EXCLUSIVE: Chip Roy Unveils His Cure to America’s Health Care System

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, issued a diagnosis for America’s broken health care system, and he says the problem isn’t what people think.

America’s health crisis doesn’t come from health insurance, Big Pharma, or even food additives, Roy says.

“It’s the fact that politicians, bureaucrats, and corporations are all benefitting from a broken, cronyistic system that lets them put profits over patients with impunity,” Roy told The Daily Signal.

In Roy’s new report, “The Case for Healthcare Freedom,” the House Freedom Caucus member says Congress has the opportunity to make America healthy again by promoting expansive health savings accounts in the upcoming budget reconciliation process. Health savings accounts allow individuals and families to save money and spend it tax-free on health care expenses.

“Giving the same actors more power and money won’t work; if we want to Make America Healthy Again, the answer is health care freedom,” Roy said. “If we want to control our budgets and health care spending, the answer is health care freedom.”

The report, first shared with The Daily Signal, says our current health care system is neither free nor competitive.

“It is government-regulated, government-funded, Big Insurance-managed ‘care’ resulting in a broken system on the brink of fully government-run health care,” the report says. “Half measures by Republicans will not save us from this disaster.”

The rising costs of health care, reduced choices, and complexity of the system lead some to advocate for more government control over the system, but this perspective ignores the true culprit, Roy said.

“What they will fail to notice is that it is the very government they are willing to give control of the health care system [to] that destroyed our health care system,” the report says.

Though the United States spends more on health care than any other developed country, America has the lowest life expectancy at birth, the highest rate of people with multiple chronic diseases, and one of the highest obesity rates among other wealthy countries.

“America is the center of medical innovation in the world. It is not something we should take for granted,” the report continues. “This role as a world leader does not mean that we need a drug for everything. Especially things that could be mitigated by eating a balanced diet, sleeping more, and exercising.”

The federal government will likely spend $250 billion on junk food over the next 10 years through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps. Yet much of American health care spending—$4.9 trillion in 2023—will pay for drugs instead of addressing the root causes of illness and obesity.

The drugmaker behind weight loss drugs Wegovy, Saxenda, and Ozempic, Novo Nordisk, has spent $25.8 million over the past decade promoting its obesity drugs, the report says.

Instead of “free market” health care, America has “textbook crony capitalism” to the “detriment of the patient and providers,” according to the report.

“Our system is run by government and insurance bureaucrats and is ‘private’ in name only,” the report states. “Health care special interests spend $750 million annually lobbying to keep this racket going.”

American health care is “hostile” to innovation as the “regulations and restrictions that have been placed on the health care system claiming to ‘protect patients’ have only led to the opposite,” according to Roy.

The average annual premium for employer-sponsored family health insurance is close to $25,000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“Our ‘health’ focused government agencies are littered with conflicts of interest,” the report says. “And unsurprisingly, American health is impacted. Indeed, chronic food illness kills up to 678,000 Americans per year.”

Food-related chronic diseases, like Type 2 Diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, are caused by an unhealthy diet. 

“As a share of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), health spending accounted for 17.6%, and costs are growing around 1% faster than the annual GDP,” Roy’s report continues. “If conservatives care about a strong national defense and low taxes, these trends have to be reversed.”

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