Obama may not be president, but he still holds a lot of power. Unfortunately for him, he’s losing his grip on power.
And now Barack Obama is sweating bullets after one Congresswoman exposed a huge scandal.
Miller-Meeks Blames Obamacare for Skyrocketing Costs
A physician who now serves as a House Republican is pointing directly to the Affordable Care Act—widely known as Obamacare—as the root cause of escalating healthcare expenses burdening American families.
“They removed choice by patients by limiting and prohibiting association health plans, so small businesses were disadvantaged,” said Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa.
“They had mandates for how the rating for insurance companies can go — they had mandated essential benefits, so people that are young and healthy and may not want a lot of healthcare, they just want it for catastrophic, couldn’t get just catastrophic coverage, so there was no choice in what benefits you had.”
Miller-Meeks said it led to people having to pay for their health premiums but not being able to afford the deductible to actually go see a doctor — in other words, “You can have insurance, but not care.”
She said costs were also driven up by “simple things such as prohibiting doctors from doing things in their office, but paying a hospital more, which led to the development of hospital outpatient clinics.”
“Well, they paid the hospitals more to do it, so you weren’t having [a simple procedure] done at a doctor’s office…it was done at the hospital. So there are many things within the unaffordable care act that drove up healthcare costs,” she explained.
Key Features of GOP’s Premium-Reduction Bill
Miller-Meeks is spearheading the House Republicans’ “Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act,” designed to cut costs across a wider population rather than merely prolonging expiring enhanced Obamacare subsidies.
It’s set to be voted on in the early evening on Wednesday, when it’s expected to pass roughly along party lines.
The plan as-is includes provisions to codify association health plans, which allow small businesses and people who are self-employed to band together to purchase healthcare coverage plans, giving them access to greater bargaining power.
Republicans also plan to appropriate funding for cost-sharing reductions beginning in 2027, which are designed to lower out-of-pocket medical costs in the individual healthcare market. House GOP leadership aides said it would bring down the cost of premiums by 12%.
New transparency requirements for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are also in the legislation, aimed at forcing PBMs to be more upfront about costs to employers.
PBMs are third parties that act as intermediaries between pharmaceutical companies and those responsible for insurance coverage, often responsible for administrative tasks and negotiating drug prices.
She said its various facets “will reduce premiums by 11%.”
Broader Benefits and Patient Choice
The legislation emphasizes empowering patients and curbing incentives that inflate prices, setting it apart from subsidy-focused approaches.
“What’s important about this bill is that Republicans want to reduce healthcare costs for everyone, for all people, not just a select few. And we certainly don’t want to continue the corporate gravy train of subsidies to insurance companies, which then have no incentive to lower premiums,” Miller-Meeks said.
“So it gives patients more choice, it allows more flexibility in what kind of insurance coverage they have, but most importantly, it’s the first bill to actually bring down premiums,” Miller-Meeks said.
