Boyle Opening Remarks at Budget Committee Hearing on Rising Health Care Costs
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congressman Brendan F. Boyle (PA-02), Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, delivered opening remarks at a Budget Committee hearing examining rising health care costs and the nation’s fiscal outlook.
In his remarks, Boyle criticized Republicans for creating a health care affordability crisis by cutting more than $1 trillion from the health care system and ripping coverage away from 15 million Americans—all to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and large corporations. Boyle slammed Republicans’ half-baked proposals, including Donald Trump’s one-page health care “plan”, that would drive costs even higher and cut coverage.
His remarks highlighted why Republicans must support a bipartisan, three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits that has already passed the House—legislation that would actually lower premiums and protect coverage for millions of families.
District-by-district data on the consequences of the Republican health care crisis is available on the House Budget Committee Democrats website here.
Remarks as delivered and video are below:
(Click for video of remarks as delivered)
Ranking Member Boyle's remarks as delivered:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank in advance the witnesses for taking the time to be here today. When I first heard that my Republican friends were holding a hearing on health care, I replied, "No, really what's the subject of the hearing?" because I was shocked.
This is the crowd that just passed a bill to take away health care from more than 15 million Americans, and now they want to have a hearing. "Geez, we should talk about the problems in health care."
Do you remember something called the Big Beautiful Bill? We have a president who gave it that absurd name, kept talking about it, kept bragging about his so-called Big Beautiful Bill. Beauty is really in the eye of the beholder.
It was a beautiful bill if you're a billionaire, if you're in the top 1 percent. $5.3 trillion worth of tax cuts, mostly going to the richest Americans. How is it paid for? The largest health care cuts in American history. Approximately $1 trillion of health care cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill. Most of those cuts are to the Medicaid program.
About 10 million Americans currently on Medicaid will lose their health care beginning December 1st of this year when those cuts kick in. Another 5 million Americans who currently have their health care through an Obamacare exchange will also lose it because of those cuts that have now begun to take effect.
In total, more than 15 million Americans will lose their health care as a result of the Trump-Republican Big Beautiful Bill. And as draconian as those health care cuts are, they still don't even pay for all or even a majority of the tax cuts, the rest — debt spending. The bill that was passed by the Republican majority last year, the single biggest increase in debt in American history.
Then they have the nerve to turn around and say, "My God, we have a debt problem, we should probably do something about it." Give me a break. Back to the 15 million Americans who are going to lose their health care as a result of their bill. I want to be clear, that's not my number. That's not from any Democratic source or Democrat source, as the folks on the other side constantly label us.
That's from the official projection of the Congressional Budget Office, CBO. So there is no dispute whatsoever that millions and millions of Americans are about to lose their health care, millions more will be paying more. The average increase coming from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the average increase for those on the Obamacare exchange in my state, 102 percent.
So overnight, a family that was paying $700 a month, now paying $1,400. For some, that just becomes unsustainable and unaffordable and so they drop coverage altogether. Now, you might think, I'm not on Medicaid, I'm not on Medicare, I'm not on Obamacare. Those cuts don't affect me. Some 170 million or so get their health insurance through an employer provided a plan.
They might think that they're fine. Next time you go to the ER and there are people ahead of you who are in that ER because they don't have health care. And they don't go to a primary care physician so they got really sick and are now showing up at the ER. That's impacting you. The health system in your area, especially if you're in a rural area that is cutting back on services in order to absorb these cuts, that's affecting your health care.
Make no mistake about it, every single American family will be hurt as a result of the greatest health care cuts in American history. Not even during the Great Depression did 15 million Americans lose their health care coverage. But thanks to President Trump and this Republican majority, they're about to make history with that number of Americans losing it.
I'll wrap up with this, or at least wrap up for now. Donald Trump, after being on the political scene for 10 years, has a "great" health care plan. Maybe you've seen it. Last year he talked about concepts of a plan. Now he has a "great" health care plan. Just don't get sick. Problem solved. Tax cuts for the rich. Health care cuts for everyone else.
Mr. President, how about instead of giving the American people Greenland, we give them health care?
###