Kamala Harris and Medicare-for-all proponents tout a vision of compassion, but there's no compassion in restricting patients' access to doctors and drugs, hosted by Joel White told Mike Slater. Breitbart News Daily.
White, president of Horizon Government Affairs and a Republican strategist, said rising health care costs caused by the signature legislative accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration will increase costs and reduce health care for those most in need. He said that it was deteriorating the quality of the products. He believes the current administration sold fake gift certificates to Americans.
“Most voters think of this as a green energy bill or a tax bill,” White said of the Inflation Control Act (IRA), which he said includes “a huge blow to prescription drug costs.” “It also includes significant changes to Medicare,” he said. For seniors. ”
He said the Biden-Harris administration promised to reduce costs by lowering drug costs through price-negotiating powers, but the resulting high premiums are actually hurting seniors harder.
“What people are actually experiencing is higher premiums. Similar to high inflation, premiums are going up by double digits,” he said. “Their cost-sharing, or the amount they pay for their medicines at the pharmacy counter, has gone up significantly, and their planned choices, or their choices in how they get the benefit of their medicines, have gone down considerably. It's a really tough situation. The market is very volatile and it's unclear how we're going to pull the plane out of this nosedive.”
White said plan costs will increase 179% next year because of rising premiums for Medicare patients. One of the most important factors is the IRA change to Medicare Part D. Mr. White originally helped design Part D, which became law in 2003.
“Because this benefit is so popular and so successful,” he said. “Costs have steadily declined over time. People pay premiums for health insurance, their health insurance has prescription drug benefits, and seniors pick them up at pharmacies. Over the past 15 years These costs have been steadily decreasing on average, and I don't know of any other health care program where this is true.”
But IRAs, he said, “are like a fundamental rewrite of Part D benefits, making them more government-directed and government-controlled, and the costs of those plans have increased.”
“The way they write the law is they shift all this risk onto the health insurance companies,” White said of the IRA changes. “Health insurance companies are currently raising premiums to manage that risk, which is a direct result of this law. In 2024, we saw an average 21% increase in premiums. In 2025, premiums will increase by 23%, reflecting a 180% increase in health insurance risk.”
The IRA changes reversed positive trends during the Trump administration, he said.
“Compared to the Trump era of Part D, drug plan costs have decreased by 12 percent. Not only have the growth rates not increased as much, but they have decreased by 12 percent in absolute terms,” White said. “Under President Trump, people paid lower monthly premiums every year. Since this law went into effect, people's premiums have nearly doubled.”
If current trends continue, the typical American household will spend 40% of its income on health care costs by 2030, he said.
“Like everything else in the economy: eggs, rent, utilities, costs are increasing faster than wages. For some years, it has gone down. But in general, the trend over the past 20 years As a result, the amount we pay for insurance premiums, hospital visits, and prescriptions at the pharmacy is increasing much faster than our wages.So, in relative terms, our ability to afford insurance has shrunk. In 2030, the median household will pay about 40% of their premiums, out-of-pocket costs, and what their insurance will cover.
He said 93% of Americans have some form of health insurance and as premiums continue to rise, the conversation has shifted from coverage expansion to affordability.
“Most people have insurance. They're paying very high premiums, but their out-of-pocket costs are also going up,” he said. “So if you have insurance and are paying more out-of-pocket, you need to consider how good your insurance is and what it covers. What we're seeing with Medicare, which is also under the Inflation Control Act, is that people are paying more for benefits that they have to pay more out of pocket, and they have fewer plan options. Between 24 and 25 years, deductibles doubled and access to drugs decreased.”
White said that “Medicare for All'' would accelerate a rapid decline in the quality of the program, harming the neediest people who rely on Medicare, while increasing government control. White says.
“This is a vision of two different health care systems, right? Two different Americas,” he told Slater. “Harris’ vision is to increase government programs, increase the number of people participating in those government programs, and increase government control over how health care is received and paid for.”
White says Medicare for All is “emphasized to be more compassionate.” He said Medicaid began as an effort to help low-income pregnant women, but eventually expanded to cover 90 million people, a wake-up call about what was being done to Medicare. I warned you that
“The challenge with Medicaid is that you can't see a doctor, right?” he said. “Very few doctors will take Medicaid patients. If you're on Medicaid and need to see a doctor, you end up going to the emergency room because no doctor will see you. That's why , they won't see you.'' The bad guys have to go to the emergency room when their child hurts their ear. ”
White said that despite the lessons of “moderate growth” in Medicaid, Democrats are also hurtling off a cliff in Medicare.
“We call it compassion, but it's not compassion to give someone an insurance card and not give them a doctor or medicine, right?” he said. “We see this with Obamacare. Access to doctors is very narrow in these plans.”
“So the history of government-run programs, government-run health care, is not good,” White summed up. What we're seeing in Medicare is moving away from a market-based, incentive-driven model where people get the coverage they need (they like it, it's cheap, and the cost goes down over time). I think we are moving towards an ideal model. A government-run, government-controlled program, the effects are devastating, right? Premiums have gone up, out-of-pocket costs have gone up, and options have decreased. ”
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Bradley Jay is Breitbart News' Capitol Hill correspondent. Follow him on X/Twitter. @BradleyAJay.
