State Health Care Premium Reduction Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMUCKER. Madam Speaker, I start by wishing the ranking member of the committee a very happy birthday and a wonderful day.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 1425.

I do agree with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle that we need to enact reforms that will make health insurance and access to care more affordable. I also agree that we need to protect individuals with preexisting conditions. But the approach under the legislation being debated today will not bring us closer to a better-functioning marketplace. It is like putting a Band-Aid on a broken system.

To truly lower the costs of insurance and care, we need to address the underlying cost drivers of healthcare. Yet, the legislation before us today ignores what is driving prices higher. Instead, it broadens government subsidies to more individuals, including the wealthy, so that, on its face, the price of insurance looks cheaper. But don't be fooled by generous tax credits. These credits will be paid for by all taxpayers when they are passed along to hardworking families in the form of higher taxes.

Madam Speaker, I would welcome the opportunity to work with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle on real reforms that will increase choices for insurance and care options; that will cut through healthcare monopolies to increase competition in the marketplace; that will allow for more personalized plans that will better target taxpayer-funded subsidies to the poor, the sick, and the vulnerable, not high-earning individuals; and that would enable a system that fosters innovation in patient care, not stifle it through burdensome government mandate.

Before I close, I want to touch on my colleagues' decision to include the same government-controlled drug-pricing scheme in this patchwork of stale proposals that was passed a few months ago. At a time when the world is fighting to emerge from a global pandemic, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle believe it is an appropriate time to raise taxes on lifesaving cures by 95 percent.

We have already worked, in a bipartisan manner, on policy ideas that we all agree will help lower drug prices. Each of those policies was included in H.R. 19, the Lower Costs, More Cures Act.

Madam Speaker, I hope, one day, we can set the shenanigans aside and bring real reforms, like those included in H.R. 19, up for consideration.

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