Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s speech.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) previewed President Obama’s interview with WebMD scheduled to take place on Friday. Barrasso points out how Americans will likely start spending more time on websites like WebMD since Obamacare is making it harder for them to see a health care provider.
Excerpts of his remarks:

“Tomorrow, President Obama is scheduled to sit down for an interview with a health care website called WebMD. The President is going to take questions about his health care law and he is going to try one more time to convince people across the country that his health care law hasn't really been a complete disaster.

“It's a little bit ironic that the President will be doing this interview because under his health care law, before we know it, Healthcare.Gov is going to be linking directly to WebMD.

“People are going to have to spend a lot more time on websites like that one because the President's health care law is going to make it tougher for many of them to see a real health care provider.

“America's facing a looming shortage of doctors, of nurses, of physicians assistants.

“When President Obama and Democrats were ramming Obamacare through this Congress, they focused on hiring IRS Agents, agents to force Americans to buy expensive coverage, instead of training more doctors and more nurses to deliver care to patients.

“Now, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, we're looking at a shortage of 90,000 physicians by the end of this decade. About half of those, family physicians, primary care providers, and about half of them specialists.

“We see the same numbers if not even higher shortages in terms of nurses. You know, there is an old proverb, physician heal thyself. Well, apparently the slogan of Obamacare is going to be patient heal thyself.

“The old doctor-patient relationship is going to be gone. Medicine as we know it is going to continue to change.

“Even when you can get time with your doctor, you know, there is going to be a lot more of that time spent with the doctor looking not at you but at a computer screen because of the law. And that's because of the burdensome new rules, the recordkeeping requirements under the law.

“As more people try to get appointments with fewer doctors, some Americans are going to start seeing actual rationing of care.

“Here's how one economist described it in a blog pest for ‘The New York Times’—talked about the health care law on limits of payments to providers and doctors.

“He wrote, if patients are lucky, the demand for doctors will be low enough that the limits will not matter, but if the new law results in a significant net increase in physician demand, the payment limits will help remind us of, as they say, soviet-era limits on the price of bread with queues and black markets to follow.

“Now, we know that the President's website back this fall was a complete failure. Four days before it was unveiled, the President said oh it’s going to be easier to use than Amazon, the rates will be cheaper than your cell phone bill, you’ll be able to keep your doctor.

“But again, the website was just the tip of the iceberg. People are seeing higher premiums, and it's interesting, Mr. President, as I was putting this together and looking about what remarks I would make, I hadn't even seen this morning's newspaper today, ‘Wall Street Journal,’ Thursday, March 13, Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, says higher premiums likely in 2015, higher premiums.

“What did the President promise? He said premiums would go down by $2500 a family. The website is just the tip of the iceberg, people seeing higher premiums now, and now our Secretary of Health and Human Services says higher premiums again in 2015.

“People have gotten notices of cancellation, over five million of those across the country. Many people can’t keep their doctor. We're worried about fraud and identity theft that’s been reported as a result of the problems with the website and ongoing. And then of course hire co-pays, higher deductibles, more money out of patients' pockets.

“Well, there was a new report out last week that brings this additionally to the fore in terms of concerns that people are having, and it's even from people that supported the health care law originally.

“There was a report out last week by a major labor union talking about how bad this health care law is hurting its members. Now, to put this into perspective, Mr. President, this is a labor union that actually supported then-senator Obama and endorsed him when he was running for President a number of years ago.

“And they supported the health care law. And now it's come out with, this union has come out with a report that says the law's unintended consequence will hit the average hardworking American where it hurts—in the wallet.

“You actually go through this report called ‘The Irony of Obamacare Making Inequality Worse,’ just to read from this, it says ‘The ACA threatens the middle class with higher premiums, loss of hours and a shift to part-time work and less comprehensive coverage.’

“It goes on with examples of various individuals who were members of this labor union whose lives are being hurt by the President's health care law.

“One, a woman from the home state of the Majority Leader talks about her job as a housekeeper and how the website, if she tries to buy the Obama health care program, she says ‘the website says she would have to pay $8,057 a year more to keep the insurance she has now. And this is $3.87 per hour pay cut for her.’ She said ‘we work hard for our insurance. Why should we have to take a cut in pay for it?’

“That's not what the President promised so it is not a surprise that the unions who endorsed the President and supported the law are unhappy with what they're seeing as the true results of the health care law.

“Now, the Democrat Majority Leader said that all the horror stories about the health care law are untrue. Is he also saying these union leaders and the people who have been made reference to in the union report, that they're lying?

“Is that what the Majority Leader is saying? Is that what the Leader is saying? Is that what he's saying about a woman from his own home state?

“According to the media reports, the union said the law will inevitably lead to the destruction of the health care plans we were promised we could keep.

“And people remember the President's promises. They remember what the President said. Everybody knows that the press has called the President's statement about if you like what you have, you can keep it, called it the lie of the year.

“More than five million Americans got cancellation letters from their insurance companies. It's turned out to be so embarrassing that President Obama had to delay the rules that caused it. It's continued to be a big problem, so the administration is delaying the rule again. Not until just after the 2014 election, but with the potential of going beyond the 2016 election as well.

“When President Obama sits down to talk with WebMD on Friday I hope that they ask him about all these delays and the changes that he's making to the law. I hope they ask him about whether he believes it is really working the way it should because that’s what he said last week.

“I hope they ask him about how his health care law is going to reduce the time people get to spend with their doctors if they can even keep their doctors. I hope they ask him about some of the ways that the law is hurting Americans and America.

“I hope the President answers that he is finally ready to make some of these delays permanent to start over again, to work in a bipartisan way to try to help patients get the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower cost. That's what health care reform is supposed to be about in the first place.

“I think the President needs to come clean with the American people, tell them about what a disaster his health care law has become, how it has impacted their lives, how few people have actually been able to sign up or have been able to but have found that the cost is too high for them to sign up, and admit to the American people that when they talk about some of these numbers of sign signups many of those are people who got cancellation notices, they’re not newly insured individuals.

“The study out last week shows that only about one in four people that has actually signed up on the website didn't have insurance before.

“So the people this was intended to help, they're not being helped. Many people are being harmed.

“So it’s time to work together, Mr. President, to help patients get the care that they need from the doctor that they choose at lower cost.”

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