Remarks During a Meeting on Health Care Reform With House Committee Chairmen

The President. Hello, everybody. I want to thank each of the House committee leaders for being with us today. Your devotion and leadership has been amazing, and I want to just applaud you and the diligent work of your committees to advance the Obamacare repeal and replacement legislation that we've been talking about for a long time, and that we've been running with, and I ran with and I can tell you. And that's what people want, they want repeal and replace. The bill passed just now through Ways and Means and it will—I think the committee just voted recently, right?

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Gregory P. Walden. Yes.

The President. Your other committee——

Chairman Walden. Energy and Commerce.

The President. Energy and Commerce. And it was a very good vote, and congratulations. That was a good job. Amazing.

We must act now to save Americans from the imploding Obamacare disaster. Premiums have skyrocketed by double digits and triple digits in some cases. And as an example, Arizona—which I talk about all the time—116 percent increase and it's going up a lot higher; '17 would be a disaster for Obamacare. That's the year it was meant to explode, because Obama won't be here. That was when it was supposed to be—it will get even worse. As bad as it is now, it'll get even worse.

Choices are disappearing as one insurer drops out after another. Today, one-third of all counties now have only one insurer on the Obamacare exchanges, and the exchanges themselves are a disaster. The House repeal and replace plan ends the Obamacare tax hikes, cutting taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars. It eliminates the Obamacare mandate that forces Americans to buy Government-approved plans. We all know that one.

It provides States with flexibility over how Medicaid dollars are spent, giving power from Washington and back to local government, which we all want to see. They're going to do a much better job. And the plan empowers individual Americans to buy the health insurance that is right for them, not the plan forced on them by Government. You all remember, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan. I know, Greg, you've never heard that, right?

Chairman Walden. No, just a few times.

The President. But it was said many, many times, and it turned out to be not true.

This is the time we're going to get it done. We're working together, we have some great results, we have tremendous spirit, and I think it's something that is just going to happen very shortly.

So thank you all very much, and we're going to get to work. Thank you.