Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is an idiot, or he thinks all of us are, or both. As we've already discussed here, the HSAs that Republicans are pushing as an alternative to the ACA subsidies which are expiring are a cruel joke, and are not a solution for the people who will lose coverage because they can't afford it.
With the deadline looming, the Senate is set to vote on Bill Cassidy and Mike Crapo's proposal, and on the Democrats' plan to extend the expiring ACA credits for three years.
Marshall made an appearance on Rob Schmitt's show on Newsmax this Wednesday and was asked about the upcoming vote, and made the ridiculous assertion that somehow people being aware of what their health care costs are is going to give them some sort of leverage to negotiate lower prices on their own.
SCHMITT: Your thoughts on the Crapo-Cassidy plan.
MARSHALL: Well, I think it's a great step in the right direction. Thanks in many instances because of Obamacare, healthcare is in a crisis. And what we want to do is put patients in charge, not insurance companies. So what Obamacare does, among other things, is send $150 billion a year to insurance companies.
We want to take a small portion of that amount of money and put it in your health care savings account so you can make choices. We want to give you choices, put you in control, and we think that's going to drive down the cost of health care for everybody.
SCHMITT: I mean, I think the hardest part of this is people have a hard time understanding insurance and health care. And I think where is the problem? Is there a way that, can you explain in a way that people can understand exactly What happened to healthcare and the cost of it in this country and why the hell it's, I mean, why is, even if you're not on Obamacare, your insurance premiums are skyrocketing? Where is the problem?
MARSHALL: Yeah, Rob, I think it's the complexity. Remember, Nancy Pelosi saying we need to pass the bill so we can read what's in it. But there is just layers and layers of complexity and it allows hospitals, insurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers to hide the true cost of things.
So that's why we want to pair this, putting money in a health care savings account, plus price tags. We want patients to become consumers again. We want patients to see what the actual prices are. We believe that if we would add the price tags to this bill, that it would save the country a trillion dollars a year.
That's not me saying that. Forty economists say if we give patients price tags, we make them consumers, it'll save $1,000 a month per family. So I think it's a complexity. I think it's the way insurance companies, hospitals hide the true cost of health care.
SCHMITT: Yeah. How much of the problem is the fact that, you know, Americans are, we have a very... we have the boomers all getting very old and we have a lot of methods of keeping them alive for a very long time and that's very, very expensive to do. I mean that's... it's just a costly thing to keep people alive into their 80s and 90s.
MARSHALL: Yeah, it is. And America, be honest, is a sick nation. have, We have, what? 30 percent of Americans have a chronic disease and we're spending about 90 percent of our dollars on those chronic disease like diabetes and heart disease, those basic basic things as well.
So we are a sick nation, and part of... you want me to balance the budget. We need to solve this riddle. Part of it is making patients consumers again. Part of it is making patients healthier as well. A little healthier diet, a little more exercise, those types of things.
SCHMITT: Got 10 seconds left. This... it looks like this doesn't pass. The Crapo-Cassidy plan won't pass. What do you think happens here over the next few weeks?
MARSHALL: Well, we're going to keep fighting. Look, Obama gave us these problems. We're trying to fix it. We're going to keep pushing our price tags bill. We got good bipartisan support, so I'm going to keep in there fighting.
People know full well what their costs are for their medical care because it's right there on their bills, along with what portion the insurance company picked up if they're insured. No one's "hiding" anything. Does he think people are going to go haggle with a doctor, or a hospital or a pharmacy on their own and demand lower prices as an individual?
These people are clowns. They have no alternative to the ACA and never will. Their alternative is to make insurance unaffordable, allow millions to die and bankrupt people with medical bills.
As I've said over and over again, their plan is still the same:
