Any bipartisan Senate deal to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits must first "conform" with what President Donald Trump wants, Sen. Bill Cassidy said Sunday while calling for reforms that would steer subsidy dollars to patients rather than insurers.
"Don't give 100% of the money to insurance companies that take 20% for profit and overhead," the Louisiana Republican said in a televised interview. "Give the money to the patient."
Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, said the concept would include expanding health savings accounts and shifting "the power" away from insurance companies.
He said the goal is to make health care and health insurance more affordable, adding that Republicans and Trump "both want that to happen." Cassidy said he could not yet predict the chances of passage.
Cassidy also aimed at abortion coverage rules in ACA marketplace plans, saying the "status quo is actually not acceptable."
He said the original ACA envisioned that each state would offer at least one plan that did not cover abortion for people whose "conscience did not want them to pay for abortion," but he said a dozen or more states require that every plan cover abortion.
"If you really want to go and make it right for all Americans, pro-choice, that's fine, and pro-life, yes, you also have a voice, let's give them a voice," Cassidy said, signaling he wants changes to ensure that abortion-free options are available.
He suggested Trump's involvement would be decisive in reaching a compromise.
Cassidy also criticized what he described as an abrupt change by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the childhood vaccine schedule, saying it was done with "no input on safety risks and little transparency," and warning it could "cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors making Americans sicker."
Pressed on whether he regretted voting to confirm Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., however, Cassidy said he did not want to make it "personal," and instead focused on the consequences for patients.
He pointed to meningococcal disease as rare but devastating, saying it can lead to amputations, and said vaccine policy must reflect the realities of the U.S.
"If you meet our country where they are, not imagine that we are Denmark, you will find that you actually have to have this sort of vaccine schedule," Cassidy said.
He called the way the change was carried out "totally dumb," saying it bypassed the normal process.
Cassidy said he has been hearing frustration from physicians about vaccine-preventable illnesses, citing measles cases and describing a severe flu season with immunization rates "at an all-time low."
"Let's just take care of people and move beyond your ideology," he said.
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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