U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) addressed the Senate on Tuesday, urging support for the Health Care Freedom for Patients Act. The legislation aims to lower health care costs and give families more control over their health care spending.
Crapo criticized the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, citing increased premiums and limited insurance options since its implementation. “There were signs from the start that Obamacare would not work, which is why not one single Republican voted for it. That is also why the Democrats created the premium tax credits in the first place: they did not trust the one-size-fits-all nature of Obamacare to lower costs or to expand options. Instead of decreasing, over the last 15 years, Obamacare premiums have increased over 220 percent. A family of four pays $10,000 more for coverage today than they did before Obamacare, and their deductibles have doubled. Insurance providers have dried up and rural hospitals are struggling,” Crapo said.
He argued that simply extending enhanced premium tax credits would not address rising costs or improve patient care. “Obamacare is broken and throwing good taxpayer money after bad policy is not going to fix it,” he stated.
Crapo also raised concerns about fraud related to expanded subsidies during the COVID-19 pandemic under President Biden’s administration. He cited findings from federal agencies showing improper enrollments and unused subsidized plans costing billions of dollars. “With taxpayers footing the bill, these subsidies give insurance companies every single reason they need to keep hiking premiums. Even the Washington Post just yesterday explained that ‘Obamacare subsidies make it too easy to scam the system.’ Last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that 1.6 million Americans were enrolled in both Medicaid and Obamacare plans. This year, 6.4 million Americans were improperly enrolled in enhanced premium tax credits at a cost of $27 billion,” Crapo said.
He continued: “Another 12 million subsidized plans reported no claims in 2024, suggesting that many of them were opened on behalf of people who did not even know they were insured. Because insurance companies receive the subsidies regardless of whether a plan is used, there is no incentive on their part to check the enrollment status. In 2024, 35 billion dollars were paid out for these unused plans.”
To address these issues, Crapo promoted his new proposal with Senator Cassidy (R-La.), which would redirect funds from current subsidy programs into Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) paired with affordable insurance plans such as bronze or catastrophic coverage under ACA exchanges. “Senator Cassidy and I have a different plan. The motivating principle is simple: patients should decide where their health care spending goes, not insurance companies,” he said.
According to Crapo’s remarks, families could receive between $1,000 and $1,500 annually through monthly deposits into HSAs to cover out-of-pocket expenses without waiting for insurer approval decisions.
The plan also includes funding cost-sharing reduction subsidies intended to reduce out-of-pocket expenses for low-income enrollees while lowering premiums by more than ten percent.
“It is time to lay the groundwork for giving Americans more control over their health care choices and truly making quality health care more affordable,” Crapo concluded.
