Congressmen from Nebraska and New York on healthcare affordability, potential Obamacare alternatives and more
(CBS, KYMA) - Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the cost of health insurance.
When asked what the congressmen can do for the next six weeks to make healthcare costs go down as the COVID era tax credit subsidies for Obamacare will go down at the end of the month, Rep. Bacon said:
"We need a temporary extension of these tax credits to keep these prices down. Republicans nor Democrats want to see premiums skyrocket, and they will, uh, if these expire with nothing in its place. That's why I worked with Tom Suozzi and other Democrats and Republicans to find a compromise. We just want to do a clean extension. Most Republicans don't anyway, so we think there needs to be some caps on income, and we want to ensure all these credits go directly. To lowering people's premiums and right now about a third of the money doesn't make it to the premiums. So those are some reforms that we would like to see and, and if we can get those accomplished, then we can extend these tax credits and keep these, uh, you know, the prices lower, but we do need a longer term fix. Uh, the Affordable Care Act is unaffordable and I think we need to have this, this extension to give us time to work on something bigger and deeper and. That will help lower costs overall. I'm proud to work with Tom Suozzi on this, and I appreciate his partnership."
Brennan followed up by asking Rep. Suozzi what the two-year proposed extension accomplishes, as well as ask how it makes it more affordable and fair, and Suozzi said:
"It helps everybody else who makes under $200,000 dramatically. Uh, and the number one concern people have in America is affordability, and healthcare affordability is right at the top of the list. Uh, so we need to do something to extend these premium tax credits. It'll be save people thousands and thousands of dollars. Literally $1000 a month for some people, so it'll be dramatically more affordable. The people who make above $400,000 are the teeny little percentage of people that are not a very small group of people that would benefit from the existing tax credits. Most of the people are below $200,000. That 200 to $400,000 is a way to taper it off so there's not a cliff."
When asked how much Democratic support does Suozzi have at this point, the congressman said:
"I think the Democrats are going to strongly back the idea of extending premium tax credits, so that we can keep people's insurance affordable. So we've got to come up with this compromise...Democrats have always said that they want to direct the policy towards lower and middle income folks, people making under $400,000 a year are bread and butter issues that we want to try and make things affordable for those folks. So and that will be like literally 95%, 99% of the people that are affected right now."
During the interview, Brennan and the congressmen discussed bipartisan negotiation on potential alternatives to Obamacare.
When asked if the entire system needs to be rebooted, and when will we see the plan, Bacon said:
"I do think Republicans and Democrats are going to sit down at the table and figure out what can we really do besides just throw more money at this. Right now, the, you know, the premiums are just going up so much faster than inflation. It's unsustainable. And but we can't do a Republican only fix it. It's not gonna work. You're not gonna get 60 votes in the Senate to do it. And I know some folks proposed that back in Congress. Let's go up with our plan. Well, it can't just be a Republican plan if we want to pass something, so we got to sit down with Democrats and figure out what can we do. And there's some good ideas out there. So for example, you know, I've heard, you know, if we can directly subsidize high risk people and put them in a separate pool and just lower their premiums through subsidies. And then the, we call it the healthier folks, their premiums are gonna go down significantly if we do that. So there's different concepts that we can do to, that can have an impact, uh, but it's gonna have to be a bipartisan. Way forward. It's not going to be a Republican only bill because you'll never get it passed."
Brennan then asked Suozzi if Democrats need to be more open to broader reforms of the Affordable Care Act after health insurance companies, like Aetna, pulled out of the Obamacare marketplace this year after CVS said they are expected to lose as much as $400 million, to which the congressman said:
"We absolutely should be looking at any kind of reform. I want to mend it, not end it. You know that over the past decade that there have been over 70 attempts, mainly by the Republicans, not guys like Don Bacon, who's a very reasonable guy. To try and get rid of Obamacare altogether, we think that's a terrible idea, but if people want to try and make it a better system to make health care more affordable in America and to get health care to more people, we should be doing that. That's what the people want. That's what reasonable people in Congress want. We should be working together to try and expand health care coverage, lower prices for everybody, and make health. Care more effective and less expensive for people. Now that's not going to happen with everybody yelling and screaming at each other. Everybody who says, Why don't you just doesn't know what the hell they're talking about. You cannot solve complicated problems in an environment of fear and anger. You need reasonable people to sit down and talk to each other and say, I think this. Well, I think that, and then work your way towards finding compromise. Very hard to do in this toxic environment. People like Don Bacon and other members of the Problem Solvers Caucus want to do that type of thing."
Later in the interview, Brennan and the congressmen talked about the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
When asked if it was a tactic to distract from the failure to extract healthcare changes or if there's something else going on, and if House Speaker Mike Johnson putting it to a vote ended the issue, Suozzi said:
"I think it's a combination of factors, of people shining their lights on the most hot topic at the time. You know, Jeffrey Epstein, of course, is an important topic. I'm sure I'll vote to release his files, but that's not my priority. My priority is to focus on the things that the American people care about: affordability, immigration, taxes, crime and health care. That's what people are fighting about, that's what they're concerned about, that's what we should be focused on in Congress."
Bacon then shared his thoughts after Brennan asked him if House Speaker Johnson putting the Epstein issue to a vote gets them back on to healthcare.
"I think the Speaker realizes the train has left the station on this. Let's rip the Band-Aid off and get it done. I wish the president realized that. The more the White House pushes back on this. It's, you know, it just looks bad, right? I mean, it was- the attorney general came out and said, all these white binders, we're gonna release all this information and then, a month later, said, 'Oh, no, we're not.' So it's been a PR blunder from the beginning. And I think the Speaker is right, this is gonna happen, so let's get it done and vote on it. Now, we got to realize it still has to go to the Senate. Then it has to go to the president for a signature. Meanwhile, our Oversight Committee is releasing thousands and thousands of pages of evidence concerning Epstein. So for example, like 3,000 pages was released late last week. So the Oversight Committee, Republicans and Democrats are putting out the data. They're putting out subpoenas. I think it's already working, but like Tom when this comes on the floor, I'm going to vote yes on it. I want transparency. We must...we want to protect the victims, but everything else should be open."
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE)
To watch more of Brennan's interview with the congressmen, click here.
