Good afternoon, everyone. We then, republican senators, had another extension discussion about the way forward on healthcare at lunch. Well be doing that as i indicated last week, tuesday, wednesday and thursday. Were trying to come together behind a proposal to repeal and replace obamacare. On the floor, regretfully, we had to go through a lot of procedural hoops just to confirm the deputy secretary of transportation number three of justice and i even had to file closure on governor branstad ambassador to china who came out of the Foreign Relations committee unanimously. You can see the democrats want to make everything go as slow as possible. Well work our way through that on a confirmation and will be back in touch with you on healthcare. Our conference has been spending a lot of time talking about the way forward on healthcare. We know that obamacare is broken and needs to be fixed. Everybody in this country, i think, knows that. The status quo is unsustainable. We are looking for a way to make healthcare more affordable, more patient centered, more personalized for people in this country. There are one in three counties in America Today who have one choice when it comes to options and individual market. As you all heard last week, iowa , is losing its last provider and individual marketplace and that leaves 72000 i once without coverage. If, that does happen. The midlevel plan this years opinions got by 25 . It is a disaster. It is in a death spiral. It has to be fixed. We intend to fix it. We are going through that process right now with art members and getting the best ideas and charting a path forward that will lead us to a place where we have Something Better for the American People and certainly, we deserve better than what were getting with obamacare. Well, the entrance comedies are starting to come out with the premium suggestions for what theyre going to have to charge next year. For people that live in this general area what you have seen is that there been announcements of rates going up into the district of columbia, 29 , virginia, 35 and in maryland up 50 on the obamacare market. These increases are absolutely dramatic and thats the concern, i was in, of all americans when they see announcement like this. What can we do to lower the premiums that are the result of the Obama Health Care law . How bad has been over the years was an organization like it held that the premiums and individual markets from 2013 to now are up 99 . Last week, then the Insurance Company said were out of the obamacare markets, all across the country. This is a company that initially was one of the cheerleaders for the obamacare exchanges. When you look at counties all around the country, seven out of ten counties are at down to one or two choices total on the obamacare exchanges. Companies continue to pull out and say, we dont want the business, we dont want to sell there. For people at home, they are seen increased premiums, fewer choices and were working on getting a Healthcare System thats better than the one we had before obamacare. The first year of the implication of obamacare, i went to the floor virtually every week with story after story after story of missourians and their families who simply were losing the healthcare they had. One family whose son was born with a significant problem, he was 20. Had the same doctors his entire life but under obamacare they lived on the kansas border and their doctors were on the kansas side, there was no insurance policy they could qualify for that had those doctors. They decided they would go without insurance and put their personal money behind letting him go to the doctors he had always gone too. We continue to get those same stories. I had someone last week call, carla, a farmer in missouri and she said her situation just continues to get worse and worse in her case, if anybody in her family was sick theyd have 28000 outofpocket if two people in the family were sick before anything would be done by their Insurance Company to help them pay those bills. 6000dollar deductible, 12000 maximum, 16000 in monthly premiums. This is, families even if they have coverage dont have access. If you arty put 16000 on the table, and you have to put another 6000 on the table, before you can have your Insurance Company help you, nobody thanks thats insurance. The Current System isnt working and we have to figure out how to make this market work better. Most missouri counties only have one Insurance Company willing to offer insurance on the individual markets we are just hopeful that those counties still have one companies next year. Even today, iowa, our neighbor, has no company is willing to offer in the exchange or out of the exchange on the individual market because bad plan that we are under now has stressed the marketplace so badly that nobody wants to be a part of it and rob , Small Business guy in st. Josephs, says his insurance at work he pays half of it for his employees has gone up 50 at work. When you ask the Insurance Companies they say they have to find some way in the group market to help offset what happens in the individual market so, we need to do the job that lets americans have access to healthcare and insurance they can afford. Just to put a finer point on what both roy and john were talking about. In iowa, its not that the insurers are leaving the exchange and individual marketplaces. They are leading iowa. Either on the exchange or off the exchange, the concern and i was that there will be no longer available individual plans to purchase in iowa. For people to stand around congress and say the status quo is acceptable, shame on them. I hope we can come to an agreement both democrats and republicans to realize we have to work and find a solution to put in place for the portable care act that reduces the cost of care while increasing the quality of care. Something else thats probably not making headlines that should this weekend is National Police week. The fact that we have Law Enforcement professionals from around the country in town today talking about those that they had lost on end of watch this past year. In colorado we had some strategies as well. I want to share with you and celebrate and memorialize these individuals. Corporal nate kerrigan, trooper cody donahue, Deputy Sheriff derek gear. If you see them around washington dc today and around the country, please share our thanks with that men and women in Law Enforcement to keep our communities safe. [inaudible] my recommendation to the president that what he said today was not interested. I recommended that he take a look at judge Merrick Garland but that illustrates the kind of person i hope and expect will come next. Somebody deeply credentialed and in criminal justice enforcement, completely apolitical, in line with the prior fbi directors and im optimistic the president will name someone like that. [inaudible] im discussing the matter with him. Do you worry about the president s ability to handle classified information . No. Are you losing confidence in a president from . No. [inaudible] the intelligence committee, i think, has already requested additional information. I have a lot of confidence indeterminate burr and senator warning to handle that matter perfectly. [inaudible] yeah, let me repeat what i said in an earlier interview this morning. I think it would be helpful to health have less drama emanating from the white house. [inaudible] i said it publicly earlier this morning. Any recommendations on how you have less drama . I think all of that is a question best addressed to the white house itself. Thank you. [inaudible] and you may have seen a few minutes ago before the senate ambled out, minority leader Chuck Schumer come to the well of the senate and reference a story on todays New York Times that reads, in part, President Trump asked fbi director james comey to shut down the federal investigation into mr. Trumps former National Security advisor , michael flynn. In an Oval Office Meeting in february, according to a thumb memo he wrote after the meeting. The story goes on to say i hope you can let this go, the president told mr. Comey that according to the memo. Again, that story in the New York Times reference by minority leader, Chuck Schumer on the floor of the senate just about ten minutes operate earlier, the democratic leader, Chuck Schumer called for President Trump to provide congress with a transcript of his meeting with top russian officials where he reportedly discussed highly classified information. Good afternoon, everyone. Im proud to be joined by a large group of my colleagues. All of whom have been active in the issue of whats happening between our countries and russia i will be brief
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