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.
Add House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan to the growing list of Republicans who have compared Social Security to a Ponzi scheme.
As the Huffington Post reports:
Speaking on conservative radio on Tuesday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) agreed with Texas Gov. Rick Perry's (R) claim that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme."
The deficit reduction plan put forward by the President is a balanced approach to reduce the deficit, create jobs, strengthen entitlement programs and ensure that all Americans pay their fair share. But rather than work with Democrats on a balanced plan, Republicans immediately rejected the President’s proposal because it calls on all Americans to do their part. By opposing a plan that asks the wealthy to pay their fair share, Republicans will be forced to answer the question: Who do they stand with?
Wanted to be sure you saw this article in The Hill highlighting how the Affordable Care Act has saved seniors $460 million on prescription drugs.
Tomorrow marks the 46th anniversary of Medicare being signed into law by President Johnson. For almost 50 years, Democrats have fought to preserve this bedrock program. And we will continue the fight, despite Republican attempts to end it and raise costs for seniors. House Republicans have repeatedly voted for a budget plan that would more than double seniors’ health care costs, re-open the prescription drug donut hole and place seniors at the whim of the private insurance market.
I strongly oppose Republicans’ proposed balanced budget amendment, and I will be whipping against it. By enshrining Republican policy priorities in the Constitution—and by making it historically difficult to raise revenue or raise the debt ceiling in order to pay our bills—the Republican amendment would impose severe hardship on millions of Americans. More than even the radical, Medicare-ending budget passed earlier this year, it would require drastic and harmful cuts to programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, programs that form the heart of America’s social compact. Unlike previous balanced budget amendments, this amendment would mean great pain for ordinary Americans, even as it shielded the most privileged from any comparable sacrifice. It is not a solution to our nation’s pressing fiscal challenges.
Forty five years ago today, President Johnson launched the Medicare program, providing safety and security to generations of America’s seniors. This bedrock program has provided coverage and retirement security to millions of seniors, including an estimated 39 million seniors in the program today.
Since launching the Medicare program on July 1, 1966, Democrats have fought to improve health care security for America’s seniors by ensuring reliable and affordable health care coverage. For forty-five years, Medicare’s guaranteed set of benefits and affordable premiums have improved health care coverage and quality of life for seniors substantially.
When Republicans took the House majority, they pledged to focus on creating jobs and growing the economy. But after six months, they still haven’t put forward a comprehensive jobs agenda. While Democrats are focused on the Make It In America agenda, a plan to support job creation and boost working families, Republicans are pursuing a partisan agenda that has the wrong priorities.
From the Democratic Whip Press Shop:
Wanted to make sure you all saw this editorial in the New York Times this morning.
Key Point: Leading Republicans — after proposing to gut Medicare — are still trying to pose as the program’s saviors. How cynical can they get?
It’s clear Republicans haven’t lived up to their pledge to focus on job creation in the past, but we hope, for the sake of the American people, that this summer is different. Democrats stand ready to work with Republicans so that we can create jobs, grow the economy and enact a plan to reduce the deficit.