Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released the following statement after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a report titled “Budgetary Outcomes Under Alternative Assumptions About Spending and Revenues”:

“When Democrats had unified control of government, they expanded taxpayer funded subsidies to large insurance corporations—twice—and President Biden has since proposed to make those expansions permanent. Today’s CBO report shows that the true cost of doing so would be nearly $400 billion over the next ten years. At a time when the devastating effects of inflation persist and the average deductible for a ‘silver’ level Obamacare plan is more than $5,000, Congress should stop expanding public funding to insurance companies. Instead, we must prioritize lowering the actual cost of health care with bipartisan legislation, like the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, which passed the House with overwhelming support. Any additional resources should be placed into the hands of patients, not insurance companies.” 

BACKGROUND: 

• In the radical tax-and-spend partisan reconciliation bills, Democrats increased existing Obamacare subsidies and made them available to insurance companies on behalf of enrollees who previously made too much money to qualify.  
• Today, CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation released a report that showed permanently extending expanded premium tax credits would cost $335 billion plus an additional $48 billion in interest payments, totaling $383 billion over ten years. (CBO) 
• The average deductible for a ‘silver’ Obamacare plan is $5,241 (Kaiser Family Foundation)