Crapo: A Missed Opportunity for Real Health Care Reform
Washington, D.C.—Today, U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) voted to give American families more control over their own health care, while Democrats charted a course that will increase costs for millions of Americans and make no real reforms to a broken health care system.
Crapo’s legislation, the Health Care Freedom for Patients Act, introduced alongside U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-Louisiana), would create pre-funded, patient-driven health savings accounts (HSAs). The Crapo-Cassidy plan would help cover out-of-pocket costs, reduce benchmark premiums by 11 percent and give families more control over their health care. This bill is an alternative to Democrats’ temporary COVID bonuses, which send billions of tax dollars to insurance companies without lowering premiums. Democrats blocked the Crapo-Cassidy measure, which required 60 votes to advance, by a vote of 51-48.
“Today was a missed opportunity to lay the groundwork for real health care reforms,” Crapo said. “Republicans put forward a fiscally responsible proposal to reduce premiums, save taxpayers’ money and give Americans control over their health care. Meanwhile, Democrats insisted on extending the same policies that have led to rampant fraud and higher premiums. We cannot continue to throw good money after bad policy and paper over the cracks in our health care system. It is time to give Americans more control over their health care choices and make quality health care more affordable.”
Before the vote, Crapo spoke on the U.S. Senate Floor in support of the Republican bill.
On the Democrats’ proposal:
“They call their plan a ‘clean’ extension. A three-year extension of this program with no reforms, costing hardworking families $83 billion, with tens of billions going to big insurance companies and fraudsters is anything but ‘clean.’
“The Government Accountability Office recently uncovered how embarrassingly easy it is to game the Obamacare subsidy system, with the Wall Street Journal calling it a ‘Mecca for Fraud.’ This year, there were over six million improper enrollments, costing $27 billion.
“Even the Washington Post recognized that ‘Obamacare subsidies make it too easy to scam the system.’”
On the Republican health care plan:
“Instead of the Minority Leader’s $83 billion dollar extension, which would do nothing to reduce fraud and would keep driving premiums higher, Senator Cassidy and I have offered a fiscally responsible proposal that will reduce premiums, save taxpayers’ money and give Americans control over their health care.
“Our bill provides pre-funded, patient-driven health savings accounts for Americans enrolled in qualified Obamacare bronze and catastrophic plans. Importantly, low-income Americans will still receive subsidies for those plans through the permanent portion of the premium tax credits.
“Americans who choose this option will have both insurance coverage and help paying for their remaining out-of-pocket costs, all without giving insurers a reason to enroll them in plans without their knowledge, as has occurred for years.
“Our bill also fixes an error in the original design of Obamacare by funding the cost-sharing reductions it mandated, reducing benchmark premiums by 11 percent.”
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Full remarks as prepared for delivery:
Mr. President, we have spent a lot of time this week talking about the problems of our health care system. Premiums are rising, hospitals are struggling and out-of-pocket costs are out of control.
These problems are not new. They were used to justify creating Obamacare, and Obamacare has progressively made them worse. Americans did not keep their doctors, they did not keep their insurance plans and their premiums did not go down. In fact, Obamacare premiums have risen at roughly double the rate of employer-provided plans.
Our Democrat colleagues have had only one response to these skyrocketing premiums: more spending. Without ever winning a single Republican vote, they created the Obamacare premium tax credits, expanded them to Americans of all income levels and extended that expansion.
Those credits did not reduce costs. All they did was shift the cost to taxpayers and help insurers to hike premiums higher and higher.
Democrats know that Obamacare has failed. They themselves have said so repeatedly.
But with a deadline quickly approaching—again, a deadline set by my Democrat colleagues—they say we have no choice but to extend this policy again. This is a policy even they could not make permanent when they controlled all three branches of government. Even so, their only offer is more spending.
They call their plan a ‘clean’ extension. A three-year extension of this program with no reforms, costing hardworking families $83 billion, with tens of billions going to big insurance companies and fraudsters is anything but ‘clean.’
The Government Accountability Office recently uncovered how embarrassingly easy it is to game the Obamacare subsidy system, with the Wall Street Journal calling it a “Mecca for Fraud.” This year, there were over six million improper enrollments, costing $27 billion.
Even the Washington Post recognized that “Obamacare subsidies make it too easy to scam the system.”
Fortunately, we have another option. Instead of the Minority Leader’s $83 billion dollar extension, which would do nothing to reduce fraud and would keep driving premiums higher, Senator Cassidy and I have offered a fiscally responsible proposal that will reduce premiums, save taxpayers’ money and give Americans control over their health care.
Our bill provides pre-funded, patient-driven health savings accounts (HSAs) for Americans enrolled in qualified Obamacare bronze and catastrophic plans. Importantly, low-income Americans will still receive subsidies for those plans through the permanent portion of the premium tax credits.
Americans who choose this option will have both insurance coverage and help paying for their remaining out-of-pocket costs, all without giving insurers a reason to enroll them in plans without their knowledge, as has occurred for years.
Our bill also fixes an error in the original design of Obamacare by funding the cost-sharing reductions it mandated, reducing benchmark premiums by 11 percent.
The Minority Leader’s plan is not going to pass. But, if just a few of my Democrat colleagues join us in voting for our bill, we can put this crisis behind us and lay the groundwork for real reforms. For instance, Senator Wyden and I remain intent on getting our bipartisan pharmacy benefit manager reform to the president’s desk.
The choice before us is clear:
We can continue with business as usual and extend the same policy that has brought our health care system to the point where every member of this body admits that it is broken, or -
We can try something different. We can change the incentives Obamacare gives insurers to drive premiums higher and put our confidence in Americans to make the best decisions about their own health care. If we fall off the Democrat-created subsidy cliff, it will not be because we had no other choice.
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