An insurance system can't be set up for 300 million people to accomodate the 5 percent of people who are not insurable because they suffer from pre-existing conditions, and America's taxpayers are funding a plan that doesn't work, Rep. Dave Brat, who opposes the American Health Care Act, said on Friday.
"We want a full repeal of the federal system," the Republican Virginia lawmaker told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "What's interesting is you don't hear us pushing too much back on the fiscal part. We have serious problems with pre-existing conditions."
"Five percent of the people is 50 percent of our national cost," Brat said. "We need to deal with those folks here. They are uninsurable. You don't set up an insurance system for 300 million people around 5 percent who aren't insurable. Take care of them in the safety net through welfare and programs that deal with their sicknesses."
In addition, he continued the "distortion" around insurance began after World War II, when employers began funding most of their workers' insurance premium costs.
"That started us off on a path, the [there was] Obamacare paying sole attention to coverage," Brat said.
Eventually, the Affordable Care act went into a "death spiral," while insurers such as Aetna and Humana pulled out."
Instead, he said, a free market system is needed, so prices will go down, because now, the cost of coverage has gone up by 25 percent.
"If you get rid of the regulations, we got rid of one in the upcoming bill, that pushes prices down 10 percent," Brat continued. "You are still up 15 percent. We have to bend the cost curve down so the average person at home sees a decline in premiums."
Brat said he wants to push coverage for pre-existing and risk pool patients back to the states.
"There's a huge pot of money, $100 billion for pre-existing and risk pools," Brat said. "[Sen.] Rand Paul wants associations where you join a huge group and push the cost down . . . people aren't shopping with their own dollars anymore. When you have to pull money out of your wallet, you don't pay attention. That's not going on. You go in and you are at the mercy of what the hospital says or your doctor says and we need to bring that down."
In addition, taxpayers are subsidizing health care that doesn't work, Brat said.
"For a 'Bronze' plan, the average deductible for the lower-middle class person is $11,000 to use it," he added. "[President Donald] Trump wants to shop across state lines. Even if you have that in the current plan, you are going to shop for a socialist product that no one can afford."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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