Peter Welch: “Thank you very much. One of the questions is, Why don't we just open up and deal with this later? And there is an answer…”

“Thank you very much. One of the questions is, Why don't we just open up and deal with this later? And there is an answer to that. This is not about one party trying to jam the other. It is about, as the ranking member of the Finance Committee said, a deadline. Folks have to make a decision about signing up during open enrollment that began on November 1, and they are looking at these very much higher bills, and they have to figure out whether they can afford to pay them. For many families, they won't be able to afford it. The decision is made when they get a notice that the premium is going up $30,000. That will have spill-on effects. First of all, it will be incredibly insecure. It just will be painful for these families that are thinking they don't have health coverage for their family. And we all relate to that. But then, they are going to get sick, and they are going to go to a community hospital, and they are going to get coverage. And the hospitals are going to try to figure out how to get paid. And the way they will do that is by seeking rate increases and then having the cost shift further escalate the expense to our employers who really deeply care about providing coverage to the folks that work for them. I know in Oregon, in Idaho, in Ohio, your employers care about their employees, and they want them to have coverage. But if they can't afford it, you get back to the same old thing: You know what? I will try to deal with the premium increase.…”