At a House Republican Leadership press conference in Washington, Speaker Mike Johnson addressed ongoing debates over health care reform, focusing on the refusal of Democrats to support cost sharing reductions in the House-passed Working Families Tax Cuts bill. These reductions, according to Johnson, would have lowered health care premiums by 12% for all Americans.
“Every American watching today should remember that the Democrats had a chance to actually lower your premiums six months ago, and they refuse because they wanted to keep health care as a political football,” said Speaker Johnson. “They do not want a solution. They want an issue.”
Johnson criticized Democrats for removing cost sharing reductions from the bill after it passed the House and was sent to the Senate. He claimed that these measures would have provided significant savings for American families and accused Democrats of prioritizing political advantage over practical solutions.
“In the coming days, what you’re going to see is the other party, the Republican Party, continuing to do the important work that we’ve already begun to actually lower the cost of health care and reduce fraud. And we hope Democrats will join us in those efforts. The Republican Party, on the other hand, is already demonstrating that we know how to do this. We’re not just talking about it. We’ve done it in the Working Families Tax Cuts, you’ll remember in the Medicaid reforms, we went after program integrity. We didn’t change the substance of Medicaid as they claim falsely. We went to program integrity. Why? Because we owed that to the American taxpayers. We got ineligible recipients off of Medicaid, and we cut out the fraud and abuse. And the CBO said, they’ve calculated it, it saved $185 billion for American taxpayers and reduced premiums. We reformed it to strengthen Medicaid. Those same principles are going to guide us in the months, weeks, and days forward. As Leader Scalise noted, we have some low hanging fruit, we have some things that every Republican agrees to. Democrats won’t, remember. They don’t actually want to fix this problem. But you’re going to see a package come together that’ll be on the floor next week. That will actually reduce premiums for 100% of Americans who were on health insurance, not just the 7%. Remember, the COVID-era subsidy only covers 7% of Americans, and it was passed and extended without any reforms at all. It would only reduce their premiums by 4%. They’re using that as a red herring. The overall system is broken, and we’re the ones that are going to fix it. You will see that laid out.”
He also responded to criticism from Democrats regarding economic conditions under President Biden’s administration: “Remember, we inherited massive inflation from the previous administration…We had four catastrophic years of Bidenomics that we inherited…The result was inflation skyrocketed…Now, I wish we could flip a switch right after election and make it all go away…but you know that’s not how economy works.”
Johnson further argued: “It’s a fact that Biden Administration and their Democrat enablers in Congress…wrecked US economy…They broke economy now want lecture American people about affordability…They opened our borders now want lecture about immigration…They broke American healthcare system they caused premiums skyrocket now they have audacity tell Republicans only way save throw hundreds billions dollars health insurance companies which would merely fuel system rife with fraud waste abuse.”
On Democratic proposals regarding health care subsidies he stated: “Let’s be very clear about one thing…When Democrats talk about healthcare affordability they’re talking about one thing only: continuing handouts big insurance companies…Their proposal…is devoid any reforms clamp down rampant waste fraud abuse…continues provide taxpayer subsidized healthcare Americans making hundreds thousands dollars annual salary.”
Speaker Johnson also criticized Obamacare’s impact since its passage fifteen years ago: “The Democrats broke America’s health care system when they gave us Unaffordable Care Act…none of [the promises] was true…premiums have risen because they broke system dramatically over time some areas as much as 70% some over 90%.”
Mike Johnson has represented Louisiana’s 4th district in Congress since replacing John Fleming in 2017; before his congressional service he was part of Louisiana’s state legislature between 2015-2017 (https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/J000298). Born in Shreveport in 1972 (https://www.congress.gov/member/mike-johnson/J000298), Johnson holds both undergraduate (1995) and law degrees (1998) from Louisiana State University.
