Senator Marshall: Democrats Own the Problems with the ACA
Senator Marshall Delivers Remarks on the Senate Floor
Washington – On Thursday,U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), delivered remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate 23 days into the Schumer shutdown, calling on Democrats to come to their senses and reopen the government so there can then be a conversation about their broken healthcare system.
Click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall’s full remarks.
Senator Marshall’s full speech as delivered:
“Mr. President, good morning. Good morning to you. Good morning to all my colleagues here today. Now, as everybody, all the senators know, as all America knows, my friends across the aisle have kidnapped the federal government.”
“In fact, they’ve now voted a dozen times not to reopen the government, and even, surprisingly to most of us, twice, they voted against funding the military during these challenging times. I think it’s obvious to all America that this is a political shutdown, that this is showbiz to them, this is an opportunity for their left legacy media to shout and scream at President Trump and to kowtow to their far-left Marxist base.”
“Now, when you kidnap somebody or an entity, you have to have a ransom. Now the opening ransom from the Democrats was an additional $1.5 trillion added to our national debt, borrowed from my grandchildren, one and a half trillion dollars.”
“It was just this week, the federal government passed a $38 trillion level for our national debt. We’re spending a trillion dollars a year on interest alone. So that was the opening ransom, and now they seem to be locked in on throwing more money at a very broken ACA. The 24 million people on the ACA.”
“But it’s interesting to me how when they want to talk about health care, they hide behind rural hospitals. That they think, oh, we’re going to help those. When 97% of rural America voted for President Trump, and under President Trump’s leadership in our Big, Beautiful Bill, we have $50 billion of a Health Transformation Fund for Rural America. But the first thing the Democrats want to do is to take that away.”
“It’s maybe one of those hypocritical statements I’ve ever heard. They want to help rural America, to help rural hospitals, but they want to take away this $50 billion transformation fund, and instead, they want to put all their eggs in one basket on Medicaid.”
“Look, a hospital loses money every time they see a Medicaid patient, every time a Medicaid patient walks into the emergency room, that hospital is losing money on that patient as well. And despite that, the Republicans in our Big, Beautiful Bill increase spending on Medicaid to the tune of $200 billion a year. We need to work on getting people off Medicaid. Let’s get them back to work. Help them get good health insurance as well.”
“Now their latest idea is that they want to throw more money at the ACA. They want to throw more money for the 24 million people on the ACA. Look, Democrats own health care, right? The ACA is in the law of the land for 15 years, if any hospital fails today, tomorrow, next week, next year, the year after, if anybody’s health premiums are going up and they are, then it’s on the backs of Democrats.”
“The first thing you need to realize is when you’re in a hole, is to stop digging. When do they think we can stop throwing good money after bad money? Look, I want to fix health care. I want to drive down the cost of health care.”
“Now, as my colleague from Oklahoma pointed out, the premiums for the ACA up 200% is what he mentioned. I think that’s a pretty good number over the last six years. But beyond that, the average deductible for the ACA now is $5,000 can you imagine? You’re a family of four, an average salary back in Kansas, $60,000 a year, and the Democrats think throwing more money at the ACA, which gives you a $5,000 deductible, is going to solve the problem. Well, of course, it’s not. So we need to address the affordability of the ACA, and we need to address the premiums. And then beyond that, we need to address the fraud.”
“Look, this program has grown from a $50 billion a year projection by the famous Congressional Budget Office. They budgeted, they said it’d be 50 billion. We’re spending $150 billion a year now on the ACA, and we think there’s 25 to $50 billion of fraud in that. I think if you pulled Americans and said, Look, there’s a federal program which is paying subsidies for people’s premiums, but there’s $50 billion of fraud in that, I think that Americans say, hey, we sent you to Congress, to the Senate, to fix the darn problem, and we and we know how to do that.”
“This is a simple fix. Not one time have Democrats come. Have you heard Democrats say we want to fix what’s broken in the ACA? No, all they want to do is throw more money at it. It would be so easy to fix the fraud, and we know how to do it. You know? How do we address the cost of health care? Well, it starts with adding price tags, right? Can you imagine walking into a restaurant and trying to decide if you want the two old beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, onions on a sesame seed bun, versus the two quarter-pounders that didn’t know the price difference? Well, of course, you’re not, but that’s what we’re asking Americans to do when they have a procedure done; they have no idea. It’s going to cost. They have no idea what outcomes are.”
“Americans need to realize that you could have to have a surgery done in one facility, for let’s say it’s a hip replacement. Maybe one hospital gets replaced $10,000, but another one, they’re reimbursing at $50,000. I’m not making those numbers up. I ran a hospital. Those were the exact numbers just six or seven years ago, and by the way, the hospital that was getting reimbursed the lower amount had better outcomes, less infections, less blood clots.”
“Look, the Democrats own health care right now. These are their policies when they’re ready to do something more than just throw money at one of the most broken systems in the history of America, then we’re here to talk to you. But first of all, we need to open the federal government. Thanks, Mr. President.”
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Contact: Payton Fuller
