‘Give The Patient The Power’: Cassidy Says Subsidies Should Go To Families, Not Insurance Companies

WASHINGTON—Congress may have reopened the government, but it still has to decide what to do with the Obamacare subsidies at the center of the shutdown fight. Senator Bill Cassidy thinks they should go straight to American families — not health insurance companies.

Cassidy, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, told The Daily Wire this week that he was working with Republicans and Democrats alike on a proposal that would give Americans money to pay for care directly, which he says would empower patients and lower costs.

“There’s things you have to work through,” the Louisiana Republican said about his colleagues across the aisle. “Some think, ‘wait a second,’ that the preconception is, consumer-driven health care — it has to be funded out of the paycheck. I’m saying, ‘no, it’s going to be pre-funded with money that would otherwise go to the insurance companies.'”

Cassidy explained that the enhanced premium subsidies, which were extended during the coronavirus pandemic and are set to expire at the end of this year, would be deposited into Health Savings Accounts controlled by patients.

During the shutdown, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed a plan to extend ACA subsidies for one year. Republicans called the plan “dead on arrival.”

On November 8, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) spoke on the Senate floor and said he believes Americans “deserve quality, affordable health care.”

“And they haven’t gotten that with Obamacare. Reforms are needed that actually lower costs, that protect the taxpayers,” Barrasso said. “The American people deserve a full debate about the unaffordability of Obamacare. Senator Schumer’s offer does nothing to address the cost of health care, does nothing to lower premiums, does nothing to reassure the American people.”

Barrasso said Schumer’s proposal makes “insurance companies richer and taxpayers poorer.”

In a shutdown-ending deal, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) promised Democrats a vote on a healthcare proposal by the second week of December. However, it is unclear what that may be.

On Monday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) held a press conference and slammed Republicans for their refusal to extend the tax credits and said “tens of millions of Americans are about to experience dramatically increased premiums, copays, and deductibles.”

Jeffries previously said he wouldn’t support a one-year extension and was pushing for a three-year extension for the subsidies. However, given that the Senate wouldn’t even vote on a one-year extension, there’s little to no chance this would pass.

Cassidy spoke about the proposal on the Senate floor last week and proposed the idea to give credits directly to patients and empower them to manage their own health care decisions.

He said Obamacare has “tried to make health insurance affordable” by “throwing billions at it.”

“The problem with that — that doesn’t make healthcare affordable, it just makes the health insurance premium less expensive for those who are on exchanges,” Cassidy said at the time.

“Let’s fix health care, and let’s give the patient the power,” he continued.

President Donald Trump has also spoken in support of giving money directly to the people, most recently in a Nov. 8 Truth Social post.

“We were so totally in sync,” Cassidy told reporters of the president on Monday. “He wants to take dollars that would go to an insurance company and send them to the individual.”

Initially, Cassidy pitched his proposal through flexible spending accounts — but he said he believes Health Savings Accounts would be the better route.

“As it turns out, it’s more practical, and I can tell you why, to do it through the Health Savings Account, which he proposed, but it’s still the same thing,” Cassidy said. “I think it’s a melding of a vision, and to say it’s a melding implies they were different beforehand. This is exactly what he’s expressing, exactly what I was expressing.”

The proposal has publicly received support from Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and interest from Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA).

“I think this has got a lot of appeal to conservatives,” Cassidy told reporters. “I love it, but I think it’s got a lot of appeal to people who are left of center, too.”

While the bill text has not yet been released, Cassidy is confident that if the Senate were to pass the idea, the president would ask House Speaker Mike Johnson to consider it on the floor, and the president will sign it because “it’s consistent with the policy that he has put forward.”

The Senate Finance Committee is holding a hearing on the enhanced Obamacare subsidies on Wednesday.