Senator Marshall: The Big Winner of Obamacare Has Always Been Large Insurance Companies
Senator Marshall Delivers Remarks on Day 39 of the Schumer Shutdown
Washington – On Saturday,U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), delivered remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate, calling out Senate Democrats for their refusal to end the Schumer Shutdown, bringing attention to the abject failures and true costs of the UnAffordable Care Act, and offering up workable common-sense solutions to resolve America’s ongoing healthcare cost crisis.
Click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall’s full remarks.
Senator Marshall’s full remarks as delivered:
“Thank you, Mr. President. I don’t have to tell anybody in this room that this is day 39 of a Democrat shutdown. Day 39. You know, a real common question I get is, who’s winning? Are the Republicans winning? Are the Democrats winning? Mr. President, I would tell you, no one wins when there’s a government shutdown, and especially when it goes on this long, and it’s certainly not the American people.
“My heart goes out with empathy to those folks that have not received a paycheck since October 1, hard-working Americans. You know, I especially feel for our TSA workers, our air traffic control workers. All those people that are out there keeping us safe, our Capitol Police, all these folks that are involved in the day-to-day safety of Americans. Thank you for continuing to work without being paid.
“It’s interesting to me to understand why the Democrats have shut the government down. And you can blame wherever you want to, but I think it’s an 80-20 issue that Americans don’t think it’s right to shut down the government, holding everybody hostage over these Biden Obamacare bonuses. $35 billion a year; that’s what they’re holding the government up over. These $35 billion a year, these enhanced Biden Obamacare bonuses. That’s one half of 1% of the federal budget that we’re keeping everything else under wraps for. $35 billion that’s being given, by the way, to insurance companies. Another subsidy to insurance companies.
“Overall, Obamacare actually costs the federal government closer to $150 billion a year. That’s right – we’re spending about $150 billion of your tax-earned dollars supplementing other people’s healthcare. It was interesting when they sold this to the American people, they said it would cost 40 or $50 billion, but we’re already triple of that, and that’s what the American taxpayers are paying. That’s $400 million a day. That’s right, we’re giving insurance companies $400 million a day of stipends from ACA, from Obamacare, taxpayer money $400 million a day.
“If you look at this Obamacare overall, by the way, there’s about $25 billion of fraud, and we’re going to get into that in a second. And again, there’s $35 billion of these Biden Obamacare bonuses. And overall, it’s $150 billion a year project. These dollars are funneled straight into the coffers of big insurance cartels through Obamacare subsidies. All the while, they deny claims. Think about what insurance companies are doing today. Through prior authorization and other issues, they’re able to deny claims, to jack up costs for everyday families, sending many into bankruptcy. All the while, they’re boosting their profits, driving up their stock value.
“Now, what do you mean by driving up stock values? You know, there’s driving up stocks, and there’s driving up stocks. And I think we take a look at this one chart here, and I believe that President Trump put this on Truth Social today as well. United – this is since Obamacare was in enact, enacted. United Healthcare group is now up almost 1200%, this is their stock price, 1200%. Cigna’s at 800%, I know you’re feeling sorry for Humana at only 500%, and Molina here at 859% as well. So, certainly, we understand that these insurance companies have profited from these direct subsidies from Obamacare going into their bank accounts.
“But what’s important is these subsidies aren’t really helping the little guy. It’s corporate welfare on steroids that boosts the profits of giants like United Healthcare, which pocketed over $14 billion in earnings last year alone, laughing all the way to the bank on the backs of struggling taxpayers. $14 billion in earnings. Don’t feel sorry for them that they’re not going to get this $35 billion a year subsidy. The big winner of Obamacare has always been, and will always be, large health insurance companies. They and the lobbyists who helped write Obamacare.
“I want to remind everyone, though, that the ACA ended up being not so affordable as well. Premiums are up over 200%, sometimes 400%, since its conception. And we’re expecting another spike of 25% increase in premiums. Regardless of what Congress does or doesn’t do with Obamacare, the premiums are going to go up 25%, and for the most part, the government stands to pay for that entire increase. The way Obamacare is set up, you pay a percentage of your income. So if the premiums go up 10%, 20%, 100%, the government is going to subsidize and take care of all that increase. And that’s one reason why the insurance companies wrote Obamacare this way. There’s basically no recourse. They know that whatever they make the premium, that the government’s going to pay it. That’s why it’s not working.
“And what else? Obamacare, like Medicaid, is not meaningful healthcare. With an average deductible of $5,000, that’s not meaningful access to healthcare. Obamacare is an abstract failure. It’s expensive, it doesn’t work, and it doesn’t give you access.
“I think everything I’ve said so far is undeniable. It’s unarguable, it’s factual. But I want to turn now is to think about goals. Goals that Republicans, Democrats, and Americans would have when it comes to healthcare. Republicans want every American to have meaningful, affordable access to healthcare. And a $5,000 deductible for people at 200 or 300% of the poverty level, frankly, does not give you meaningful access to healthcare.
“I want to turn to talk about fraud just a little bit more. Get this: 35 to 40% of Obamacare recipients that are enrolled in Obamacare never file a claim. Let me say that again. There are 24 million people on Obamacare. 35- 40% of those people never file a claim. These are ghost people. They don’t even know they’re on Obamacare. They’ve been falsely enrolled in Obamacare. Now, some people would say, oh, but there’s always some people that don’t file a claim. It’s usually more like 10%. More like 10% of people in a pool of insurance products are not filing the claim. In this case, it’s 35 to 40% and overall, I think we could say that this group of people in Obamacare is a high-risk group. Big cities like Chicago have pushed people who took early retirement, and have pushed them onto Obamacare. These are typically sick people who have been pushed off other plans, and they went towards Obamacare. And trust me, I want to address that. That’s why we need a high-risk pool that would address those types of folks as well.
“But the point here is that some 10 million people on Obamacare are not using it, but… the insurance companies are getting the entire premium paid by the federal government. So 10 million people, a premium every month. It’s like a slot machine going to big insurance companies.
“So what’s the solution? Instead of giving money to insurance companies, let’s give it to the American people. Let me say that again. Instead of giving money to the insurance companies, let’s give it to hard-working Americans. What a novel idea. Let’s turn patients into consumers, once again, by funding some type of HSA or a flexible spending account. Call it what you want to but instead of giving the insurance companies dollars, these premium dollars, let’s give that money to hard-working Americans.
“I did miss one point I wanted to make when it comes to fraud, Mr. President. In addition to addressing those people that are ghosts, there’s ways to fix that. Real simple ones. Number one is, have some type of meaningful ID. Right now, basically, you could give an assurance peddler out there just your name and your birth date, and they can enroll you. They need to go through the same type of regimen that it would take, say to to enroll for Medicare. There are biometrics that we can use as well. But in addition to that, all we would have to do is have a monthly payment.
“And I understand it doesn’t have to be a lot. You’re at 150% of the poverty level. You don’t have a lot of money. But if there’s a $10, there’s a $20 payment coming out of your Apple Pay card once a month, you would see that every month. And if you didn’t know you were enrolled in something, it would force you to call this company, say, hey, I didn’t sign up for this. And we need the highest enforcement levels when people are defrauding the federal government like this as well.
“So, let me return now to our flexible spending accounts, our HSAs. Right now, there’s about $12 billion every year we’re spending on cost share reductions. CSRS, as they’re called up here. So, we’re spending about $12 billion a year on these cost-sharing reductions. In addition to that, there’s another $35 billion we’ve been spending on these Obamacare enhanced bonuses, if you will.
“So, our belief is we took both those fundings, the 12 and the $35 billion, and put it into one HSA card, no different than we do with food stamps or all the other failed programs, and use that money then for your out-of-pocket expenses. Couldn’t use it on premiums that would not make any sense. You would use it for your out-of-pocket, your deductibles, and your co-pays. And that would allow you to purchase and just start driving insurance premiums down by picking a product that you know that you have some money in your own bank account, so to speak, to take care of those out-of-pocket expenses.
“So eventually, as this group of people become consumers again, and they become better consumers out there, comparing the price of one hospital to another or a surgery center to a hospital or a doctor’s office versus another doctor’s office, making those choices themselves, they’re going to drive the cost of healthcare down.
“And I want to remind everybody we wouldn’t touch the original subsidies. So the original ACA subsidies, again, this is pre-Joe Biden, those would remain in place. So don’t feel sorry – the insurance companies are still going to get $100 billion a year of these subsidies from the original ACA plan. We’re just taking these new enhanced subsidies, the Biden bonus money, and the CSR money, and putting those into some type of HSA account.
“There are lots of other things we could do as well. Mr. President, to help drive the true cost of healthcare down. We’ve talked a lot about a price tags bill, letting patients become consumers, and letting them shop. So, forcing hospitals and surgery centers and imaging centers, and all other healthcare providers to provide a price tag along with some type of quality outcomes as well. We need to end silver loading. We need to expand options. I hope that we could let people choose association healthcare plans or ministry plans as well. There are many, many things we could do to impact the cost of prescription drugs for this group of people as well.
“I’ll start winding it down here and just say you know, enough with the lies. The so-called Affordable Care: the big insurance company cartels have formed a monopoly that controls premiums, with the federal government acting as their personal ATM. Dishing out billions in enhanced subsidies that only inflate their executive bonuses and shareholder dividends while leaving millions without meaningful access to healthcare. It’s time we demand an end to this rigged system where insurance behemoths rake in 10s of billions of dollars in revenue, yet rely on some $150 billion in yearly government handouts under the ACA, turning public health into a private profit machine at our expense.
“Our carrot and stick approach uses federally funded FSAs and HSAs to encourage mindful spending and reward efficient users by converting a portion of their savings into a retirement account eventually. All of this fosters consumerism. If you think about the ACA, we’re spending $6,500 a year of federal dollars per each patient. $6,500 per year per patient. We’re not spending any more than that on Medicaid. And then the states are putting their money on top. We might as well move these patients into Medicaid, as continuing to subsidize these insurance companies. It makes no sense to anybody up here, yet we continue to throw good money after bad money.
“In this case, we’re keeping the federal government closed because of this insane program. And maybe it’s just pride. Maybe it’s just the pride of my friends across the aisle that they want to admit that the ACA, the UnAffordable Care Act, Obamacare, was a failure. It destroys competition. It destroys consumerism. Over-regulation always leads to the consolidation of industry. We’ve seen it with insurance companies, with hospitals. We’re seeing it now with doctors’ practices, even. It’s going to be hard to fix this overnight. This has been the law of the land for 15 years. But everything where we are today, the reason that rural hospitals are going broke, the reason that we have $5,000 deductibles, the reason that premiums are up, going up 25% it’s because of the Obamacare rules.
“Again, the insurance companies wrote Obamacare. Their lobbyists, big hospital systems, they’re the ones that wrote Obamacare, and here we are. They’ve been on the gravy train now for over a decade. $150 billion a year for these 24 million people. Mr. President, I want to open the government. I want to open the government, but I can’t be forced to throw good money after bad money. So many of us want to fix healthcare. That’s why I came here. Fixing healthcare, and it won’t be easy; it’s 18% of our GDP. But there are fixes out there. It will take a bipartisan effort. It’s going to take months and not weeks and not days to fix it.
“And all I can do is… I’ve outlined a plan here. If my friends across the aisle would embrace just two simple concepts of dealing with fraud, and instead of giving money to big insurance companies, that we give it to hard-working Americans. I think that’s the framing two pieces of a very good healthcare package. A very good, bipartisan healthcare package.
“So I’m asking you to come across the aisle to shake our hands, and say yes, let’s get to work on that. But in the meantime, we need to get the government opened. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.”
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Contact: Payton Fuller
