Richard Burr: “I came to the floor last week and for 45 minutes I pulled this file out of my desk. It was my notes that I talked about…”

“I came to the floor last week and for 45 minutes I pulled this file out of my desk. It was my notes that I talked about in 2009 about the Affordable Care Act before it became law. I talked about the increases that were projected in premiums and deductibles. I talked about the networks that were changed, the doctors that would not be available. I was not a prophet. I was reporting what people such as the Chief Actuary at CMS were saying at the time. Hospitals were going to close, doctors were not going to take patients under the new plan. More important, the premiums and deductibles were going to become unaffordable, not affordable. I am tonight going to read a letter from Donna Hulcher from Clemmons, NC, right in the middle of the State. We own a small automotive repair shop and have had continuous health insurance coverage our entire life, either through our company or for the past several years on the individual market. We learned that our high deductible plan with an HSA was not grandfathered into the Affordable Care Act about 4 months ago. Of course at that time, no pricing was available. We were paying 679.00 per month, and felt that we were protected from catastrophic sickness/injury, and we liked the flexibility the HSA provided in meeting our other expenses like dental and optical. We checked with Blue Cross once the cost for the new silver plans they are mapping us to was available, and it is going to cost 1379 per month.…”