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.
We know you have all been glued to the edge of your seats waiting for that plan from the GOP to “replace” the health reform law. Turns out you are going to have to wait a little longer, as the GOP “shies away” from actually doing something to address skyrocketing health care costs and insurance company discrimination.
“I opposed this appropriations bill for several reasons, chief among them that it is not consistent with the bipartisan agreement reached in August on spending levels. Breaking that agreement is just one more sign that this House Republican conference is simply unwilling to compromise or work with Democrats to find solutions to our challenges.
Mr. Speaker, the challenging times we live in force us to make difficult choices about our priorities. The reconciliation bill before us today is an example of choosing the wrong priorities.
Democrats are committed to a deficit reduction plan that asks all Americans to contribute their fair share and prevents sequestration from occurring through a balanced mix of spending cuts and revenues. Unfortunately, the Republican plan is not balanced and makes the wrong choices by ending the Medicare guarantee and targeting the most vulnerable among us, while cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires.
While Democrats are committed to reducing the deficit in a balanced way, the Republican budget makes the wrong choices and is not a serious attempt at deficit reduction.
I served on the Labor and Health Committee for 23 years. Bill Natcher from Kentucky used to say this: if you take care of the health of your people and invest in the education of your young people, you'll continue to be the strongest and best nation on the face of the Earth.
This week, Republicans will continue to outline additional details of their extreme budget that ends the Medicare guarantee, destroys jobs, and cuts taxes for the wealthy. In Committee hearings this week, Republicans are expected to lay out cuts that undermine health care coverage and target our federal employees in order to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy.
Today’s report by the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees demonstrates that both programs will continue to serve seniors and disabled Americans who rely on them well into the next decade. Because of the Affordable Care Act, which took significant steps to strengthen Medicare through cost savings and reforms that will improve quality and efficiency, the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund was extended by eight years. Further, as evidenced by a report released this morning by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act has also translated into savings and lower costs for Medicare beneficiaries and taxpayers that will total $200 billion in savings through 2016. However, Congress must do more, and it has an obligation to protect Social Security and Medicare to ensure they remain strong for generations to come.
This week, House Republicans will vote again for their budget that ends the Medicare guarantee and puts our economic recovery at risk, while cutting taxes for the wealthy. Back in their districts, it was poorly received by voters who are concerned about the impact of the budget.
But there is no balance in this proposal. Seniors, middle class, vulnerable, working Americans are asked to pay the price of this agreement. And, indeed, not only are they asked to pay the price, but the best-off among us is asked to do the least. That's not the America of which we are all proud that has worked together, sacrificed together at times, to come together to make a joint contribution to the welfare of this country.