Sen. Crapo is leading the fight for affordability for Idahoans | Opinion
The House just voted to extend Obamacare subsidies for three years — doubling down on a failed policy that will do nothing to help drive down the cost of health care. Thankfully, the Senate has already rejected the very same bill, rendering the misguided House vote pointless.
The so-called Affordable Care Act, which first took effect in 2014, caused health care premiums to skyrocket. For 15 years, it’s done nothing to make health care more affordable, mostly existing to enrich insurance companies. During the pandemic, this problem only worsened when Democrats voted to expand Obamacare’s premium subsidies as an emergency response measure. Every penny of Obamacare subsidies goes straight to insurance companies, not to individuals or families.
Yet even though the pandemic ended three years ago, the “emergency” expansion remained in effect until Jan. 1 of this year, though House members just did their best to try to pander to voters and bring them back.
Resurrecting pandemic-era subsidies will not make health care more accessible or affordable. It does not reduce costs; it merely masks them. Leaders in Congress should stop, change course and make our health care system work for everyone, not just insurers.
Thankfully, in Idaho we have a leader who is doing just that.
U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, helped write the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, signed in July. In doing so, he prevented the largest tax increase in American history from hitting Idaho families and businesses. If that bill had not been enacted, Idahoans would have faced a $2,500 tax hike, and Idaho could have lost 33,000 jobs.
Additionally, the Working Families Tax Cuts Act eliminates a trillion dollars in waste, fraud and abuse in the troubled Medicaid program over 10 years without reducing benefits by a penny.
When it comes to medical prices, the new law kickstarts a process to reverse the damage done by years of Obamacare. Specifically, it expands access to tax-free health savings accounts and affordable direct primary care arrangements, giving millions of Americans more health care options at lower cost.
In December, Sen. Crapo partnered with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, to propose the Health Care Freedom for Patients Act — keeping his promise to Idahoans to reduce the cost of health care.
The Crapo-Cassidy bill takes some of the money that Obamacare currently sends to insurance companies and gives it directly to patients instead: $1,000 for people aged 18 to 49 and $1,500 for those aged 50 to 64 — deposited straight into their tax-free HSA account.
Using an HSA provides the equivalent of a 25% discount on every medical purchase. And what you don’t spend stays in the account and grows, building a nest egg for future medical expenses. This combats medical inflation by encouraging people to shop for value. HSAs enable you to obtain care and doctors your insurance doesn’t cover.
Sen. Crapo is on the right side of the health care affordability issue. Recent polling conducted by Public Opinion Strategies for Americans for Prosperity shows that 82% of voters believe Congress should make it a top priority to bring down health care costs. On top of that, 83% believe that reforms to the health care system should increase options for personalized care, and 80% prefer that government financial assistance go directly to patients, not insurers.
Americans understand that the cost of living is too high and know it’s time for a new approach to bring down costs. Idaho’s senior senator has led the way, preventing the largest tax increase in American history and proposing real health care solutions.
The Working Families Tax Cuts Act was the first step toward greater prosperity through lower taxes, unleashing energy independence, greater health care options, and more. We at Americans for Prosperity fought for these reforms and will continue to do so, because the solution to driving down costs is found in abundance, options and opportunity.
On the health care front, that starts with enacting the Crapo-Cassidy health care bill, advancing even more free-market health reforms to make care affordable and accessible.
Jason Lehosit is the state director of Americans for Prosperity – Idaho.