On Thursday’s broadcast of C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,” Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) responded to a question on why the Affordable Care Act needs taxpayer subsidies by saying that “Obamacare has been working.” And “The affordability crisis is a reality. You can’t afford groceries, you can’t afford your car payment, can’t afford your electricity bill, can’t afford your mortgage. And why now take away health care in addition to that? So, that subsidy can continue until we can address the whole economic situation. Now, as far as Obamacare needing fixing, there may be some things that need fixing.”
Host Mimi Geerges asked, “[R]egarding that there are so many subsidies, though, why would the Affordable Care Act need so [many] taxpayer-funded subsidies in the first place? Shouldn’t it be fixed? Is there something that you would recommend that would make it so that you don’t need that [many] subsidies?”
Titus answered, “Well, it’s a tax subsidy. There are not a lot of different subsidy programs. It’s a tax subsidy that was put on to help people during COVID, when so many people were unemployed. Now, what’s happening now, the president doesn’t like to admit it, but the cost of living is increasing. The affordability crisis is a reality. You can’t afford groceries, you can’t afford your car payment, can’t afford your electricity bill, can’t afford your mortgage. And why now take away health care in addition to that? So, that subsidy can continue until we can address the whole economic situation. Now, as far as Obamacare needing fixing, there may be some things that need fixing. Health care is extremely complex because the people who need it cover a whole spectrum of problems, and you’ve got hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, health clinics, so many different factors that have to be included. But I can tell you this: Obamacare has been working. This is just one more attempt to get rid of it. And they’ve offered no solutions. They have said, well, we’ll give you this $1,000 for a savings account, but there’s nothing in there to address increasing premiums. And on our side, in the House, you’ve got Johnson saying, oh, well, we’re going to fix it. He went in with his members and offered them an option, a menu of ten different things that we are going to look at over the next half of the Congress. So, that’s not a fix either. And nowhere on that list is bringing down the cost of premiums.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Read the full article here