Todd Rokita: “I thank the chairwoman for yielding the time. It is a pleasure to continue our work together on this very important…”

“I thank the chairwoman for yielding the time. It is a pleasure to continue our work together on this very important issue. It has taken us 6 years to get to today, the first real step in repealing what is one of the most insidious laws that ever came out of these Chambers--insidious because it was built on lies. Remember ``You can keep your doctor if you want to,'' ``You can keep your plan if you want to''? Lies. Remember when premiums were to go down because this, of course, Mr. Chairman, was the Affordable Care Act? Lies. The gentleman from Kentucky made some assertions just a while ago. I want to take a look at the State of Kentucky itself. Four plans left the ObamaCare exchange at the end of 2016 in the State of Kentucky. Of the remaining plans, each increased their premiums by double digits: 22.9 percent, 29.3 percent, and 33.7 percent, respectively, for 2017. And Kentucky's exchange enrollment decreased by 12 percent. How, Mr. Chairman, is this helping people? Look, if we didn't care about people, we could stand by and watch this failed plan, this insidious law continue to implode, continue to hurt people. Instead, we stand here ready to erase the foundation that this law was based on and put forth a better one, one that doesn't leave anyone behind, one that is based on market-driven, consumer- driven, patient-driven needs and expectations and allows them to, for example, keep their job. What do I mean by that, Mr. Chairman? Consider this.…”