Senator Marshall: I Came to Congress to Fix the Cost of Health Care
Senator Marshall Joins Pete Mundo on KCMO to Discuss the Schumer Shutdown & America’s Healthcare Crisis
Washington – On Monday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined Pete Mundo on Mundo in the Morning on KCMO radio to discuss the path forward to the Schumer Shutdown and Republican solutions to Democrats’ failed healthcare subsidies.
Click HERE to listen to the Senator’s full interview.
On the longest full government shutdown:
“Well, good morning, Pete, 40 days and 40 nights. I know what Noah felt like. I don’t know what to say, Pete. I’m kind of numb. On the other hand, once the dam broke, I know it’d be pretty quick. And you know, really, last Friday, I worked really hard, not negotiating, but discussing what a health care fix would look like. We got the White House on board, and I think that really broke the dam that the Democrats understand. Look, we want to drive the cost of health care down as well. I mean, we all acknowledge that the Affordable Care Act, the Obamacare, is broken, and no one can afford it. So, I think when they realize that, when we got the President on board, he did a Truth Social, I think they realized, aha, the Republicans are serious. We’ve got to take this problem on, too.”
On Republican solutions to the Democrats’ healthcare crisis:
“I’ve been working day and night on this for seven years, and even harder the last six months. So, we’re going to present a side-by-side bill to fix Obamacare. And what we want to do is take these subsidies that are going to directly to insurance companies and give them to patients, put them in a health care savings account. We’re giving big insurance companies $150 billion a year to take care of these 24 million people, and then they’re paying something on top of that. The patients are the consumers, are so the backbone of this is to address fraud. There’s $25 billion of fraud in the program already as well, and then to take these monies and put them in the hands of consumers, and then pair that with our price tags bill that we wrote, and I think it was going to get passed anyway, but maybe we’ll sneak it in here. So yes, we’re working on a bipartisan basis, working real hard with those folks that came across the aisle yesterday to vote. But I couldn’t spike the football, you know, until, and I probably need to probably just back up a little bit here and just stop there and say, We’re not done yet. Yeah, I got it. Yeah, it’s first and goal at the two-yard line here, but I got to get it across the finish line.”
On the path to reopening the government:
“Yep, yeah. So, we did the first of four votes last night. We have two more procedural votes, that famous cloture thing is one of them where we need 60, and then a final vote. So, we could get that all done today, if senators yield back their time, but if they don’t yield back their time, if they want to talk, theoretically, they could keep this thing going until Thursday. And I can’t imagine that would be a popular thing to do to, you know, just to keep the keep the airport snarled up and not paying. You know, our food stamp money is in this package as well. Veterans, there’s a lot of good things in this as well. So theoretically, this could go on until Thursday or Friday. I’m going to predict that we’ll get it done today. Then the house needs to come in tomorrow. That’s the base case scenario. Senate finishes today. House comes in tomorrow, and they vote on it.”
On a plan to fix the Democrats healthcare crisis:
“Well, Pete, I’m going to go down three roads at the same time. I’m from the business world. I’m going to go down a path of what a bipartisan bill looks like. I’m also going to go down a path of what, you know, a 50-vote bill would look like, which is called reconciliation. So that’s going to be up to the Democrats. You know, the same walls that kept them from coming across the aisle today, until today, will be there as we try to fix Obamacare. You got Bernie Sanders ranting and raving. We need Medicaid for all. And you’ve got some others that want to fix this. I think that everyone understands just how broken Obamacare is now that you know we talked about affordability. Health care is leading the way, and housing is leading the way. The cost of electricity. I’m getting lots of complaints about the cost of electricity in Kansas right now as well. So, what can we do to address that affordability issues? We’re breaking them in different buckets. Lindsey Graham is the chairman of the Budget Committee. He and I are meeting on a regular basis about what a reconciliation bill would look like to address affordability, if the Democrats don’t want to come along as well. So, we’ll hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and regardless, we’re going to fix it this way. I came to Congress to fix the cost of health care. We know how to do it. We’ve got the bills ready, and now it’s just piecing them all together and making this salami up.”
On how long it would take for health care costs to come down:
“Oh, I think we can get some of it done now and then, some type of a rollback of Obamacare, as far as the subsidies as well, you know, give them a one- or two-year ramp, but not at the level that they are right now. I think some of it we can get done now. We can get our price tags billed. So, some of it will start. You know, the premiums are set, as they say, the premiums for next year are set. Yeah, so it’s not easy. I’m not going to overpromise here, but we will. But I know how to do it. If we turn patients into consumers, if we let them have more in their HSA, so they can use that money, whether it be for direct primary care, for Association plans, for ministry plans, give them more choices. Let them keep up more of their hard-earned or money I would even eventually turn this, let them turn this money into an IRA. So, think about this. We’re giving federal money to your HSA. It needs to be tied compliant plan, and that if you save this money, eventually it’s part of your retirement plan. It’s kind of the Singapore model. If you’re bored, you can read the book on the Singapore model.”
On fraud within the current ACA subsidies:
“You know, absolutely. But think about this, the average family deductible in Obamacare is already $6,000 a year that used to be considered a catastrophic plan. So, one of the things we would do is have some type of a reinsurance pool so you could buy that catastrophic plan a high deductible. We’re funding your HSA. And then, really, a lot of the people in Obamacare now are high risk. Like what Chicago has done with their early retirees, they pushed them onto Obamacare rather than paying their health premiums. And maybe Frank, lots of small businesses are doing the same thing as well. So yes, we’d love to see more choices, and part of that is a highly, more highly funded HSA healthcare savings account, and then some type of a reinsurance pool as well, and a high-deductible plan. Absolutely, right?”
On shutdown timeline predictions:
“I’m going to say Wednesday’s the over under. Wednesday’s the day I would predict, and you can take the over or the under.”
“I’m good, good so far. You know, Denver’s got a great defense. It’s in mile high, right? So that’s worth four or five points as well. You know, glad to see our tackles back. We got to get our offensive line shored up. We’re kind of disappointed we didn’t get a defensive lineman here, here at the end of, you know, the trade limit as well. But we’ll be okay.”
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Contact: Payton Fuller
