Senator Marshall: Our Bill Will Bring Down the Cost of Healthcare by $1,000 a Month

Senator Marshall Joins Marc Jacobs on Eagle Media Radio Washington – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined Marc Jacobs on Eagle Media Radio to discuss his Patients Deserve Price Tags Act and how it will lower the cost of health care for Kansas families, the wins Republicans are making on the cost of living, why voter ID and proof of citizenship matter to our elections, and what President Trump is doing for American farmers. Click HERE to download the full video. On the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act: “Well, you know, you know what — yesterday was the day that I came to D.C. to do. We passed what we call our price tags bill out of committee. This is a bill I’ve been working on for eight or nine years. Patients deserve price tags, not surprise billing, and our bill forces every healthcare provider to show you the price up front. Could you imagine going to the grocery store, standing in front of the meat counter, and you’re trying to decide — you know, I’m on a fixed budget here, shall I pick a hamburger, shall I pick some pork, or maybe some chicken — and you wouldn’t know the price on it? You know, of course you can’t. So, healthcare shouldn’t be any different; we force every healthcare provider to show you the price up front. We think that this will bring down the cost of healthcare by $1,000 a month for a family. So, it’s a big day; we got it through the committee. The House has a similar bill that they’ve got out, so now we just got to get it to the floor somehow. And, by the way, it passed 22 to 1 — bipartisan support. Out of the 23 members on my healthcare committee, 22 of us voted yes.” “Right, right. And no, no estimates. Look, if you need an MRI of your knee, one place may charge you $300, another may charge you $3,000 for the exact same thing. A hip replacement — one place may charge you $15,000, another place $80,000. And by the way, many times the one that’s less expensive has better outcomes as well. So, patients deserve price tags; they deserve the transparency. This is going to drive competition, bring competition into healthcare. And yes, it should be an itemized bill as well, rather than just saying — you know six months after the procedure — ‘this is what you owe.’ And I think even if you’re on Medicare and you’ve got that supplemental insurance, and you’ve got a big deductible, you’re still going to shop — you’re paying your 20% out of pocket as well. So, this forces transparency, forces every healthcare provider to show you the prices, and then we’ve got some real teeth to this bill as well — significant fines if the hospital doesn’t do it.” On legislation Republicans have passed: “Well, that’s always a great question — I hope we can get it done before the midterms; that would be my goal. I think the number one issue back home is the cost of living— it’s the cost of gas, it’s the cost of groceries, but nothing has went up more than healthcare and housing have went up. We’ve already passed the housing bill, and that’s become law. That housing bill is going to roll back regulations, roll back the coding laws as well, and make it less expensive to build new homes, which hopefully allows more people to get into those new homes and open up some other homes downstream as well. So, we’re trying to impact housing and healthcare. And yes, I understand the price of gas is going back up, and all I can say is the situation in Iran is we cannot let Iran have nukes. And we certainly don’t want any boots on the ground — I just mourn the loss of these 18 soldiers. But I think the benefit of Iran not having nukes for generations to come is a big deal. But we hopefully can keep that Strait open and get the price of gas back down as well. So, I am locked in on the cost of living.” On what President Trump is doing for American farmers: “Exactly. And that’s why the President has given us a bill — a reconciliation bill — that has $12 billion more for the American farmer. Now we’ve already given the American farmer over $40 billion of farm aid; this has another $12 billion in it. The President recognizes that the farmers are bearing the brunt of this war in Iran, that it’s driving fertilizer and diesel prices up — as you said, two of their biggest input costs. Look, exports of our products are up 15 or 20 percent; we’re rolling back regulations, we’re giving farmers a chance, we’ve added 65 billion dollars to crop insurance to Title I funding — that’s going to help the fall crops as well. But the farmers are the tip of the spear here. So, this reconciliation bill that passed out of the House Representatives yesterday has $12 billion for farmers. And by the way, no Democrat votes — no Democrats voted in favor of it that I’m aware of. And that’s why we have to do it through reconciliation, we reconcile the budget — this is one of the few things we can get through with 50 votes. By the way, it has another $70 billion for the military, and then about $10 billion to help implement voter ID. So those are good things. It’s not perfect, but I hope we will get that across the finish line over here on the Senate.” On voter ID and passing the SAVE America Act: “Look, election integrity is paramount to every republic, and if voters don’t have confidence in our elections, then it’s a bad day for democracy. Look, we don’t want our vote to be canceled by an illegal alien, by a dead person, by somebody that moved and they’ve stolen that ballot. So, I’ve done everything I can fighting to get this across the finish line. Look, in the Senate this will take 60 votes — that’s the way the Senate is set up. It’s supposed to be hard on the Senate; we want to measure twice and cut once, so it’ll take 60 votes. So, the question is, why can we not get 10 Democrats to vote in favor of voter ID? Listen to them — you listen to the Democrats, and they will not support voter ID, let alone proof of citizenship, let alone some type of guardrails around unsolicited ballots going out as well. It’s just beyond me that we can’t find 10 Democrats to support that, and that’s what’s holding this up on the Senate side. They can do this with Republican-only votes on the House — it’s a 50-50 vote over there — but in the Senate, it’ll take 60 votes to get this across the finish line. This is why I’m begging John Thune to, one at a time, let’s vote. Let’s make the Democrats vote just on voter ID and let America see exactly what they’re doing — let their constituents back home see that they voted against voter ID. And then let’s make them vote on proof of citizenship, and then let’s make them vote on some type of guardrails around mail-in ballots as well. We need to get them on the record. It’s just a crying shame that we cannot find 10 Democrat senators to support this.” “Yeah, you know, when I get on the air on the airplane, I have confidence that everybody’s shown an ID, I have confidence that everyone has been through a metal detector. Now look, we haven’t had an abduction of an airline, I think, since 9/11 — but yet we’re still doing it. And even though the folks know me when I go check in — those folks know me, I fly every week, so they know who I am — but I still have to show them my ID. And to your point, what is the value of voting to a republic? To me, it has a higher value than checking into a hotel or you know renting a car — all those other places you have to show an ID. I think it’s a reasonable thing to do. And then the proof of citizenship — the way we have this bill written, even if you can’t find your original birth certificate or your naturalization papers, all you have to do is sign an attestation that you indeed are a citizen. Now, look, it’s under perjury — you could be prosecuted if you’re lying, but I think it’s a very reasonable approach to it. By the way, Kansas has voter ID. And there’s probably a dozen states that do — maybe more. And so, this wouldn’t change anything in Kansas, but we sure would like to see those blue states have voter ID. And then I think the proof of citizenship would take it up another notch for Kansas and everybody else. Again, we don’t want our vote canceled; we don’t want to think that I’m wasting my time because I know if I go, there’s going to be some illegal alien, there’s going to be a dead person that’s voting, all those things. We don’t want our vote canceled.” On the challenge of balancing the budget and paying for new programs: “Yeah, and I think that’s always the challenge up here — everybody knows how to spend money, but nobody wants to cut money. But I can tell you the big ‘pay for’ that I’m pushing right now is my price tags bill. Not only would it save working families $1,000 a month, but it’ll save Medicare and Medicaid hundreds of billions of dollars as well. Now, they’re not going to go hand in hand; I wish they could, but I’m constantly thinking about how to balance the budget. The biggest long-term issue this country faces is our national debt — we’re spending a trillion dollars a year on interest alone. So, every day I wake up, I’m on the budget committee, and how do we get this budget balanced? And on the other hand, Mark, I have 80 groups that want to meet with me every week, and guess what? Every one of them wants more money. So, nobody wants their program cut, but everyone wants me to balance the budget, so it’s a challenge.” ### Contact: Payton Fuller