Chairman Arrington in Washington Examiner: Democrats broke America’s health care system. Republicans are working to fix it.

Chairman Arrington in Washington Examiner: Democrats broke America's health care system. Republicans are working to fix it.

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Today, the Washington Examiner published an op-ed from House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) reiterating the call for Republicans to stand firm against the extension of the fraud-ridden Obamacare subsidy expansion. The Chairman applauded House Republicans' passage of the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act-a targeted package of reforms that will lower health care premiums by 11 percent, expand access to affordable coverage, and increase transparency to drive down prices across the health care system, all while saving taxpayers $36 billion.

WORD ON THE STREET

From Chairman Arrington in the Washington Examiner:

Long before Democrats created the worst cost-of-living crisis in a half century, they gave us the "Unaffordable Care Act." Their attempt at central planning 20 percent of the U.S. economy resulted in a government-dominated health care system that is unaffordable and unsustainable. Now, they are demanding Republicans bail them out by extending their COVID-era, fraud-ridden Obamacare subsidy expansion.

Democrats' COVID-era subsidies, called "enhanced premium tax credits" are neither enhanced nor premium-unless you're an insurance company. They are a toxic combination of Obamacare's broken model and liberal COVID-era spending. Originally designed to be temporary, they now funnel subsidies to households earning upwards of $600,000, with millions of ineligible enrollees and $0 premium plans that shift costs to taxpayers.

According to the Government Accountability Office, waste, fraud, and abuse are the norm, not the exception, in Obamacare. Fake identities, deceased individuals, and stolen Social Security Numbers (SSNs) are routinely approved for subsidized coverage. Nearly 60,000 SSNs receiving Obamacare subsidies were deceased individuals.

Furthermore, the Joint Economic Committee found for every dollar consumers save, two dollars are lost to waste or the wallets of insurers and their middlemen.

That's not reform-it's a racket, and a textbook example of a policy doing more harm than good.

Extending these subsidies-under any conditions-would be fiscal malpractice on a staggering scale.

The law Democrats promised would make health care affordable did the opposite. Premiums have soared 80 percent and deductibles routinely exceed $5,000, all while 20 percent of claims are denied. Americans are paying more for less. After watching this system fail for over a decade, why on earth would we vote to expand it and throw more good taxpayer money after bad?

We know the system is broken. The real question is whether or not we are willing to do something about it, even when the Swamp turns up the heat.

In 2017, my first year in Congress, Republicans came close to repealing Obamacare, only for the effort to stall in the Senate. We lost the vote, but worse, we conceded the argument. We tiptoed around the monopoly forces of Big Medicine-insurers, Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBM), Big Pharma, and the hospital giants-while Democrats pushed us closer to government-run, socialized health care.

Thanks to President Trump's leadership, the tide is finally beginning to turn. We saved over $1 trillion by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid and Obamacare in the One Big Beautiful Bill. The President has rightly called out the "big, fat, rich" insurance companies and taken on foreign nations over unfair drug pricing.

The President has led the charge, and this week the House passed legislation to lower health care costs without a taxpayer bailout.

The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act is an important first step, lowering Obamacare premiums by 11 percent and saving taxpayers approximately $36 billion. It fixes a loophole in Obamacare that created a perverse incentive for insurance companies to inflate premiums. It creates competition and promotes choice in the health insurance market by empowering small businesses and their employees to find affordable coverage options. And it reins in the PBM middlemen, who siphon dollars from the drug supply, by increasing transparency, helping consumers make cost-conscious choices, and lowering the cost of drugs.

Real reform demands more. Real health care reform will address the anti-competitive forces of health care monopolies. We can further invest in and expand Health Savings Accounts, which give Americans more control over how their money is spent on their health care, and we can further take on waste, fraud, and abuse in federal health care programs, ensuring benefits go only to citizens and eligible recipients.

We must get serious about tackling the root causes of rising costs. We can end the excessive hospital markups through site-neutral payment reform and demand transparency to crack down on the billing schemes that inflate every medical bill.

Democrats have shown no interest in actually lowering health care costs in a paradigm-shifting, responsible way. As a result, Republicans must be prepared to use reconciliation to take on the health care costs crisis Democrats created.

For Republicans, this is a defining moment. We can cower to political pressure, or we can stand tall and confront this crisis. What we do next will determine whether we are truly committed to making health care more affordable. It is time to drain the Swamp's health care racket and finally Make America Healthy Again.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Yesterday, House Republicans advanced real health care reforms that lower costs for families-without a taxpayer bailout for insurers and middlemen.

The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act:

• Fixes a loophole in Obamacare that created a perverse incentive for insurance companies to inflate premiums.
• Creates competition and promotes choice in the health insurance market by empowering small businesses and their employees to find affordable coverage options.
• Reins in pharmacy benefit managers and middlemen who siphon dollars from the drug supply by increasing transparency, helping consumers make cost-conscious choices, and lowering the cost of drugs.