Democrats Rail Against the Health Care System They Created

Majority Leader | Research | The Leader Board | THE NEWSR...Skip to primary navigation Skip to content×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNE×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUFacebookXInstagramFacebookXInstagramVisit Leader Thune's South Dakota Site Here THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUHomeTHE NEWSROOMThe Leader Board10.03.25Democrats Rail Against the Health Care System They CreatedFor Years, Democrats Have Been Saying Their Health Care Laws Will Lower Costs for Americans. But Now Democrats Say Their Laws Created a “Health Care Crisis.” THE HISTORY IS CLEAR: DEMOCRATS CREATED OBAMACARE WITHOUT A SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTE, AND IT HAS UTTERLY FAILED TO ACHIEVE ANY OF THEIR STATED GOALS“This bill will cut health care costs, preserve Medicare, and reduce the federal deficit to boot. History will look back on this bill as the moment we turned things around in America.” – Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) (11/19/09)When Democrats passed Obamacare, they did so without a single Republican vote. (U.S. Senate: Roll Call Vote #396 – 12/24/09; U.S. House of Representatives: Roll Call Vote #165 – 3/21/10)“Almost every promise Obama made about what [Obamacare] would do has proven false. It has not cut the budget deficit, slowed medical spending, saved lives, lowered health insurance premiums, improved the quality of care, or let patients keep doctors they liked. That’s quite a list of failures.” (Washington Examiner: Editorial: Obamacare has failed – 12/13/24)“Remember Barack Obama’s promise that if you like your health plan and doctor, you could keep them? Sorry. How about his claim that people with pre-existing conditions would be protected? Also not true. The biggest howler, however, was that healthcare would become more affordable.” (The Wall Street Journal: UnitedHealthcare and the ObamaCare Con – 12/8/24)And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government.” – President Barack Obama (9/9/09)“We’ve come so far, but we are not turning back. We are not turning our back on the people who are counting on us to get this bill through. The millions of Americans who know we have to finish this job and finish it right, so there is quality, accessible, affordable health care for every single American.” – Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) (11/19/09)“[A]n historic bill that will finally reform our broken health care system and help millions of our families and small businesses get the coverage they need at a price they can afford.” – Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) (11/19/09)Experts at the time predicted that Obamacare would not lower costs:“But this bill is not bending the cost curve. Even if these things work, it's not of the magnitude that is needed to prevent us from going over the cliff.” – Robert L. Bixby, Executive Director, The Concord Coalition (11/30/09)“In discussions with dozens of health-care leaders and economists, I find near unanimity of opinion that, whatever its shape, the final legislation that will emerge from Congress will markedly accelerate national health-care spending rather than restrain it.” – Jeffrey Flier, Harvard Medical School Dean (11/17/09)“I say with regret but consistent with a very important article on the front page of today’s New York Times that of the two objectives that people had going into health care reform, namely expanding access and controlling costs we’re on track to do a pretty good job on number one and a very poor job on number two.” – William Galston, Brookings Institution (11/10/09)DURING THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION, DEMOCRATS DOUBLED DOWN ON THE FAILURES OF OBAMACARE – ONCE AGAIN WITHOUT A SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTE – AND IT WAS DEMOCRATS WHO SET THE EXPIRATION DATE FOR OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES“The Inflation Reduction Act is a shining example of the Democratic agenda working for the American people.” – Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) (8/16/24)“Democrats in 2021 sweetened subsidies for buying insurance on the ObamaCare exchanges. Enrollment has since doubled while taxpayer costs rose by 150%. Spending on ObamaCare subsidies has increased faster than Medicaid or Medicare since 2020, if you can believe it. Democrats tout this blowout of government-subsidized healthcare as a triumph.” (The Wall Street Journal: Editorial: The Phantom Patients of ObamaCare – 8/17/25)“The enhanced provisions eliminated the prior income cap for eligibility—400% of the federal poverty level, or $128,600 for a family of four—and lowered the maximum percentage of income enrollees can be required to pay out of pocket.” (The Wall Street Journal: The Health Insurance Subsidies at the Center of the Government Shutdown Fight – 10/1/25)“The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which passed in 2022, extended these enhanced subsidies for an additional three years, ending after 2025.” (Kaiser Family Foundation: Inflation Reduction Act Health Insurance Subsidies: What is Their Impact and What Would Happen if They Expire? – 7/26/24)“[T]he subsidies come at a steep cost to taxpayers, with the CBO projecting that a permanent extension of the subsidies would cost $335 billion over the next ten years.” (Kaiser Family Foundation: Inflation Reduction Act Health Insurance Subsidies: What is Their Impact and What Would Happen if They Expire? – 7/26/24)“Democrats are also planning to extend the enhanced federal premium subsidies for Obamacare coverage through 2025, a year later than lawmakers recently discussed. That way, they wouldn’t expire just after the 2024 presidential election.” (CNN: Senate passes Democrats’ sweeping health care and climate bill – 8/7/22)THESE SUBSIDIES LED TO MASSIVE WASTE AND FRAUD, COSTING TAXPAYERS BILLIONSThe result? “ObamaCare really is a gift that keeps on giving—for insurers.” (The Wall Street Journal: Editorial: The Phantom Patients of ObamaCare – 8/17/25)“The number of ACA individual market enrollees with no medical claims more than tripled from 2021 to 2024. Nearly 12 million enrollees had no medical claims during 2024—equal to 8 million enrollees on an annualized basis.” (Paragon Health Institute: The Rise of Phantom Obamacare Enrollees: Biden COVID Credits Drive Massive Increase in Individual Market Enrollees With No Medical Claims – 8/13/25)“Tens of billions in federal subsidies are flowing to insurers and brokers for phantom enrollees—people without a single doctor visit, prescription filled, or service received.” (Paragon Health Institute: The Rise of Phantom Obamacare Enrollees: Biden COVID Credits Drive Massive Increase in Individual Market Enrollees With No Medical Claims – 8/13/25)“The rise in phantom enrollees is absent in the small-group market, strongly suggesting it was driven by Biden’s COVID credits.” (Paragon Health Institute: The Rise of Phantom Obamacare Enrollees: Biden COVID Credits Drive Massive Increase in Individual Market Enrollees With No Medical Claims – 8/13/25)“Forgive us for being old-fashioned, but why should taxpayers subsidize insurance for healthy people who don’t need or use it?” (The Wall Street Journal: Editorial: The Phantom Patients of ObamaCare – 8/17/25)On top of adding millions of people who never used their plans, Democrats’ expanded Obamacare subsidies reduced eligibility checks, which increased improper and duplicative enrollments:“[I]nsurance brokers have been fudging incomes of people in order to enroll them in government-subsidized plans for which they aren’t eligible, often without their knowledge. The Biden Administration facilitated such fraud by easing income verification and eligibility checks.” (The Wall Street Journal: Editorial: The Phantom Patients of ObamaCare – 8/17/25)“The COVID credits were the primary factor in a surge of improper enrollment in the exchanges, which Paragon estimates reached 5.0 million people in 2024 and 6.4 million people in 2025.” (Paragon Health Institute: The Rise of Phantom Obamacare Enrollees: Biden COVID Credits Drive Massive Increase in Individual Market Enrollees With No Medical Claims – 8/13/25)“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last month found that 1.6 million Americans each month last year were enrolled in both Medicaid and subsidized ObamaCare plans.” (The Wall Street Journal: Editorial: The Phantom Patients of ObamaCare – 8/17/25)WHEN DEMOCRATS TALK ABOUT A “HEALTH CARE CRISIS,” IT IS AN INDICTMENT AGAINST THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM THEY CREATED“[T]he healthcare crisis is so deep and so real.” – Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)“[W]e’re in a health care crisis right now.” – House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)“Now, right now, we have a broken health care system. Nobody can afford health care.” – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)“People are scared about how they are going to pay for their healthcare or if they are going to have it at all.” – Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)“People are literally standing on a health care cliff right now.” – Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)“I believe every Senator knows and agrees that our constituents are concerned about the cost of healthcare.” – Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.)“[W]e have a real crisis for Americans who are going to go off the cliff when they lose their Obamacare benefits.” – Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.)PrintEmailTweetPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER THUNEFacebookXInstagram