President Biden Tackles Health Care Costs for Working Families While MAGA Republicans Refuse to Provide Relief
July 7, 2023
President Biden is again delivering for hardworking families as he announces new steps to crack down on junk health insurance plans, protect consumers against surprise medical billing, and lower health care costs for American seniors and families. Don’t forget: It was Donald Trump and Republicans who attacked the Affordable Care Act and made it easier for insurance companies to sell junk insurance plans.
Bidenomics is growing the economy from the middle out and bottom up — cutting costs and providing relief for families around the country.
USA Today: “President Joe Biden is cracking down on what the White House calls ‘junk’ health insurance plans – namely, less-robust and short-term coverage that the Trump administration expanded as a cheaper alternative to Obamacare plans.”
“Biden also was expected to detail steps aimed at making it harder for health care providers to get around a recent law protecting consumers from surprise medical bills and to announce the administration is looking into the growing use of medical credit cards.”
“The White House says the actions build on the president’s promise to lower health care costs for millions of Americans and on his battle to eliminate various types of ‘junk fees’ − including those for banking, travel and live entertainment.”
2024 Republicans have railed against the Affordable Care Act for years — trying their hardest to strip millions of hardworking Americans from access to health care coverage.
NPR: “The very day President Trump was sworn in — Jan. 20, 2017 — he signed an executive order instructing administration officials ‘to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay’ implementing parts of the Affordable Care Act, while Congress got ready to repeal and replace President Obama’s signature health law.”
Miami Herald: “‘Mike Pence: ‘The first order of business is to repeal and replace Obamacare’”
Tampa Bay Times: “DeSantis, as a Congressman, voted to repeal the law over and over again.”
Tim Scott: “I will continue to work towards the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.”
Live News 5: “Gov. Haley speaks against Affordable Care Act, SC prepares for key deadline”
Reuters: “Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas has signed legislation that will end by 2017 the state’s innovative but controversial adaptation of the Affordable Care Act, which has provided nearly 190,000 residents with health coverage.”
MAGA Republicans have also REFUSED to expand Medicaid — which has left millions of Americans uninsured as health care costs skyrocket.
HuffPost: “While Ron DeSantis Is Fighting Culture Wars, Millions Of Floridians Are Losing Their Health Care”
“DeSantis could do something about this. He has refused. In fact, as of this moment, his administration is embarking on a plan that some analysts worry could make the problem worse.”
NBC News: “Haley opposed efforts to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (South Carolina remains just one of 11 states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid to allow more Americans to have health insurance).”
New York Times: “Youngkin said it was ‘a sad thing’ that Virginia had expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.”
It’s not just health care costs — Republicans have refused to provide ANY relief from junk fees, instead likening plans to eliminate them to “socialism” or downright refusing to acknowledge their existence.
Tim Scott: “So the truth of the matter is that we need solutions for the American people. And it’s not a bunch of fees that will be eliminated by the president chatting fee control, income control, price control. It sounds more like socialism than free markets and capitalism that led to the lowest level of poverty, frankly, in the history of our country just a few years ago.”
CNBC: “GOP lawmakers in the hearing criticized the Biden administration’s push to eradicate ‘junk fees,’ largely regulated by the CFPB. Such fees constitute surcharges that companies levy for consumer goods and services.”
The New Republic: “‘Technically, junk fees don’t exist, OK? That’s a figment of Rohit Chopra’s imagination,’ Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer told The New Republic on Monday afternoon. ‘It’s a made-up word for a made-up authority that he’s got,’ continued the Missouri Republican, referring to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra.”
“On the other hand, during his seven terms in Congress, Luetkemeyer has been on the take for millions in contributions from insurance, financial services, and utilities companies—industries long known to saddle consumers with hidden costs and, to borrow a term, junk fees.
“Luetkemeyer is not alone in raking in campaign cash from industries that Chopra and the CFPB seek to regulate on behalf of American consumers. North Carolina GOP Congressman Patrick McHenry, the new chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has also raked in millions during his career in the House of Representatives from the industries over which his committee has direct jurisdiction: nearly $2.7 million from the securities and investment sectors, nearly $2 million from the insurance industry, and more, according to OpenSecrets.org.”