[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 208 (Wednesday, December 10, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8610-S8611]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3380

  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, healthcare is in a crisis. What 
Republicans want to do is put patients in charge, not insurance 
companies. But the first thing we need to do to fix ObamaCare is to 
address the fraud in ObamaCare. If we can't agree on this, I don't know 
how we can possibly begin to fix ObamaCare.
  I refer everyone to the recent week's Government Accounting Office 
report. They show people enrolled without consent, subsidies flowing 
from the Federal Government to insurance companies from people who 
don't even know they are enrolled in ObamaCare. They show that there 
were toddlers enrolled in ObamaCare. They demonstrated 58,000 dead 
people who were enrolled in ObamaCare, each of them having premiums 
sent to insurance companies on their dead body's behalf for some 9 
months on average. We saw one Social Security number being used over 
and over again.
  In fact, over a third of the people on ObamaCare didn't file a claim. 
Now, I am not saying that all those people are fraudulent. In a group 
of otherwise healthy folks, maybe 20 percent of people don't file a 
claim. But from 2021 to 2024, we saw that the number of people not 
filing a claim went from 19 percent to 35 percent, and that is when the 
enhanced subsidies kicked in, and therefore many people had zero 
premiums, so the Federal Government was paying their entire premium.
  Again, we think that this report demonstrates billions of dollars of 
fraud, very often estimated at some $25 billion. That is why we 
introduced our bill, S. 3380, the ACA Marketplace Integrity Act, to 
stop the fraud. Who could be against that? Who could be against 
stopping the fraud?
  Our solution--I think it is pretty simple.
  First of all, mandatory identification verification for enrollment. 
Look, you can't get on an airplane, you can't get a hotel room, you 
can't rent a car without an ID. So let's verify identification. That is 
going to help decrease the fraud.
  Secondly, we are asking for a minimal monthly payment from everybody 
involved in ObamaCare. We are asking for $5--the cost of a Big Mac, 
maybe a Big Mac meal. For $5--we are asking people to contribute to 
their own healthcare insurance, and we don't think that is too much to 
ask.
  How is that going to prevent fraud? Well, look, if you are seeing $5 
taken out of your paycheck or your bank account or charged to your 
debit card every month, you are going to sit there and say: Huh, where 
is that coming from? And if you contact the person where that debit is 
going to, then you are going to find out, oh, it is an insurance 
company.
  I know we have all had something similar to that happen to us where 
we signed up for some type of streaming service years ago, and you 
can't get it off your credit card, but it just keeps recurring.
  So what we are asking for is a minimum monthly payment of $5 from 
everybody on ObamaCare.
  Now, my friends across the aisle are going to say that eliminating 
the zero-dollar premium will prevent people from getting a plan and 
that it is a trap to dismantle the ACA.
  Look, I am not trying to dismantle the ACA; I am trying to fix it. I 
am trying to fix it for the folks who have seen their premiums more 
than double, people whose deductibles went from $1,000 a year to 
$15,000 a year. Why would we want those fraud dollars going to the 
insurance companies of all things? Let's take that same money and fund 
healthcare savings accounts.
  Now, the next point we do with our bill is we codify President 
Trump's integrity rule to strengthen verification. I think that just 
these simple tests, these simple solutions, will decrease the fraud.
  I think what consumers need to realize is that, just like 
shoplifting--even though the day you are there shopping, someone 
shoplifting doesn't impact the price of what you are buying, eventually 
it does. So this shoplifting, this fraud that is going on where we are 
taking good, hard-earned taxpayer money and sending it to insurance 
companies, is driving up the cost of healthcare for everybody, and 
every wasted dollar skips the real care that is needed.
  I don't know why my Democrat friends want to prioritize insurance 
companies over real people and shrug their shoulders at fraud by 
fighting subsidy cuts.
  What we as Republicans demand is honesty, accountability, 
transparency, and then we are going to redirect these subsidies. Let's 
redirect the subsidies, empowering patients over insurance companies--
again, all with transparent services. But we have to start with anti-
fraud. If we can't agree to stop funding imaginary enrollees, what can 
we agree on? If it is not our plan, then what is the Democrats' plan? 
Show us a plan that fights fraud.
  In Kansas and in every State of this Union, resources are blessings. 
It is Christmastime. It is a time to remember other people. I truly 
want every person in America to have meaningful, affordable access to 
healthcare, and the Republican plan does that. But we have to start by 
stopping the fraud.
  Let's not waste hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Let's stop throwing 
good money after bad money.
  This bill will stop the fraud. It is going to prioritize patients. 
And I urge every Member of the Senate to help us immediately stop the 
fraud.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that, as if in legislative 
session and notwithstanding rule XXII, the Finance Committee be 
discharged from further consideration of S. 3380 and the Senate proceed 
to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the bill be 
considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there an objection?
  The Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, listen, I 
have had the honor of working with my friend the Senator from Kansas on 
many issues, and I welcome him to join the conversation on our side of 
the table about how to get people affordable healthcare.
  I can tell you that as I move across the State of Georgia, which is a 
non-expansion State, much like Texas, people are trying to figure out 
how they are going to keep their healthcare.
  In about a month, folks will see their healthcare premiums double, on 
average. For some, it will triple. For others, it will quadruple. 
People will lose their healthcare, and some people will die as a result 
of that.
  A healthcare policy in general is a matter of life and death. We have 
seen the Republicans through their ``Big Ugly Bill'' cut $1 trillion 
out of Medicaid, and 15 million people lost their

[[Page S8611]]

healthcare. Now 22 million people are going to see their healthcare 
double, on average. That is the problem we are confronting right now.
  I have not heard a solution from that side of the aisle about how to 
fix that. So I object that we would add yet another 1 million people 
who will not be covered as a result of this plan that my colleague from 
the State of Kansas is offering this evening.
  It is particularly harmful for nonexpansion States. Some may 
reasonably ask: Why these zero-dollar premiums? Georgia, like Kansas, 
is a nonexpansion State. The truth is, a lot of these folks who have 
the zero-dollar premium plans, they would have zero dollars if they 
were in an expansion State.
  So for me, it is a matter of fairness. I am standing up for the 
people in my State of Georgia. There are 500,000 Georgians in the 
healthcare coverage cap. If they lived in California, if they lived in 
New York, if they lived in North Carolina, they would be covered. And 
so, for that reason and others, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is noted.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.