Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Smith) for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker since ObamaCare passed, we have seen nothing but major problems: higher costs, higher premium costs, higher out-of-pocket costs, network disruptions, and coverage disruptions. Just 2 years after the implementation of ObamaCare, the Louisiana Health Cooperative closed its doors. Actual 2014 enrollment in the CO- OP was less than half of estimated enrollment: 13,000 midyear in 2014, compared to the 28,100 projected. By December 2014, those numbers had dropped significantly, the highest percentage loss among all the Nation's 23 CO-OPs during that period. Over 7,000 Louisianans complied with ACA's individual mandate by purchasing health insurance through one of the CO-OPs created under the law, but their plan was terminated midyear by the failure of that CO- OP. Now, let's just have some common sense here. This was no fault of the good men and women who put their faith and put their hard-earned premium dollars into this CO-OP. They enrolled, as required by law. And it is just wrong, it is wrong to hold these working families financially responsible for the cost of a CO-OP's failure because it went under due to factors out of their control. Mr. Smith's bill is very narrowly crafted to provide this kind of relief. It is a commonsense bill. It helps people who are struggling with these costs, many of whom have lost employment and everything else.…”