During Friday’s GOP Weekly Address, Representative John Ratcliffe (R-TX) stated, “Obamacare is more than just another pile of broken promises. It’s the worst of all worlds. It’s higher costs and fewer choices. It’s less freedom and more government. It’s more uncertainty and less peace of mind.”
Transcript as Follows:
“Twenty-two percent. That’s how much more the average midlevel Obamacare plan will cost next year.
Now that’s just an average. For many families, the increase will be much more. In Pennsylvania, the average increase will be 53 percent. In Tennessee, 63 percent. And in Arizona, the average increase will be—get this—116 percent. That translates to hundreds of dollars out of your pocket each and every month. This is money that you could be using to save for your children’s college education, to put food on the table or to pay your utility bills.
And here in Texas, the Obama administration has just approved rate increases for health care plans that will go up as much as 70 percent.
If you try switching your plan to avoid these sky-rocketing premiums, that, of course, means that you very well may have to find a new doctor or a new hospital. And if you’re getting treatment from a doctor you’ve trusted for years, it’s easier said than done to simply abandon that relationship and start over from scratch. So the reality is you’re stuck paying these higher premiums.
If you do decide to switch coverage, you’ll have even less to choose from. Here’s how I can best illustrate it. This next year, ten times the number of customers using the federal exchange will have only one insurance company to choose from—if you can even call that a choice.
As you can see, Obamacare is more than just another pile of broken promises. It’s the worst of all worlds. It’s higher costs and fewer choices. It’s less freedom and more government. It’s more uncertainty and less peace of mind. But there is a better way.
Republicans are offering a plan to repeal Obamacare and replace it with real, sensible, patient-centered solutions. Because in a nation of 323 million people, it makes no sense for unelected bureaucrats to dictate your health insurance plans.
Our plan gives you more control so you can choose the plan that best fits your needs—not Washington’s mandates. That means things like making it easier to take insurance from job to job. Giving small businesses more leverage to negotiate better rates. And finally allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines.
This plan is one plank of the agenda we call a Better Way. You can get all the details by going to better.gop.
A Better Way is built on our founding principles—of liberty, free enterprise, and consent of the governed.
And it’s bold, too. In addition to health care, a Better Way takes on poverty. It takes on our broken tax code and the IRS. It takes on this sluggish economy. And it takes on big government—all of the overreach, all of the abuses, all of the arrogance coming out of Washington, DC.
This plan restores the separation of powers needed to stop unelected bureaucrats from steamrolling hard-working Americans with regulations out of thin air.
Look, we don’t have to throw in the towel on the tough issues. We can tackle them head-on. Instead of the usual finger-pointing, we can take a positive approach to the problems that we face.
We can be open and transparent, and have a government that honors the Constitution and works for the people. We can bring hope, lean on one another, and share in the work of getting our country back on track. That really is a better way.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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