Senator Ashley Moody (R-FL) discussed the potential for healthcare costs to increase in a recent appearance on Fox News's Big Weekend Show, urging Republicans to "think outside the box" for a solution.
President Donald Trump recently suggested that Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies could be paid directly to Americans, a proposal Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) dismissed as allowing insurance companies to deny coverage to consumers with pre-existing conditions and an attempt to repeal the ACA.
Sen. Moody, when questioned if Sen. Schiff was mischaracterizing Trump's remarks, affirmed, explaining that "Republicans came together and we started looking at why we have just added another trillion dollars to our national debt in the fastest period in the history of our country." "And if you look at the skyrocketing costs of healthcare, they are solely caused by the structure that we have in place right now," Sen. Moody continued.
"There is money going out to insurance companies like you wouldn't believe, there are people signing up on ghost policies, there is fraud all over the place, money is going to pay for illegal immigrants to get healthcare," she warned.
As a result, the Florida Senator noted that "if we are going to lower costs, we need to think outside the box," claiming that insurance companies are heavily pro-Democrat.
In October, Representative Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) similarly urged Republicans to address rising healthcare costs, saying, "Democrats are using the American people during a government shutdown as political leverage for unrelated policy changes they know have no chance at becoming law."
"Democrats created this healthcare cliff and now want to use the shutdown to force Republicans to bail them out of their own mess, on their own terms," Rep. Ciscomani assessed. "Re-open the federal government and we can discuss solutions, as we had been doing before they forced this shutdown, to deliver real relief for working families without turning troops, border agents, or veterans into political bargaining chips," Rep. Ciscomani urged.
