While critics will reflexively attack the vote, the reality is that the right is finally confronting the real drivers of high health care costs.
It rolls back costly federal mandates, expands access to flexible health plans, promotes competition across state lines, and empowers individuals and families to make health care decisions. Instead of doubling down on one-size-fits-all coverage designed in Washington, the plan trusts Americans with more choice and control.
Central to this debate is the role of subsidies. Subsidies are often sold as “help” for working families, but in practice they are a major reason health care costs keep rising. They prop up a broken system that operates as an unholy alliance between hospitals, insurers, and the federal government.
Here’s how the scheme works: the government requires Americans to purchase health insurance. Hospitals, knowing patients are insured, can charge virtually whatever they want. Insurers, in turn, pay those inflated prices because they can simply pass the costs on through higher premiums. And when premiums rise, the government steps in with more subsidies, spending other people’s money to cover the increase. No one in this arrangement has any real incentive to control costs.
Subsidies are the glue that holds this corrupt system together. They allow government to exert control over health care while guaranteeing that hospitals and insurers keep getting paid as prices spiral upward.
Conservatives who want real reform understand that going after subsidies is not cruel, it’s critical. Reducing and reforming subsidies is one of the most effective ways to reintroduce price constraints, competition, and common sense into health care policy. The House vote is a clear signal that conservatives are ready to challenge a system that benefits insiders at the expense of patients and taxpayers.
Brian Phillips
Chief Communications Officer
