House Majority Leader Steve Scalise explained on Friday that House Republicans are introducing a series of healthcare bills that would alleviate the high costs that have arisen thanks to Obamacare.
Scalise joined the Ruthless podcast to discuss how House Republicans are working to lower prices. As a part of these efforts, he said Republicans will bring forth many bills that seek to lower healthcare costs, although it remains unclear if it will be one large healthcare reform package or a series of bills.
He said:
We’re bringing a number of bills to the floor in the next few weeks… I was meeting with the Doctors Caucus. I met with every different group, along with the three chairmen of the committees of Jurisdiction. Energy and Commerce has been working on a lot of really big things. Ways and Means Committee, the Education and Workforce Committee. They’ve all been working on different pieces to do things like association health plans… There’s no competition in health insurance. Really no transparency either. Imagine bringing those elements in.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday shared a text that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) had sent him, urging the president to back legislation that would make it easier to establish Association Health Plans (AHPs), which allow individuals to buy health insurance via a membership such as Amazon, Sam’s Club, or Costco.
Paul wrote that AHPs hold the “promise of lowering insurance premiums,” however, he noted that the effort did not succeed because Democrat attorneys general fought to stop them in court.
Breitbart News reported:
A study from Avalere Health found that Americans would experience drastically lower health premiums through AHPs compared to Obamacare. AHPs would be roughly $2,900 lower per year compared to the small-group market and $9,700 lower per year compared to the individual market. Avalere cites that the lower average premiums in AHPs mostly result from a healthier insurance pool due to “risk selection” and less generous offerings. The Avalere research found that as many as 3.2 million Americans could leave Obamacare for AHPs.
Land O’Lakes announced in November that they created the nation’s first AHP, offering plans nearly 50 percent less expensive than Obamacare.
WATCH — Vance: Democrats Broke Health Care, but “We Need to Fix It,” “Politics Be Damned”:
Scalise said lowering prescription drug prices are a part of Republicans’ efforts as well, assuring Americans that “on lowering prescription drug costs, we’re going to be bringing bills to the floor in the next few weeks to do exactly that.”
Trump has called to send federal healthcare dollars straight to the American people so that they can use their money according to their needs. He wrote:
I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over.
“In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare,” the president added.
