The House Republican health care bill would reduce the cost of the most common Obamacare plan by 12 percent and save taxpayers $30 billion, according to the report.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Los Angeles) and House Republicans last week introduced the Lower Premiums for All Americans Act, a House GOP model aimed at reducing health care costs.
Johnson said in a statement last week:
Nearly 15 years ago, Democrats' Affordable Care Act destroyed the American health care system. Since its inception, premium costs have skyrocketed, networks have shrunk, and the system has become bloated, inefficient, and riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse. While Democrats are demanding that taxpayers write larger checks to insurance companies to hide the cost of the failed law, House Republicans are addressing the real causes of health care costs to ensure affordable health care, expand access and choice, and restore the integrity of our nation's health care system for all Americans.
Earlier this year, Democrats had an opportunity to help make life more affordable by supporting legislation to cut taxes for working families. Instead, they voted to raise taxes, protect against waste and fraud, and continue to provide free health care to illegal immigrants. The Democrats' “affordability” charade has been going on for quite some time. Republicans are offering clear, responsible alternatives that will lower premium costs and expand health care access and options for all Americans. The Lower Premiums for All Americans Act would actually provide affordable health care—and we look forward to pushing it through the House of Representatives.
House Republican Bill:
- Increasing transparency for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)
- Matching cost sharing reduction (CSR) payments that will reduce insurance premiums.
- Expand access to Association Health Plans (AHPs), which will allow self-employed workers and other member organizations such as Costco, Amazon or Sam's Club to create their own health insurance pools.
- Ensure that small and medium-sized employers can protect themselves from catastrophic claims.
- Codify rules in Trump's first term that would allow employers to offer defined contributions to employees to purchase their own health insurance.
Ryan Long, director of congressional relations and senior director of research, Paragon Health Institute, found that these provisions will significantly reduce Americans' insurance premiums:
The CSR designation more effectively aims to help taxpayers by restoring the original structure of the ACA by directly funding insurers and eliminating silver's crushing burden. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that appropriations for CSR would reduce silver plan premiums by 12 percent, resulting in an average annual premium savings of approximately $900 for a 40-year-old single adult… Lower base premiums would also reduce federal premium subsidies, saving taxpayers more than $30 billion in net benefits over ten years.
The “Big Beautiful Bill” passed by the House of Representatives appropriated CSR; however, this was removed from the bill after objections from Senate Democrats, meaning it would require 60 votes rather than a simple majority in the Senate to include the provision in the bill. Long argued that lower base premiums due to CSR would reduce federal premium subsidies and thus save taxpayers an estimated $30 billion over ten years.
Long explained that the Association's health plans will also offer much lower premiums compared to Obamacare:
Savings from these new AHPs ranged from 23 to 29 percent (depending on commercial insurance plans or self-funded plans). How Washington Post marked At the time, a review of more than two dozen of these health plans found that they “offer generous benefits and lower premiums than can be found in the Obamacare marketplaces.” The rule allowed groups like the Southern Arizona Chamber of Commerce to offer affordable coverage to small businesses in seven southern Arizona counties. Despite this promising start, 11 states successfully sued to block the rule, forcing these coverage options off the market.
He concluded, “The Lower Premiums for All Americans Act contains a strong initial set of measures that expand choice, especially for small employers, increase competition and transparency, and reduce ACA Silver Plan premiums by 12 percent while reducing federal spending by approximately $30 billion.”
