{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-delivers-floor-speech-to-demand-end-to-shutdown-call-for-action-to-lower-health-costs-for-american-families/", "Cassidy Delivers Floor Speech to Demand End to Shutdown, Call for Action to Lower Health Costs for American Families", "2025-11-07", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "Senate", "LA", "Bill Cassidy", "C001075", "www.cassidy.senate.gov", "cassidy", "https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/?jsf=jet-engine:press-list", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), delivered remarks on the U.S. Senate floor calling on Democrats to end the shutdown and for Congress to work together on real solutions to lower health insurance costs for families. Specifically, he offered an alternative to the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, which funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to giant insurance companies with no incentive to lower the cost of health premiums.\n\nCassidy joined President Trump and Republican lawmakers calling for an end to the shutdown so Congress can work together on genuine reforms to fix the insurance market and lower health care costs.\n\n\u201cI want to present colleagues and fellow Americans with an idea that can move us forward out of this stalemate and solve the health care affordability problem.\u201d said Dr. Cassidy.\n\nSince arriving to Congress in 2009, Cassidy has led multiple efforts to deliver solutions that make health care affordable for families. In his speech, Cassidy proposed an idea to empower patients to manage their own health care and ensure resources go directly to families\u2019 pockets, rather than insurance companies.\n\nClick here to watch Cassidy\u2019s full remarks.\n\nSee below for the remarks as prepared for delivery.\n\nMr. President,\n\nThe government has been shut down for 38 days now.\n\nWe are about to have another failed vote that will continue the shutdown into next week.\n\nFamilies across the country are frustrated.\n\nWe need to open the government. If we need to talk about health care to do it, then let\u2019s talk about health care.\n\nWe have an affordability crisis and health care is part of this\n\nThis is personal to me. I practiced in a public hospital for the uninsured for two decades. I saw middle income patients who could no longer afford insurance and now came to the hospital where I worked.\n\nWe have to put down our entrenched way of thinking and think creatively.\n\nWashington and Obamacare have tried to make health care affordable by throwing more money at insurance companies.\n\nThe Enhanced Premium Tax Credit, or ePTC, is the latest example \u2014 a program that sends billions of taxpayer dollars straight to insurers in the hope that families will see smaller bills.\n\nBut let\u2019s face it \u2014 that doesn\u2019t make health care cheaper and makes it more expensive for millions.\n\nWe can do better than hiding the cost behind layers of bureaucracy.\n\nInstead of paying insurance companies to manage our money, let\u2019s trust Americans to manage their own care \u2014 with a pre-funded Federal Flexible Spending Account.\n\nI want to present colleagues and fellow Americans with an idea that can move us forward out of this stalemate and solve the health care affordability problem.\n\nLet me make clear: This is not me speaking for the Republican Conference or even as Chairman of HELP.\n\nThis is me speaking as a Senator and an American who wants to make health care more affordable for all Americans and by the way, end the shutdown.\n\nHere\u2019s the problem.\n\nUnder the ePTC, if your insurance premium goes up, Washington simply pays more of the bill.\n\nInsurers get paid no matter what \u2014 and taxpayers get stuck with the tab.\n\nThere\u2019s no incentive to bring costs down, no transparency about what care really costs, and no reward for families who try to save.\n\nIt\u2019s like putting a band-aid on a broken bone.\n\nWe\u2019re not fixing the system \u2014 we\u2019re just hiding the fracture. .\n\nThe ePTC doesn\u2019t empower patients. It enriches insurance companies. Insurance companies are important, we need them, but give me the choice of empowering you or enriching an insurance company, I pick you every time.\n\nNow imagine a different kind of help \u2014 not another insurance subsidy, but a health account you, a fellow American controls. .\n\nEvery eligible American would receive a Federally Pre-Funded Flexible Spending Account.\n\nIt would work like a prepaid health account that you could use for real-world health expenses:\n\nDental care \u2013 from cleanings to crowns;\n\nVision care \u2013 eye exams, eyeglasses, and contact lenses;\n\nOrthodontics \u2013 braces for kids or adults;\n\nPrescription drugs and medical supplies;\n\nRoutine medical services and preventive care.\n\nIt would not pay insurance premiums.\n\nInstead, it would pay for the care that families actually use \u2014 the parts of health care most Americans struggle to afford day-to-day.\n\nThe Pre-Funded Flexible Spending Account does exactly that.\n\nI will admit, this seems too complicated for some. It doesn\u2019t have to be. This is a tried-and-true means of paying for health care. 72% of Americans working for the government are offered FSAs. 47% of Americans employed by business have access to FSAs. What I am proposing just gives the same option to people on the exchanges.\n\nBy the way, speaking to private industry, they can stand it up.\n\nThe Federal Government already offers FSAs on the Small business Obamacare exchanges. Senators and Representatives are on these Small business Obamacare exchanges and the Treasury Department has an office which directs a portion of the Representatives or the Senator\u2019s paycheck into their FSA. My wife and I have one.\n\nAll this to say, the Federal Government can take the laws, tools, vendors and departments to make this happen.\n\nBy the way, if there is anyone who can push the bureaucracy to move faster, it is President Trump. His Operation Warp Speed developed a vaccine to protect Americans from Covid in 10 to 11 months when some said it would take 10 years and the most optimistic was 18 months. President Trump can make this happen.\n\nLet me make clear the key difference between ePTCs and a Federally pre-funded FSA\n\nWith the Pre-Funded Flexible Spending Accounts, we\u2019re taking money that the ePTC would send to an insurance company for profit, bureaucracy, administrative costs, oh, and by the way paying for some health care and, this is the difference, we send it to you, the consumer, the patient, an American citizen to directly pay for care without the markups and hidden costs of an insurance policy\n\nAnd there\u2019s more:\n\nIf the cash price for a service \u2014 say, a dental cleaning or a prescription refill \u2014 is lower than the insurance copay, YOU, the consumer can pay the cheaper cash price with their Pre-Funded Flexible Spending Accounts.\n\nThat means you save money, and so do the taxpayers funding the account.\n\nThis is the essence of giving power to patients: you pick the best deal, like in every other part of life.\n\nThe Pre-Funded Flexible Spending Accounts don\u2019t treat people like dependents of a government program as the PTCs do.\n\nIt treats you like capable consumers who knows what\u2019s best for your family.\n\nYou decide where to go for dental work.\n\nYou decide which pharmacy to use.\n\nYou decide whether to pay the negotiated rate or the cheaper cash price.\n\nInstead of Washington paying insurance companies to manage your day-to-day care, you manage it \u2014 with fairness, transparency, and flexibility.\n\nSome will ask: \u201cWon\u2019t this cost money?\u201d\n\nYes, it will \u2014 about the same as the current ePTC. My democratic colleagues should like that. An individual is getting better value through the Federally funded FSA.\n\nBut the difference is where that money goes.\n\nThat means more value for every federal dollar.\n\nAnd because it is in a family\u2019s financial interest to shop wisely, total spending is likely to go down over time \u2014 without a single new mandate or price control.\n\nThis isn\u2019t just fiscally responsible \u2014 it\u2019s common sense.\n\nSo here\u2019s the choice before us:\n\nWe can keep paying insurance companies to hide the cost of health care behind confusing bills and rising premiums in a system which actually raises the cost for some.\n\nOr we can give Americans the tools \u2014 and the trust \u2014 to pay for their care directly, at fair prices, with total transparency.\n\nIf we can, it puts patients, not insurers.\n\nIt encourages competition.\n\nIt rewards smart choices.\n\nAnd it makes health care truly affordable \u2014 not by inflating subsidies, but by unleashing the power of the consumer.\n\nLet\u2019s stop writing blank checks to bureaucracies and insurance companies.\n\nLet\u2019s invest in you.\n\nI will say, to accomplish this, we have to first open the government!\n\nWe have to be willing to take a risk to solve the problem and not be afraid to do something different, to tackle complex problems.\n\nWe will not solve them by retreating to where we have always been.\n\nI am a rock ribbed Republican but I will say, this is not a Republican solution, it is not a Democrat solution, it is an American solution.\n\nLet\u2019s open the government and then let\u2019s fix health care the American way,\n\nThank you.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-delivers-floor-speech-to-demand-end-to-shutdown-call-for-action-to-lower-health-costs-for-american-families/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1586938053369522, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}