The ONLY Democrat On Team GOP: Maine Blue Dog Jared Golden
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal headline blared Health-Insurance Costs Are Taking Biggest Jumps in Years. Ann Matthews reported that “Employers and workers are expected to see an increase of about 6.5% or higher in health-plan costs next year.” As strange as it sounds— especially in the midst of an election cycle— Democrats in Congress have been working to turn this around whole congressional Republicans are literally acerbating the problem and working to drive prices up. While “health-insurance costs are climbing at the steepest rate in years, with some projecting the biggest increase in more than a decade will wallop businesses and their workers in 2024,” the House Republicans are attacking and threatening to overturn Biden’s work to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices down.
With costs for employer coverage surging around 6.5% for 2024, which “could add significantly to the price tag for employer plans that already average more than $14,600 a year per employee, driving up health-insurance costs that are among the biggest expenses for many American companies and a drain on families’ finances,” House Republicans are in their own world, disconnected even with a majority of Republican voters.
A new poll released yesterday by Data for Progress shows that 82% of Democrats, 69% of independents (and 3rd party voters) and even 64% of Republicans say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate if they promised to take on big pharmaceutical companies. Asked if they supported Biden’s announcement that Medicare will be negotiating directly with drug companies— which congressional Republicans violently oppose— 92% of Dems, 81% of independents and 75% of Republicans said they support the decision.
Right now, just 10 drugs are included in the plan. Do voters want that increased? Congressional Republicans do not. 82% of Republican voters do, on the other hand— as do 92% of Democrats and 85% of independents.
In 2019, the House passed (230-192) the Elijah Cummings Lower Drug Prices Now Act (H.R. 3) that would have allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices for all prescription drugs. The bill passed on a party-line vote, with all Democrats voting in favor and just 2 Republicans— Jaime Herrera Beutler and Brian Fitzpatrick— voting against it. (Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey voted ro it as well, but he was still a Democrat at the time and would certainly vote against it now that he’s a robotic Republican). McConnell refused to allow a vote in the Senate and the bill died. The next time the price of drugs came up was November 19, 2021, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. It passed 220-213, every Republican (plus Blue Dog scum bag Jared Golden) opposed and every Democrat in favor. The final vote in the Senate was on August 7, 2022 when Vice President Kamala Harris broke the 50-50 deadlock that allowed passage. Every single Republican voted against it, including fake moderates like Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Mitt Romney (R-UT).
Matthews reported that “Employers worry the hike might signal a new trajectory, with health costs resuming the rapid upward march of the early 2000s. Now, though, big increases would come on top of a total annual cost per covered family that is often equivalent to the purchase price of a small car. These increases come at a time when employers are reluctant to add to out-of-pocket charges that have left some of their workers in debt or unable to get care they needed. ‘It’s much worse than we’ve seen over the last decade,’ said Elizabeth Mitchell, chief executive of the Purchaser Business Group on Health. ‘It comes out of wages and core business.’”