HEALTH INSURANCE

Quick facts

Record: Senate Floor
Section type: Floor speeches
Chamber: Senate
Date: June 23, 2026
Congress: 119th Congress
Why this source matters: This section came from the Senate floor portion of the record.

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Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, people know that the Federal Government helps Americans purchase health insurance.

We do that by making health insurance tax deductible. When you pay for your premiums, it is on what is called a pretax basis, but something is wrong. The lowest paid Americans in the employer-sponsored insurance market get the least amount of help from the Federal Government.

Now, if you are poor, you get 100 percent of your health insurance

paid for by Medicaid. If you are on the exchange, you get below a certain income level, almost 90 percent of your expenses paid, but if you are making, I don't know, $67,000 a year and you get your insurance through your employer, you only get about 15 percent of that coverage. You would get $6,000 toward the typical policy; whereas, if you are on Medicaid, you would get $25,000.

If you are wealthier, you get probably, in some cases, almost half of

this coverage, half of your insurance paid for, if you will, by the Federal Government, but if you are the lowest person in the employer- sponsored market, you get the least amount.

Now, why am I talking about healthcare? Affordability is a big issue. If you look at this graph, the annual cost for a family of four—this is all-comers—$37,000 to almost $38,000 per year. Now, a mortgage is $30,000. If you are renting, it is $24,000, private school tuition $20,000, going on down. And we speak about childcare. That is $18,000 a year. That is expensive. But if you are talking about the most expensive item that a family of four has, on average, it is healthcare at $37,000 a year.

Now, if you are making $87,000, how does that figure? Almost half of your salary is going toward healthcare expenses and the price of being insured. That is pharmacy, hospital bills, treatment, medications, and so on.

Now, this is unsustainable for our country, but it is, like, really

unsustainable for the family making $80,000 a year. And if you are paying that much, take it to $100,000, it is unsustainable. If you are paying that much, take it to $120,000 to $130,000, it is barely sustainable.

Now, you would think with healthcare costing that much and the

Federal Government helping some, that the greatest relief would go to the people who need it most. They actually get the least amount of relief. So if you are speaking about making healthcare more affordable—but if you are on Medicaid or the exchange, it is really affordable. We have set up systems where almost everything, if not everything, is covered.

If you are speaking about people who are doing better financially,

they get a far greater benefit. The point being that people that need it most get the least help.

I would argue that we in Congress have a responsibility to do

something about that. We are not asking what can Americans sacrifice to make ends meet; we are asking what can we do to make their sacrifice less of a problem.

So I would argue, on a bipartisan basis, that we should sacrifice

political pride, any shallow ambition for getting ahead of the other party, and let's plot a path forward.

But it requires both parties, the White House, the President, the

Senate, the House, to come together and get engaged and to come up with a plan.

Now, I am going to offer one. It doesn't have to be the final plan, but we have to have a plan, so let's start with this one. I call it the MVP agenda. “M” is for money in your pocket. If you take a family of four, and let's imagine that they have $2,000 a year in out-of-pocket expenses, under the MVP agenda, they would get $2,000 in a year into a health savings account to help pay for that out-of-pocket expense.

Now, again, for many families, that would cover the entire out-of-

pocket cost they would have per year. That family right now may have a deductible and an insurance policy with a deductible of $3,000. They don't have $3,000. They are putting it on their credit card, and then they can't pay their credit card bill.

Under the MVP plan, we give money in advance to the individual and to

the families—not to the insurance company but to the individual—for them to use 100 percent of the money on the care that they know they need.

By the way, if they are going to send it to the insurance company,

they take 20 percent of that for overhead and profit. If we send it to the family, they use 100 percent for the care they know they need, and everybody would get an equal amount upfront for their family's health.

So think about that family making $80,000 a year with a $3,000 deductible, and the child has an earache. They can't get that child care or, if they do, they are putting it on a credit card.

In this situation, they would have the money in the account to pay

for the care and to have the financial security associated with that.

What about the value? We are working—the Presiding Officer right now is on the HELP Committee. We are working right now on a PRICE Transparency bill. So we give them money in the pocket, but we want to make sure they have the knowledge they need to get the best value for that money.

And in the PRICE Transparency, which means you know the cost before

you buy it, if your daughter has an earache, look on your phone: Hey, Siri, where is the least expensive place after-hours to get my daughter's earache evaluated.

And it would say: Hmm, down the street is $50; down that street it is $500. You are going to go to the place which gives you the best value. And this combines the work we are doing on PRICE Transparency with what is being done in the private sector to develop apps that can take that information and deliver it to the family so that they can get the best value for their money.

So it isn't just that we give the money because that money could go

in a flash if they don't have the information on how best to spend it. We couple it with the PRICE Transparency and the work being done in the private sector for that money to bring true value. And who does it bring value to? It brings value to the patient. It is the MVP plan.

There is a lot already we are doing on that. Someone said: How is your plan coming? We are working on it right now in the HELP Committee, in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. And we are hoping to get that bill passed for that portion.

In the next portion regarding how do we advance dollars, we just need

a commitment from Congress to do it. If we are talking about affordability, if we are talking about housing—which we passed a bill yesterday to address—if we are talking about gasoline, hopefully, that will get better with resolution of things in the Middle East, groceries and healthcare, and of those, healthcare costs the most.

So if we can do something to make things better for the average

family, we are truly doing something positive for our fellow Americans.

Now, I think we all have to stand ready to work together. This builds on principles that President Trump said that he wanted to see implemented in any healthcare reform bill; specifically, that the money would go to the patient and not to the insurance company.

It also builds upon a bill that he signed into law in his first term,

the No Surprises Act, which I authored, that began to introduce price transparency. His administration has continued to push for price transparency, and I am sure he would welcome the opportunity to sign this bill into law for price transparency.

So we have the pieces of the White House engaged with this, and now

we need Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and the House to join the President in bringing relief.

Let's bring relief to the American family. Let's make life more affordable for them, and along the way, let's make life fairer for them.

I yield the floor.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.

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Now, if you are poor, you get 100 percent of your health insurance

If you are wealthier, you get probably, in some cases, almost half of

Now, this is unsustainable for our country, but it is, like, really

Now, you would think with healthcare costing that much and the

If you are speaking about people who are doing better financially,

I would argue that we in Congress have a responsibility to do

So I would argue, on a bipartisan basis, that we should sacrifice

But it requires both parties, the White House, the President, the

Now, again, for many families, that would cover the entire out-of-

Under the MVP plan, we give money in advance to the individual and to

By the way, if they are going to send it to the insurance company,

In this situation, they would have the money in the account to pay

And in the PRICE Transparency, which means you know the cost before

So it isn't just that we give the money because that money could go

In the next portion regarding how do we advance dollars, we just need

So if we can do something to make things better for the average

It also builds upon a bill that he signed into law in his first term,

So we have the pieces of the White House engaged with this, and now

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