:04:59] charts to a bunch of charts. This is a [00:05:01] big change in my life. [00:05:03] Even I can understand that that's like a [00:05:07] rocket ship compared to the rest of the [00:05:10] economy. So what have we discovered in [00:05:13] the last few days? We have discovered [00:05:16] that the subsidies under Obamacare are a [00:05:19] windfall for insurance companies. We've [00:05:22] discovered that every day we talk about [00:05:26] health care as it is today, they're [00:05:28] making a gob of money, hundreds of [00:05:31] millions of dollars a day. [00:05:34] We've learned that these health [00:05:36] insurance companies have had stock [00:05:38] increase prices unlike any other sector [00:05:41] of the economy. And all happened after [00:05:44] Obamacare. [00:05:46] They promised you lower premiums, your [00:05:48] premiums have doubled. What's happened? [00:05:51] The big winner is insurance companies. [00:05:53] And insurance companies are doing the [00:05:55] Democratic party's bidding. They're [00:05:57] signing up people for Obamacare. They [00:05:59] haven't made a claim in three years. For [00:06:01] every person they could find, they get [00:06:03] money. So they got incentive just to [00:06:05] stack this thing with people whether [00:06:07] it's good health care or not. So what [00:06:10] did President Trump say today? He said [00:06:14] he recommended to all the Republicans, [00:06:17] stand your ground. break this cycle, [00:06:20] take the money away from health [00:06:22] insurance companies and let's flow it to [00:06:25] the people to give them more purchasing [00:06:27] power and stop the money sucking health [00:06:30] insurance companies from taking tens of [00:06:33] billions of dollars out of Obamacare. So [00:06:36] the Affordable Care Act is not [00:06:39] affordable. [00:06:41] There is a better way. We're going to [00:06:44] insist on that better way. And to my [00:06:47] Democratic friends, [00:06:49] we're not going to extend this program [00:06:54] for a year because that would be unfair [00:06:57] to the taxpayer. That would continue a [00:07:01] health care system that's out of [00:07:03] control. It would enrich health c uh [00:07:05] insurance companies even more. We're not [00:07:08] going to do that. We're going to replace [00:07:12] this broken system with something that [00:07:14] is actually better for the consumer to [00:07:16] meet the goal of lowering health care [00:07:18] cost. So, you have to understand [00:07:22] terrorizing the public is not going to [00:07:26] get us as Republicans to continue a very [00:07:30] bad healthc care bill. We're not going [00:07:33] to do it. We will talk to you. President [00:07:36] Trump will, all of us will about how [00:07:39] getting better value is possible, how [00:07:42] lower premiums is possible, but you got [00:07:44] to change the fundamental precept of [00:07:47] Obamacare, which is proven to be [00:07:49] anything but affordable. [00:07:52] That's like the Inflation Reduction Act. [00:07:55] All it did was cause inflation. The [00:07:57] Affordable Healthc Care Act has become [00:08:00] unaffordable. Obamacare is growing [00:08:03] faster than almost any other thing in [00:08:06] health care because it's designed to [00:08:09] enrich health care companies. The more [00:08:11] people they sign up, the more money they [00:08:14] get. And it's not about quality. It's [00:08:15] about stacking as many people as you can [00:08:18] under umbrella of governmentr run health [00:08:20] care. And apparently it doesn't matter [00:08:23] if the governmentr run health care is [00:08:25] working. It does matter to us. We would [00:08:29] like to get a better return on [00:08:31] investment. So, I want to congratulate [00:08:34] President Trump. He has gotten into the [00:08:37] game today. He's given us a pathway [00:08:39] forward. I'm going to heed his advice [00:08:42] and council. I am not going to extend [00:08:46] the unaffordable health care Obama [00:08:50] health care program for another year, [00:08:52] another day. There's a better way. [00:08:56] President Trump talked to me this [00:08:57] morning. and he'd like to sit in and see [00:08:59] if we can come out come up with a better [00:09:01] solution. I know we can, but we're not [00:09:04] going to do it while the government shut [00:09:05] down. [00:09:07] This is day 37, 38, whatever day it is. [00:09:11] Every day is hundreds of millions of [00:09:14] dollars to these insurance companies. [00:09:18] Every day we've shut the government down [00:09:21] is families who work for the government [00:09:23] have no money. [00:09:25] We're hurting our national security. [00:09:27] We're hurting morale. It's getting [00:09:29] dangerous to fly. [00:09:32] So stop it. End this madness. We tried [00:09:35] to shut the government down to build a [00:09:37] wall. We eventually built the wall [00:09:38] because it's a good idea. But shutting [00:09:40] the government down to build the wall [00:09:42] wasn't a good idea. So I would urge you, [00:09:44] my Democratic colleagues, keep working [00:09:46] with us. Open this government. Let's [00:09:49] find a way to provide better health care [00:09:53] that doesn't enrich insurance companies. [00:09:56] Let's see if we can break this cycle of [00:09:59] all the money going to insurance [00:10:01] companies. They're getting filthy rich [00:10:03] off this. See if we can take the money [00:10:05] and actually give it to people to buy [00:10:08] better health care to lower uh cost and [00:10:11] create competition. Mr. President, in [00:10:13] case you're listening out there, I think [00:10:15] you've come up with a good idea. Count [00:10:18] me on board. To my colleagues on this [00:10:20] side, this is a fight worth having. To [00:10:23] my Democratic colleagues, let's open up [00:10:26] the government and act like adults and [00:10:28] see if we can get this problem in a [00:10:30] better spot. We'll never do it with a [00:10:32] government shutdown. The only thing [00:10:34] that's going to come from the government [00:10:35] shutdown is misery, pain, and heartache. [00:10:38] For that I'll yield.