Health care sticker shock

Earlier this week, actuaries in the Obama Administration admitted that premiums for the typical Obamacare plan will be going up by 25% next year. Unfortunately, this sticker shock will be even worse in Pennsylvania. In the commonwealth, premiums for Obamacare plans will skyrocket by 32.5 percent on average in 2017, with some families facing an increase of 55 percent. This is outrageous and totally unsustainable.

These rising costs are the result of Obamacare's big government approach to health insurance - something many of us predicted when the law was enacted in 2010. Rather than doubling down on Obamacare and its failed policies, Pennsylvanians deserve a different health care system that gives families more affordable choices, increases competition to lower prices, and delivers more value for every health care dollar spent.

You can read about my efforts to protect Pennsylvanians from the rising cost of Obamacare here.

We were all outraged to learn of rampant mismanagement at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that included excessive wait times; substandard care; dishonest reporting; and cutting corners that probably cost veterans' lives.

As part of my longstanding effort to increase accountability and improve services at the VA, I asked the Secretary of the VA Robert McDonald to detail how many agency executives and supervisors have been fired or disciplined for manipulating wait times for veterans seeking medical care. Last month, President Obama said that the VA had "fired a whole bunch of people who are in charge of these facilities." The facts say otherwise. The Washington Post fact checked this statement and rated it "Four Pinocchios."

The men and women who served in uniform should be first in line for the best quality medical care in the world. I supported bipartisan legislation to hold VA employees accountable but it appears that neither the spirit nor the intent of that law has been implemented. Very few of the people who directed the outrageous waitlist scheme have been terminated, and the VA has not put the correct systems and protections in place to prevent this type of fraudulent activity from happening again.

I hope Secretary McDonald will clarify the actions he has taken and I look forward to working with him if he needs additional authority from Congress to successfully turn things around at the VA.

I made a promise to the taxpayers of Pennsylvania that I would fight for them by tackling Washington overspending while championing lower taxes and less government red tape. This week, the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) recognized me for keeping my promise. I was one of just 14 senators recognized with their "Taxpayers' Friend Award" for 2015.

Thank you to the NTU for supporting my efforts on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania, and I look forward to continuing my work to lessen the tax burden on families and employers across the commonwealth.

You can learn more about this award here.

Pennsylvania has produced some of the greatest examples of courage, fortitude, and bravery in the history of mankind. Among those examples, one stands out. On the afternoon of December 4, 2006, Specialist Ross A. McGinnis was conducting combat control operations in an effort to reduce and control sectarian violence in Northeast Baghdad, Iraq.

While Specialist McGinnis was manning the M2 .50-caliber machine gun on his vehicle, a fragmentation grenade thrown by an insurgent fell through the gunner's hatch into the vehicle. Reacting quickly, he yelled "grenade," allowing all four members of his crew to prepare for the grenade's blast. Rather than leaping from the gunner's hatch to safety, Specialist McGinnis made the courageous decision to protect his crew. In a selfless act of bravery, in which he was mortally wounded, Specialist McGinnis covered the live grenade, pinning it between his body and the vehicle and absorbing most of the explosion.

This week, the U.S. Postal Service facility in Knox, Clarion County was officially renamed the "Specialist Ross A. McGinnis Memorial Post Office" - the result of bipartisan legislation that I introduced with Senator Bob Casey earlier this year. I was glad a member of my Erie staff was able to attend the renaming ceremony on my behalf. I will continue to look for opportunities to honor the sacrifice of Specialist McGinnis - a sacrifice Abraham Lincoln rightly called the "last full measure of devotion." You can read about the ceremony here.

I was delighted and humbled this week to be honored by the Lackawanna County Commission for Women for my "efforts that have enhanced and improved the loves of women and children in Lackawanna County."

As a husband and a father of three, I will continue to fight to help victims of abuse and violence receive the comfort and counseling he or she needs to recover.  I will work to ensure parents can send their children to school knowing they will be safe from those who would to do them harm.  And I will fight Congress' appetite for using non-taxpayer funds as a budgetary gimmick instead of directing those funds to crime victims needing help.

Thank you to Donna Barbetti and the members of the Commission for Women for all that you do for the women and children of Lackawanna County.