Custom Health Option and Individual Care Expense Arrangement Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Madam Chair, I notice that my friend and colleague from Texas talks about the current system discriminating. Well, the current system discriminates against small businesses and people who can't afford the massive cost of insurance or care. That is the truth.

My colleague refers to an icky kind of coverage. The fact of the matter is that we have a large segment of the American people who are trapped in so-called coverage, but they are not able to get care.

That is why we are here. We are trying to increase options for the American people.

My only concern about what we are doing with this legislation, which I wholeheartedly support, and trying to encourage small businesses and give them options to be able to provide better options for their employees, is I don't believe that, in America, you should only be able to get insurance through government or your employer.

We should be freeing up the system. We should be embracing healthcare freedom. We should be creating an environment where the American people control their healthcare rather than employers and government. That is the truth.

I offered an amendment to simply spell that out in the form of a sense of Congress, a sense of Congress that the future of healthcare lies in healthcare freedom, not in socialized medicine; that Congress should take steps to address the broken healthcare system by restoring free market practices to lower costs; that coverage is not care and expanding direct access to healthcare should be prioritized over expanding access to coverage; and that patients and doctors, not government bureaucrats or insurance bureaucrats, should make healthcare decisions.

Why do I think that? Well, the deals that are struck with the government by big corporations are the problem. For example, most recently, ObamaCare guaranteed their actual growth and profit. For example, Anthem had a 344 percent increase in government revenue from 2010 to 2020. UnitedHealthcare had a 198 percent increase. Cigna, Anthem, UnitedHealthcare, and Humana have seen an average increase of 562 percent in their stock prices from January 2011 to January 2021.

Here is the kicker. In 2018, for at least three of these companies, the majority of their revenue came from the government: UnitedHealthcare, 53.4 percent; Anthem, 58.7 percent; and Humana, a whopping 86.9 percent.

It is that corporate cronyism that is reducing options. They are making it more difficult for the American people.

The fact is, for Americans who are trapped in coverage through ObamaCare--for example, when I came to Congress as a Member of Congress, I was put on ObamaCare, not some gold-plated plan that flies around on the internet that we supposedly have, but on ObamaCare. The place I went to cure the cancer that I had a decade ago, MD Anderson, I wouldn't be allowed to use. What kind of coverage is that?

That is what we are telling the American people. That is the best we can do in the freest, greatest country in the history of the world. Bow down to the altar of government and corporate America to be able to figure out how you should get care.

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Mr. ROY. Madam Chair, do you know who should decide what an essential health benefit is? The consumer, the American, not a government bureaucrat or a corporate bureaucrat. I will stand up for the 5,000 babies that have been born in Texas greater than last year's number of babies in the wake of the Dobbs decision.

Let me just say this. According to the CBO, Federal subsidies for health insurance coverage for Americans under the age of 65 will hit $1 trillion this year. The average American family spends more than $22,000 a year on premiums for themselves through their employees. Again, coverage is not care.

There are other healthcare models that work. The Wall Street Journal showed what cutting out the middleman in healthcare can do for costs: $150 a month to cover a family of five on a direct primary care model.

A DPC practice in my district charges only $50 to $80 for an X-ray compared to the national average of $125. MRIs are $300 to $450 compared to the national average of $1,325.

It is not just primary care. For example, at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, a direct care model, a knee replacement costs $18,000 compared to the average cost of $50,000 in the United States.

Healthcare sharing ministries are driving down costs for the American people, giving them coverage and giving them options.

The fact is we should imagine an America where, through a health savings account, your employer can give you real dollars, rather than a faceless insurance company, to pursue real care of your choice, so for a flat monthly fee, you and your children have unlimited access to the physician of your choice. You could still get insurance for the big stuff, walking into a doctor's office and knowing how much things are going to cost.

Right now, the American people do not have options. I support this bill, but this amendment is important because we need a trajectory change in this country in favor of healthcare freedom, in favor of personalized care, in favor of patients and doctors over bureaucrats and corporations that are getting rich because the government is subsidizing their corporate cronyism.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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