Rick Allen Praises Innovative Health Coverage Models With Reduced Government Oversight

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During a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) spoke of his approval for market-driven healthcare.

Transcript

00:00...committee to accomplish these goals. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

00:12I will start with my questions first. And before I do, I'd like to clarify just a few things

00:21for the witnesses and for everyone attending the hearing today. First, at least in my meetings

00:30with Elon Musk and his team in our conference meetings, his team has no authority to hire

00:38and fire a single federal employee. What they are doing is what I would do in my business.

00:45They're going in, they're analyzing it, they're running algorithms, they're looking at production,

00:49how many people it should take, and what it takes to run the government. I would think

00:54that any organization would want someone to take a look at that. Unfortunately, Congress

01:01hadn't been able to do that. And that is seriously our responsibility. But for whatever reason,

01:06politics gets in the way. And so he's providing a very valuable service to this country. And

01:14I think it's – I think, you know, we should be ashamed of demonizing somebody that actually

01:19wants to help us get out of a serious, serious situation. The other thing I would say is this.

01:25There are two things that have got to happen for us to sustain this country. First is we

01:33have to – and all the analysts say this – we have to reduce government spending by 3 percent

01:39and grow the GDP by 3 percent. If we don't do this, it's unsustainable. We have run two trillion dollar

01:46deficits long after COVID. COVID has been over for three years, and we're still running two trillion

01:53dollar deficit. That is unsustainable. No country can – our interest on our debt is a trillion dollars.

02:01The American people need to wake up to this fact. There is a way to deal with it. First, you have to

02:09have incentives. We have been told by analysts, if we don't pass and extend the tax credits,

02:16that there will be – you know, we will lose incentives for businesses to grow their business

02:21and to hire more people. You have to have incentives to grow GDP. And so these are just business principles

02:29that I learned in my business, and I'm sure other folks who have learned in business, this is the way

02:34to do business. Now, Ms. Shields, getting back to you and self-employed individuals, like the realtors

02:40you represent that often struggle to find affordable health care coverage, what options do realtors have

02:47to obtain coverage? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My members, when we were offering our health care plan,

02:57they had some options available, obviously. They had the ACA. They did have our plan at the time that

03:05they no longer have. Many of them that were married were able to obtain through their spouse. And then,

03:13frankly, we have 15% nationwide that are not insured at all. So that is our biggest concern. What we did find

03:21was that when we offered our plan, they were comparing our plan to the ACA. So some did stay in

03:27the ACA. The ones that we attracted were the ones that the ACA was just too expensive for them. They

03:34could not afford it. So we were able to save them some cost. They also found our deductibles were a

03:41little better. And so they made the change for that particular reason. And again, back to the spouses,

03:46they were able to save money, sometimes because they were having to pay for their spouse that might not have

03:51been insured as well. So why are AHPs so important for self-employed individuals like realtors?

03:58Thank you again for that question. It's so important because for many reasons, and I could talk to you all

04:04day about it, but the ones I would highlight is, again, the deductible savings. Many cases, we are able to keep them

04:12with the doctors they're already using. We do take pre-existing conditions, and it just gives them

04:19good, high-quality coverage. We are a plan that was ACA compliant. We had all 10 of the key essential

04:29programs that is required by ACA. So we were offering them good coverage. Yeah. I can't understand why

04:35anybody would object to that. Ms. Strauss, small employers with fewer than 50 employees are not required

04:41to offer health coverage to the employees, but many choose to do so. Can you discuss the reasons

04:46why small employers choose to offer health coverage? Ms. Yes, that's a great question and one

04:52that I get a lot. It's because they want to take care of their people. They want to take care of their

04:57communities. They want to be also competitive to the large employers that are out there. Right now,

05:03they pay twice as much as a large employer does for health care costs. However, they are employing the

05:09people that they see at church on Sundays, that they see on the soccer field. And so these are not just

05:15employees to them. They are their community. And so they want to make sure that they have that

05:20opportunity to provide benefits. And just as mentioned, you know, the ACA in Iowa specifically

05:26limits the access to network. So we only have HMO options within our marketplace in Iowa, which is like

05:35most states. So in order to offer a group plan, you have more flexibility and you can offer more of

05:41those national PPO networks that then have that broader network so people are not losing their coverage.

05:46And you know, there was a promise made in the ACA that your premiums would go down.

05:54And what we've done is employer-based health insurance has become so expensive,

05:59it's actually driving people to Medicaid, which is, you know, the problem we have with the mandatory

06:08spending issue. So if we can make customize it, make it more affordable, obviously we can get these

06:15people on great plans. And obviously the company has the impact of this coverage. It's got to be

06:24positive. In other words, the idea is it's coming from the employer and not from the federal

06:29government. Would that be a, yeah. Absolutely, yeah. Your written testimony, and I've got about a minute,

06:37notes how innovative coverage models such as direct contracts and direct primary care allow businesses

06:42to lower cost and improve quality. What barriers do small employers face in using these innovative

06:47models? And what can Congress do to make it easier for small employers to use these models?

06:53Yeah, so currently when you use direct primary care, there's a subscription or a membership

06:59fee that's included for access for those plans and they are not HSA qualified. So if you have an FSA plan

07:07in or an HSA plan in, you don't receive those tax benefits on those plans. Direct primary care also

07:14has a huge impact on outcome of health care. So typically those employees that are using direct primary care

07:21have a much higher level of direct access to their provider. And so in the case of maybe diagnosing a

07:28chronic disease earlier, those things are going to be caught. So there's a lot more advocacy on that

07:33side of things. So that that for me is a big piece of it is just making sure that those employees and

07:39employers can afford to offer those direct primary care options. Right. Thank you so much. And I yield

07:45my time now and recognize Mr. Courtney for your questions.

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