Health Care
House Democrats are committed to expanding access to quality, affordable health care coverage, strengthening protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and lowering prescription drug prices and the cost of health care overall.
Under President Biden and Congressional Democrats, the uninsured rate is at an all-time low. While Republicans vote against legislation to lower health care costs, House Democrats are working to bring down the overall costs of health care and increase access to health care coverage.
With the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, House Democrats took direct action to reduce health care costs for millions of Americans. For the first time, Medicare will be able to negotiate prescription drug prices for high-cost drugs. The law also caps out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients at $2,000 annually and establishes a $35 cap for a month’s supply of insulin. The Inflation Reduction Act also protects progress made under President Biden to expand access to quality, affordable health care coverage by continuing the expanded premium tax credits originally passed in the American Rescue Plan, which lowered health care premiums for millions of working families.
This built upon the Affordable Care Act – enacted by President Obama and Congressional Democrats in 2010 – that has put American families in control of their own health care and ended a system that put profits ahead of patients. Since its enactment, 35 million Americans have gained access to quality, affordable health coverage. Americans with pre-existing conditions can no longer be discriminated against by insurance companies. Parents can now keep their children on their insurance plans up to age twenty-six. Insurance companies are no longer allowed to put annual or lifetime limits on coverage or drop people when they get sick. Additionally, thanks to the law, Medicare costs – from premiums and deductibles to overall program spending – have slowed to well below the levels projected before the law passed.
These reforms were crucial, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic struck but more action was needed. That’s why House Democrats worked to enact legislation right away - without any Republican support - to ensure that testing, treatment, and vaccinations for COVID-19 would be covered with no out-of-pocket costs to Americans.
House Democrats remain committed to the goal of affordable, accessible health care for all.
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) spoke on the House Floor this evening in opposition to an inadequate bill offered by House Republicans to address the Zika crisis, which provides less than a third of the funding requested by President Obama.
Three months ago, President Obama requested $1.9 billion in an emergency supplemental appropriation to prepare for and contain the spread of the Zika virus. Instead of responding quickly and working with the Obama Administration, House Republicans have ignored this growing public health crisis for months.
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) delivered remarks today at a screening of the Sundance documentary film, “A Hug From Paul Ryan.”
This week, the House passed a number of bipartisan bills aimed at addressing the opioid addiction crisis in America. One of those bills was the Opioid Program Evaluation (OPEN) Act, which I was proud to co-sponsor with Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement calling on House Republicans to disband their Select Committee to Attack Women’s Health, following Chair Blackburn’s decision to put providers and patients in Maryland in danger.
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) spoke on the House Floor this evening in support of the Opioid Program Evaluation Act, which he co-sponsored with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and the need to provide adequate funding to address the growing opioid crisis.
For months, House Republican leadership has struggled with deep divisions and dysfunction within their Conference, preventing Congress from acting on a number of serious public health crises.
It’s been six months since Speaker Paul Ryan took the Speaker’s gavel, and though he has discussed the need to build a more “Confident America,” the American people have not seen any action from House Republicans that inspires confidence.
As our friends in the press get ready to cover Speaker Ryan’s town hall with millennials at Georgetown University this afternoon, your ever-helpful Whip press shop has put together a few questions you could ask the Speaker:
This week, the House took up several partisan bills that would target the IRS and make it harder for civil servants to do their jobs.