U.S. SENATE – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today spoke with Brian Blase, President of Paragon Health Institute in a Senate Finance Committee hearing about the failures of Obamacare.
Watch the full exchange HERE.
Daines on Obamacare’s failures and reforms that are needed:
Daines: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this important and timely hearing on the rising cost of health care for Americans. At the center of this discussion is the future of the expiring Obamacare COVID subsidies. It is important to note that Democrats established these enhanced subsidies on a temporary and partisan basis during the pandemic under President Biden and elected to have them expire at the end of this year. I remember distinctly going back in time to when Obamacare passed- President Obama said Obamacare was going to lower premiums by $2,500 a year. And we’ve seen certainly a cause and effect. We’ve put in place Obamacare and now we’ve seen health care, about 7 percent of the American people receive their health insurance in that way, becoming completely unaffordable. Basically, we predicted that and sadly it’s coming to fruition. The current situation is entirely of the Democrats’ own making, and Republicans should not perpetuate the mistakes that accelerated Obamacare’s failures. Debate over the temporary COVID subsidies reveals a core underlying reality: More than a decade after its implementation, Obamacare remains unaffordable, fundamentally broken, and increasingly reliant on massive recurring taxpayer bailouts. The expiring pandemic subsidies bear little responsibility in the twenty percent average premium increase in nongroup Obamacare plans for 2026, but do bear responsibility for distorting the market, increasing fraud and abuse, making Obamacare more dependent on taxpayers, raising health care costs over the long-term, and worsening our budget deficit. In fact, making the enhanced subsidies permanent would cost taxpayers nearly $400 billion, amounting to a massive transfer of taxpayer dollars to insurance companies. I believe any path forward on this issue requires reforms to address the root causes of why? Why does Obamacare perpetuate high costs and instability, as well as the substantial growth in improper enrollment, fraud, and wasteful spending. In addition to permanent structural reforms to Obamacare, any path forward should expand access to and unleash free market, patient-centered solutions President Trump championed during his first term to provide lower costs, more control, and better care for individuals. I think both sides should agree we need that, and we need it badly. Obamacare also represented a substantial departure from the Hyde Amendment’s prohibition on taxpayer funding of elective abortion. It is imperative any reforms explicitly restore the longstanding consensus that taxpayer dollars should not subsidize and facilitate health plans that cover elective abortions. Mr. Blase, as you noted in your testimony, Obamacare has worsened the quality of individual market health insurance, substantially raised premiums and deductibles, and cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. In your view, what structural reforms to Obamacare would lower premium costs and reduce inflationary pressures?
Blase: I agree with your view that there are deep structural problems in Obamacare.
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Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins