Senator Marshall: Democrats Kidnapped the Federal Government
Senator Marshall Joins the Fox News Rundown to discuss the Schumer shutdown
Washington – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined The Fox News Rundown podcast with Dave Anthony to discuss the Schumer shutdown and solutions to the healthcare crisis created by Democrat policies.
Click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall’s full interview.
On the democrats failed ACA subsidies:
“They waited till two weeks until the due date for the government shutdown to tell us that’s what it was really about. That’s the excuse they’re using, putting politics behind us, though. Let’s talk about these if we know one thing about the ACA, it’s unaffordable that the rates have absolutely doubled since its initiation, they’re going to go up another 20% this year, that regardless of what we do, that these rates are going to go up, and regardless of what we do now that there’s 25 maybe $50 billion a year of fraud in those as well. So, if they want to go down this rabbit hole and discuss fixing Obamacare, I’m very willing to do it, but they have to be willing to address the fraud. They have to be willing to address why the costs are going up and all that. People have a $5,000 deductible on average. Let’s say you’re a family making $60,000 a year, if you have a $5,000 a year deductible, that’s not really access to health care as well. And then behind it all are these subsidies that you’re starting, you’ll bring up these were temporary subsidies. So we’re not discussing the subsidies that were enacted in the ACA. So the subsidies enacted in the original ACA fund about 80% of the premiums, and then these enhanced subsidies. Biden era enhanced subsidies, in many cases, it helped fund the remaining 20% of those of those particular plans. If that makes sense.”
“…You know, I’m a doctor, and I’ve had to deal for years with people that had no ability to pay. We took care of everyone regardless. But there’s 24 million people here. We’re talking about 24 million people, and we want to make sure that they truly do have access to health care. But at the same time, I think if you ask Americans if there’s this program, and it’s costing $150 billion a year, so this ACA, currently, right now, it costs about $150 billion a year, and there’s 25, maybe $50 billion of fraud. Don’t you think we should fix the fraud before we just keep throwing more money at it? And this is where Republicans and Democrats differ. And at the end of the day, the people that are paying for health insurance through their employer are getting a disproportionate big hit on this, not to mention the taxes that we’re paying to subsidize this. So remember, this isn’t free healthcare. These subsidies are coming from somewhere. And again, the way the ACA was written, it is eliminated competition that overregulation leads to consolidation of industries. And because of that, we’re seeing a consolidation in hospitals, which is driving up costs. We’re seeing a consolidation in the number of insurance companies out there, and that’s driving up costs too.”
On the waste, fraud, and abuse in the ACA subsidies:
“I’m the only member of congress that’s ran a hospital up here, and I also oversaw three health departments, so I’ve seen this from all sides. I know how to fix the fraud. I know how to bring down the insurance premiums through competitions, by empowering patients to become consumers again. So the Democrats have got themselves in a horrible situation. But don’t feel sorry for your insurance companies. They are printing dollars right now. This silver loading that they did regarding these enhanced premiums is absolutely corporate welfare. So they could figure it out, and they’re just using this as an excuse to raise your premiums at the end of the day. We need to go after these monopolies. We need more competition out there in the insurance world. This is. One more reason we need to allow more Association plans, more health ministry plans, other options for people to consider besides the two or three plans in companies that they’re going to see offered these particular plans. I really think I can bring down premiums. I can bring down premiums 10 or 20% if we make patients consumers again.”
On making patients consumers again:
“I would encourage people to look at the Singapore model, where the federal government actually funds what looks like an HSA to people. I call it a debt card. Okay, so rather than giving the money to the insurance companies, we would give it to the to the to people, the consumers. We turned to turn patients into consumers. Right? What we have done, when a patient would come to me and ask me, I would tell them, Look, you need to have an infertility surgery, they would ask me, Is my insurance coverage? Does it? My insurance cover it? They didn’t ask what it cost. So, if we turn them into consumers, where they’re using something out of their HSA, their healthcare savings account, with pretax dollars, all of a sudden, they become consumers again. Okay, so what we have done in healthcare is we’ve disconnected patients from being consumers.”
On potential ACA negotiations:
“I think that they need to commit to scaling it back, and they need to commit up front to fixing the fraud. At a minimum, we could piece this together in a month or six weeks and continue this. This sign up the insurance companies aren’t going to walk away from all this free money from the government.”
On how Republicans can make the ACA better:
“So I’m trying to take the rules I’ve got and make it better. I’m trying to make it work. You know, the purpose of the ACA, when they started talking about it, there’s a lot of things I agreed with. They wanted affordable healthcare. Well, that’s not happened. Let’s take lessons learned. I’m very much a pragmatic person. Here we are today. This is what I’ve got to work with. This has been the law of the land now for almost 15 years, and the Democrats own this that if there’s any hospital closing today, tomorrow, next year, it’s because of Democrat health care policy. So they own it. This is their problem. I’m willing to fix it, but they’re going to have to use these principles of transparency and competition. My signature legislation we’re working on this year is to put price tags on all health care so consumers can look at the price tags and realize that one hospital may be charging literally getting paid five to 10 times more than another hospital, and even though the lesser cost has better outcomes. So let’s let patients become consumers. Let’s put price tags on health care.”
On the healthcare crisis created by Democrats policies:
“So I think they’re asking the wrong question. I think if you go back and ask that same group before we continue this program. Do you want us to fix the 25 to $50 billion fraud program before we go forward? Do you want us to try to figure out a way to put lids on the cost of this so I get the polls? This is why I came to came to Congress eight years ago. Was to fix health care. I didn’t wake up just two weeks ago when the Democrats say, here’s the problem, I’ve been trying to fix this since I got here, and I really think that when Americans know the rest of the story that they want me to fix health care, and the thing they’re most concerned about is the cost of health care, and that’s why they want these subsidies from the government. And I understand we’re addicted to subsidies. We’re addicted to all the social programs, but at the end of the day, if you want me to balance the budget up here, I have to figure out how to fix health care. If we’re going to spend $7 trillion this year at the federal government, I’m going to guess two and a half trillion of that is on health care. So we’ve got to figure this out for the sake of our grandchildren.”
On Democrats taking healthcare as a hostage:
“Bingo, yeah, I think that. Again, this is like paying ransom in a kidnapping. So, the Democrats kidnapped the federal government, and they want one and a half trillion dollars. Is their opening big is their ransom? So I don’t believe in paying kidnappers a ransom. It just encourages them to continue bad behavior. Funding the government is a different issue than fixing health care.”
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Contact: Payton Fuller
