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Floor Speech
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, today marks nearly a full month since the Schumer shutdown started. That was really the time when the Democrats decided to just go on strike and filibuster a clean CR.
What has happened is our Federal law enforcement is being forced to work without pay; air traffic control towers are understaffed; flights are delayed; and it has jeopardized nutritional programs for millions of low-income families. This crisis is something that was entirely, completely, unavoidable. Yet the Democrats have voted over and over to keep the government closed.
The reason they are doing this is Democrat leader Chuck Schumer is holding the government hostage to ram through hundreds of billions of dollars in inflationary spending. In other words, we are not spending enough--$38 trillion in debt is not enough. They want to run it up some more. He claims that this reckless action is needed to stop Republicans, in his words, ``from taking healthcare away'' from Americans by allowing healthcare subsidies to expire under the Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare, as it is known--and more appropriately known--because there is nothing affordable about this thing.
The problem is that is a falsehood, and it shows you how our friends across the aisle are willing to put the American people and their lives and SNAP benefits and paychecks in jeopardy in order to achieve a goal.
One thing that needs to be understood is that the subsidies that are there for ObamaCare--they are permanent. They are permanent. They are not going anywhere. And households that have incomes that fall between 100 and 400 percent of the Federal poverty level are going to continue to get a credit without any interruption. That is in law. That subsidy is there.
This year, the upper limit for these ObamaCare subsidies was an income limit of $128,600 for a family of four. For the lowest income individuals, insurance premiums can never exceed 2 percent of the total household income. That is something that is Federal law.
Here is what is set to expire at the end of the year: It is President Biden's COVID-era bonus credits that were put in place. This is something that the Democrats did in 2021.
The Biden COVID credits eliminated the 400-percent income cap, allowing households that are making over--get this--a half million dollars a year, $500,000 a year--they could benefit from this subsidy program. So let's say you were buying health insurance on the ObamaCare exchange and you were making over a half million dollars a year. You too--you too--could get a taxpayer-funded insurance subsidy for ObamaCare. Bear in mind, the subsidy does not go to the individual. The subsidy goes directly to the insurance company.
My friends across the aisle choose to rant and rail against insurance companies. But do you know what? They are enriching them every day, and they want to enrich them even more because now that these emergency subsidies are set to expire more than 5 years after the start of the pandemic, the Democrats are fighting to make these enhanced Biden COVID credit bonuses--they want to make them permanent. This would cost U.S. taxpayers 450 billion hard-earned dollars every single year.
Now, the reason behind this madness is really quite simple. Our friends across the aisle want to bring America one step closer to government-run healthcare. You know, when we were having all the debates about ObamaCare, they kept saying: All right, we will settle for ObamaCare because that is a step toward government-run healthcare. That is one step toward a single-payer system. That is one step toward socialized medicine.
That is what they want. It would be like Medicaid for all or the VA for all. They want control of your doctor, your health insurance, the kind of care you could get, where you are going to get it, when you are going to get it. Think the VA. Think Medicaid--because that is what they want.
Our debt, as I said, is at $38 trillion. So what they are trying to do to fund this program that is rife with waste and fraud is unbelievable. Now, the reality is, the lowest cost plan in 2026, the average marketplace premium after tax credits, is projected to be $50 a month--$20 less than the average monthly premium in 2020. But we can't ignore the wasteful spending that exists within ObamaCare.
According to one estimate, there are 6.4 million people improperly reporting their income to benefit from fully funded plans under ObamaCare, thanks to the Biden COVID credits. Remember, I said, there are some people, because of the Biden COVID credits, who have zero- dollar premiums. So the estimate is 6.4 million people improperly report their income in order to get that zero premium.
This abuse is costing the taxpayers $27 billion in 2025 alone. That is the cost of this. This is the cost of not verifying. This is the cost of a program that has run amok with waste and abuse.
Another peculiar example of wasteful enrollment, close to 12 million enrollees in the program filed no claims last year. In other words, they didn't use the insurance. That number is triple what the number was from 2021 because the Democrats expanded the option of zero-premium plans.
Among those 12 million, many people don't even know that they have been enrolled in a taxpayer-funded program. Others may have separate health insurance coverage that they have chosen to use. And taxpayers sent money directly to the insurers on their behalf. This is because an insurance agent, as long as he has name, address, and contact info, can enroll you in this and get that commission.
Think about that. You don't even know you are in the program. You have got an insurance agent who has name, address, phone number, and contact information; and, all of a sudden, they have enrolled you.
Extending these Biden-era enhanced credits, as the Democrats are demanding, would be doing nothing to address the waste, the fraud, and the abuse that is running rampant in this program. And it wouldn't do anything to address the structural flaws that are there in ObamaCare that have really sent premiums soaring over the last several years.
You know, it is so interesting to me that ObamaCare promised that it was going to lower the cost of premiums; it was going to make healthcare affordable and in reach of everybody in the country. But it turns out it is too expensive. You can't afford it unless you get a subsidy. You can't afford it unless you are getting a zero-dollar premium. That is because the insurance tries to be ``one size fits all'' and requires people to pay for things they are never going to use.
So what we have seen is the price of the insurance and the utilization--the price has gone up, and the utilization has gone down because you have got an insurance card and you have got access to the queue, but you can't get a doctor and you don't get in to see the doctor.
We know that the costs on these premiums really shot up after the Biden COVID credits went into law. And as the premiums go up, taxpayers are on the hook to subsidize the insurance companies.
Remember, the payment goes to them, not to the individual. It goes directly to the insurance company. The agent can enroll you, even if you don't know you are enrolled, because they have got your name, address, phone number, and contact information.
Republicans have already started to address the root causes of this escalation. We have secured measures in the Big Beautiful Bill that prevent illegal aliens from receiving subsidies under ObamaCare. We prevent them from getting Medicaid services also.
It also requires individuals who misstate their income to repay the excess subsidy that they got. That seems fair. If you lied about it on your form and it shows up when it is verified, you are not going to get off with a slap on the hand. You have got to repay. You have got to pay because if you are cheating, it means somebody else is going to be paying that difference.
So requiring applicants to verify their income, their family size, their immigration status, and their residence before enrolling ensures that you are not going to have people abusing the system and ripping off hard-working taxpayers. That is common sense.
Our Democratic colleagues should be working with us to implement more integrity measures to ensure that these taxpayer-funded benefits only go to the people who deserve them.
Republicans want to tackle the rising premium costs because this is too expensive to afford. They want to drive down the cost of prescription drugs by holding pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, accountable. We want to streamline the process for prompt payment of claims, put a shot clock on these insurance companies, make certain they are paying your local doctor, and maintain the fiscal solvency of the Medicare Program.
We want to see healthcare freedom. People want to make certain that we have got choice and options; that you are not mandated into a program you don't want, that covers things you don't need.
How about health savings accounts? How about association health plans? How about across-State-line purchase of health insurance? So when you get a health insurance product you like, you can keep it. When you get a doctor you like, you can keep him. When you get a payment price you like, you can keep that and make it.
We would love to be addressing these issues, but our Democratic colleagues have decided they want to keep going with a government shutdown and hold the government hostage so they can appease their leftwing base.
It is time for them to end the theatrics and come to the table and get back to work.
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