[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 23, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3041-S3042]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HEALTH INSURANCE
Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, people know that the Federal Government
helps Americans purchase health insurance.
We do that by making health insurance tax deductible. When you pay
for your premiums, it is on what is called a pretax basis, but
something is wrong. The lowest paid Americans in the employer-sponsored
insurance market get the least amount of help from the Federal
Government.
Now, if you are poor, you get 100 percent of your health insurance
paid for by Medicaid. If you are on the exchange, you get below a
certain income level, almost 90 percent of your expenses paid, but if
you are making, I don't know, $67,000 a year and you get your insurance
through your employer, you only get about 15 percent of that coverage.
You would get $6,000 toward the typical policy; whereas, if you are on
Medicaid, you would get $25,000.
If you are wealthier, you get probably, in some cases, almost half of
this coverage, half of your insurance paid for, if you will, by the
Federal Government, but if you are the lowest person in the employer-
sponsored market, you get the least amount.
Now, why am I talking about healthcare? Affordability is a big issue.
If you look at this graph, the annual cost for a family of four--this
is all-comers--$37,000 to almost $38,000 per year. Now, a mortgage is
$30,000. If you are renting, it is $24,000, private school tuition
$20,000, going on down. And we speak about childcare. That is $18,000 a
year. That is expensive. But if you are talking about the most
expensive item that a family of four has, on average, it is healthcare
at $37,000 a year.
Now, if you are making $87,000, how does that figure? Almost half of
your salary is going toward healthcare expenses and the price of being
insured. That is pharmacy, hospital bills, treatment, medications, and
so on.
Now, this is unsustainable for our country, but it is, like, really
unsustainable for the family making $80,000 a year. And if you are
paying that much, take it to $100,000, it is unsustainable. If you are
paying that much, take it to $120,000 to $130,000, it is barely
sustainable.
[[Page S3042]]
Now, you would think with healthcare costing that much and the
Federal Government helping some, that the greatest relief would go to
the people who need it most. They actually get the least amount of
relief. So if you are speaking about making healthcare more
affordable--but if you are on Medicaid or the exchange, it is really
affordable. We have set up systems where almost everything, if not
everything, is covered.
If you are speaking about people who are doing better financially,
they get a far greater benefit. The point being that people that need
it most get the least help.
I would argue that we in Congress have a responsibility to do
something about that. We are not asking what can Americans sacrifice to
make ends meet; we are asking what can we do to make their sacrifice
less of a problem.
So I would argue, on a bipartisan basis, that we should sacrifice
political pride, any shallow ambition for getting ahead of the other
party, and let's plot a path forward.
But it requires both parties, the White House, the President, the
Senate, the House, to come together and get engaged and to come up with
a plan.
Now, I am going to offer one. It doesn't have to be the final plan,
but we have to have a plan, so let's start with this one. I call it the
MVP agenda. ``M'' is for money in your pocket. If you take a family of
four, and let's imagine that they have $2,000 a year in out-of-pocket
expenses, under the MVP agenda, they would get $2,000 in a year into a
health savings account to help pay for that out-of-pocket expense.
Now, again, for many families, that would cover the entire out-of-
pocket cost they would have per year. That family right now may have a
deductible and an insurance policy with a deductible of $3,000. They
don't have $3,000. They are putting it on their credit card, and then
they can't pay their credit card bill.
Under the MVP plan, we give money in advance to the individual and to
the families--not to the insurance company but to the individual--for
them to use 100 percent of the money on the care that they know they
need.
By the way, if they are going to send it to the insurance company,
they take 20 percent of that for overhead and profit. If we send it to
the family, they use 100 percent for the care they know they need, and
everybody would get an equal amount upfront for their family's health.
So think about that family making $80,000 a year with a $3,000
deductible, and the child has an earache. They can't get that child
care or, if they do, they are putting it on a credit card.
In this situation, they would have the money in the account to pay
for the care and to have the financial security associated with that.
What about the value? We are working--the Presiding Officer right now
is on the HELP Committee. We are working right now on a PRICE
Transparency bill. So we give them money in the pocket, but we want to
make sure they have the knowledge they need to get the best value for
that money.
And in the PRICE Transparency, which means you know the cost before
you buy it, if your daughter has an earache, look on your phone: Hey,
Siri, where is the least expensive place after-hours to get my
daughter's earache evaluated.
And it would say: Hmm, down the street is $50; down that street it is
$500. You are going to go to the place which gives you the best value.
And this combines the work we are doing on PRICE Transparency with what
is being done in the private sector to develop apps that can take that
information and deliver it to the family so that they can get the best
value for their money.
So it isn't just that we give the money because that money could go
in a flash if they don't have the information on how best to spend it.
We couple it with the PRICE Transparency and the work being done in the
private sector for that money to bring true value. And who does it
bring value to? It brings value to the patient. It is the MVP plan.
There is a lot already we are doing on that. Someone said: How is
your plan coming? We are working on it right now in the HELP Committee,
in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. And we are hoping to get
that bill passed for that portion.
In the next portion regarding how do we advance dollars, we just need
a commitment from Congress to do it. If we are talking about
affordability, if we are talking about housing--which we passed a bill
yesterday to address--if we are talking about gasoline, hopefully, that
will get better with resolution of things in the Middle East, groceries
and healthcare, and of those, healthcare costs the most.
So if we can do something to make things better for the average
family, we are truly doing something positive for our fellow Americans.
Now, I think we all have to stand ready to work together. This builds
on principles that President Trump said that he wanted to see
implemented in any healthcare reform bill; specifically, that the money
would go to the patient and not to the insurance company.
It also builds upon a bill that he signed into law in his first term,
the No Surprises Act, which I authored, that began to introduce price
transparency. His administration has continued to push for price
transparency, and I am sure he would welcome the opportunity to sign
this bill into law for price transparency.
So we have the pieces of the White House engaged with this, and now
we need Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and the House to join
the President in bringing relief.
Let's bring relief to the American family. Let's make life more
affordable for them, and along the way, let's make life fairer for
them.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.
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