Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., believes some of the largest healthcare companies should be broken up.
Johnson made the comments in a Wednesday appearance on CNN, comparing it to when the government broke up AT&T when it believed it was a monopoly.
"There's not one incentive in our current system driving costs down," Johnson said.
"Let's say, if you're a realtor, you'd rather get your 7% commission on a $1 million house, as opposed to a $100,000 house," Johnson added. "Same dynamic's occurring in healthcare, so there's no incentive."
Johnson said the consolidation of the healthcare companies has resulted in monopolies where consumers don't get a say in prices.
"We have to pay insurance, we have to pay our taxes, but we could care less, because nobody knows what anything costs," Johnson said. "The doctors don't, the nurses don't, the patients don't, just the bean counters.
"It's a completely broken system."
The Wisconsin senator said Republicans are trying to bring back free-market competition and consumerism back to healthcare.
"We're trying to fund HSA accounts," Johnson said.
"We're trying to bring consumerism back, so we have consumers worried about what a doctor's visit costs, what a procedure costs, have insurance for the high-cost surgeries, that type of thing," Johnson said.
"That's what insurance is meant to be, not first-dollar coverage. But we've shifted to this third-party payer system. It's a disaster," Johnson continued.
Johnson said by funding HSA accounts, they can get rid of the faulty design of Obamacare.
A Democrat-backed Senate bill that would address Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at year's end received support from four Republicans on Thursday, but not enough to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to advance.
A related Republican bill aimed at addressing rising health insurance premiums in the new year also failed 51-48, receiving no support from Democrats.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.