Ranking Member Cassidy Delivers Remarks During Hearing on Medical Debt

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered remarks during today’s hearing on medical debt.

Click here to watch the hearing live. 

Cassidy’s speech as prepared for delivery can be found below:

Thank you, Chair Sanders, and thanks to all of our witnesses for joining us today. 

As a doctor who treated uninsured and underinsured Americans for decades and now as a Senator, addressing the need for affordable health care has been a life-long mission.

I have been at the bedside when a patient learned that her diagnosis was either fatal or altered her life. The burden of high costs of care and medical debt should not be the first thing on a patient’s mind. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

It’s essential that we address medical debt, but we must do so by understanding root causes.

Ultimately, medical debt is a symptom of a greater problem within our health care system. This Committee needs to address the high cost of both health care coverage and health care services that are financially crippling patients nationwide.

Right now, Americans pay more for health insurance than ever before.  On the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges, the average monthly unsubsidized insurance premium on a silver tier plan is $483 for a 40-year old. For a family of four, average unsubsidized premiums on a silver plan are nearly $1600 per month. Average deductibles on ACA plans are $5,000. This is the amount patients are paying before they ever see a benefit from their insurance plans, despite these high premiums.

Insurance coverage is simply unaffordable for many American families. The exorbitant cost of coverage may lead to medical debt for both those who are insured and uninsured. 

We also have to examine where patients are taking on this debt. Data shows hospitals are responsible for more than half of medical debt.  Congress has long provided additional resources and support to hospitals to help cover the costs of patients who may be unable to pay for their care. Many federal grant programs are available to hospitals in financial distress to ensure they can continue to deliver quality health care. Congress even created a program for hospitals, known as 340B, to help health care providers that serve low-income and uninsured patients purchase drugs at lower costs. We also provide the Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) program and Upper Payment Limit (UPL) program as well as non-profit, tax-exempt status to assist hospitals that treat low-income and uninsured patients.

Hospitals participating in 340B receive substantial discounts on prescription and oncology drugs, but it is unclear if those discounts are actually being used to lower the cost of care for patients. Since last year, I have led an investigation into how health care entities use revenue generated from the 340B program. While the Chair declined to participate in this investigation, this is an important topic to consider if we want to address the root causes of the medical debt issue.

Instead of talking about these important issues facing our health care system, Democrats will tout their legislation to cancel all medical debt. To be clear, a one-time cancelation of medical debt is not a real solution. It is a band-aid approach that fails to address root causes of medical debt. It just shifts the debt onto taxpayers and allows new debt to start racking up again.

We may hear today that Medicare for All or a single payer system would be a cure-all for medical debt. But let’s be clear, a health care system run by the government, at the expense of the American taxpayer, does not solve the high cost of health care, nor does it eliminate debt. Taxpayers are still paying.

This committee has a long history of engaging in real bipartisan efforts to ensure our health care system works better for patients. Just last year, the Committee passed the PBM Reform Act to address misaligned incentives affecting PBMs and the price patients pay for their prescriptions. We need that signed into law.

Thank you again to our witnesses for being here to discuss how to responsibly address medical debt and ways Congress can improve patients’ access to quality, affordable health care.

###

For all news and updates from HELP Republicans, visit our website or Twitter at @GOPHELP.