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House Republicans are expected to reveal a roadmap sometime this month that they say will lower sky-high healthcare costs.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., have both said they are speaking to various GOP factions to build consensus on what that plan should look like.
In the meantime, Fox News Digital spoke with several GOP lawmakers about what they believe should be in such a package and found several commonalities on what they expect.
“Health savings accounts (HSAs) need to be expanded to as many individual healthcare recipients or premium payers in our country. Like right now, it’s the people that can access a health savings account, usually high-deductible, catastrophic coverage, those types of plans,” said House GOP Conference Vice Chair Blake Moore, R-Utah. “They’re really well-used, but they need to be extended so basically all Americans on some type of health insurance policy can use health savings accounts.”
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HSAs are accounts that allow people to set aside money pre-tax to pay for certain health expenses, but they are currently only available to people with high-deductible health insurance plans.
Expanding HSA use proved a common theme among House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital about what they want to see in their party’s health plan.
Another topic that came up frequently was reforming the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) system, an issue that’s gotten bipartisan support in the past.
PBMs are third parties that act as intermediaries between pharmaceutical companies and those responsible for insurance coverage, often responsible for administrative tasks and negotiating drug prices.
PBMs have also been the subject of bipartisan ire in Congress, with both Republicans and Democrats accusing them of being part of a broken system to inflate health costs.
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“I had my own pharmacies for over 32 years, and I can tell you, bringing prescription drug prices down is as simple as is addressing the middleman, the PBMs that are causing increases and causing prices to stay high for drugs,” Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., said. “That is one of the quickest and the easiest ways to bring prescription drug prices down, by reeling them in.”
Republican lawmakers also more broadly called for a competitive marketplace of health insurance plans.
While few said they had any appetite for actually repealing and replacing the Obamacare system, most said they wanted Americans to have more options than just the federal program when choosing their own healthcare.
“We see that Obamacare has now been around for almost 14 years, and it’s more expensive, and we have less choices than ever before. So Obamacare is not working, and I think that’s what we need to focus on,” said Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind. “There’s plans already being put in place by the administration, by groups in the Republican Party, that want to focus on making sure healthcare is affordable, and it’s available and that people can make choices rather than being told who which doctor they have to go to.”
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Democrats have warned that healthcare costs are set to spike for millions of Americans if the subsidies are not extended. But House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said costs are poised to rise either way if Congress does not act soon.
“All Americans are getting a health insurance premium increase this coming year of 20 to 30%. Even if we did what they wanted us to do — and I’m not saying that we won’t, because the White House might have a plan to continue it, the Senate might have a plan. Mike Johnson might do something, but even if we do that, you realize that it’s only gonna cover about 4% of that 20 to 30% increase. It’s not solving the problem,” Emmer said.
Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital he wanted to see a healthcare package that focuses on doctors in rural areas, as well as reforms for hospital care.
“I’ve got to make sure that what we do is right for that independent practicing physician, that small-town pharmacist. And so we have to make sure we’re taking care of rural America with what we do, as well as the hospitals that we would all go to if we had, you know, cancer treatment or something like that,” he said.
None of the conservatives who spoke with Fox News Digital expressed support for extending Obamacare tax credits that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, but which are set to expire at the end of this year.
It’s a push led by Democrats and some Republicans, however, who have introduced a range of options, from a one-year extension with certain reforms to House Democratic leaders’ push for a clean, three-year extension.
But whatever lawmakers come up with will likely have to get 60 votes to advance in the Senate, meaning some support from the left will be needed.
“There’s a lot of good bipartisan healthcare policy legislation that can pass imminently and very soon, unless Democrats play the game of, ‘Oh, I don’t want it to look like the Republicans are being productive on healthcare, so we’re gonna stymie this, even though I agree with the policy,’” Moore said.
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