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[Pages H642-H643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PAIN IS THE PRICE OF AMERICA'S HEALTHCARE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Louisiana (Mr. Abraham) for 5 minutes.
Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. Speaker, the $3 trillion healthcare industry
continues to crush the middle class. Americans are paying more than
ever and getting ever less as they struggle to access care. The cost of
care for both workers and employers is outpacing wage growth.
What drives the cost of care in America today is lack of
transparency, consolidation, and overregulation that is leading to
administrative glut. The time is now to confront these cost drivers.
President Trump has addressed these exact issues in recent months.
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Obtaining coverage has allayed the fears as costs rise, yet coverage
itself keeps costs hidden and high. Our opaque, third-party payment
system has obscured the true cost of receiving care from patients and
physicians alike.
Prices are rising with no end in sight. We see examples of it every
day, people who believe they are covered because they have insurance
only to find out that, in some cases, they are just as vulnerable as
those who are uninsured. The current system allows people who have
insurance to end up paying more for a CT, for example, than if they had
just paid cash.
This process and complexity of billing can allow this to happen. This
lack of transparency in our healthcare system is a culprit, and it
harms patients, physicians, pharmacists, and others who rely on it.
Consolidated hospital systems, the completely unregulated
pharmaceutical middlemen, PBMs, and the insurance companies that are
tied to both hospitals and PBMs have been increasingly profiting. These
corporate giants have no motivation to offer transparency and
discounts.
Costs remain deliberately hidden until the patient receives a bill.
The number of healthcare administrators has grown more than 4,000
percent between 1970 and 2020. Consequently, spending on healthcare has
increased 3,200 percent.
Is there any other conclusion than to tie rising costs to
administrative glut? No. Administrative glut is largely to manage the
regulations that our government has put in place, regulations that make
healthcare more complex than the tax code. It is past time to cut the
glut.
Medicine's malignant mergers, both vertical and horizontal, are
creating behemoth healthcare systems like CVS, where insurance
companies, PBM, pharmacy, and drive-by clinics are all together. This
leads to patients being forced to go somewhere to receive their drugs
and, in some cases, are told that they have to purchase brand-name
drugs even when the generic equivalent is available. It is not about
what is a better deal for the patient but what is a better deal for the
PBMs and their ilk.
Americans are paying more than ever for coverage that limits their
choices and doesn't always provide them access to care. The bloated
bureaucratic special interests must be unveiled and Americans must
educate themselves on cost drivers to forge sustainable solutions.
We need to focus on returning to a patient-centered healthcare
system. Some people are starting to do this with things like direct
primary care, which provides the patient with an array of services for
a fixed cost that is actually transparent.
{time} 1030
We need a system that allows patients to choose and fosters
competition. The only way we are going to get a system like that is by
shining a light on the shadows of our healthcare system. The answer is
not more government, not more regulation but, rather, a concerted
effort by Congress to bring our healthcare system out into the sunshine
and to allow our sunshine to shine on these hidden practices; these
practices are actually causing our prices to go up. No longer can we
allow patients to bear the brunt of this complicated and very, very
complex system.
The time is now to follow healthcare's money trail, unwind existing
laws, or enact new laws that demand cost transparency, cut
administrative glut, stop consolidation, and bring regulatory relief.
Your health depends on it.
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