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Posted on 12/04/2025 8:45:55 AM PST by Miami Rebel
Sen. Josh Hawley is pitching his colleagues — and President Donald Trump — on a new health care plan.
The Missouri Republican’s proposal comes as his party is grappling separately over what its strategy on health care should be as the Senate stares down a floor vote next week onHawley believes his new bill, which would allow all tax payers to deduct up to $25,000 per person in medical expenses, would help offer Republicans an agenda to coalesce behind while boosting the GOP’s affordability message heading into an election year. The bill also allows out of pocket spending on premiums to be deducted.
“I think we need to be very sensitive to the fact that health care is just out-of-control expensive and I think folks need to know that we care about that — we want to do something about it,” Hawley said in an interview.
Currently, only taxpayers who itemize can deduct certain unreimbursed medical expenses that exceed 7.5 percent of a person’s adjusted gross income. But Hawley said allowing families to deduct medical expenses in addition to the standard deduction “would make that available for lots of families.” “It could save people a lot of money,” he added.
Hawley said that he discussed the proposal shortly before Thanksgiving with Trump, who he described as being intrigued by the idea.
“I said, you know, ‘no taxes on tips, no taxes on health care’, and he goes ‘oh I like that,’” Hawley recounted.
But Hawley said he hasn’t yet discussed his proposal with Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who is leading efforts to develop a GOP health care plan, or Majority Leader John Thune. He suggested, however, that if Congress doesn’t come up with a plan to address the expiring enhanced Obamacare subsidies, his bill could be a fall-back option.
“This [proposal] while it wouldn’t replace all of the premium tax credits, it would get close if you structured it the right way,” Hawley said. “If we can’t reach any kind of agreement where it looks like nothing’s really going to move that will pass, I’ll make the pitch well why don’t we do this, why don’t we vote on this, so we can tell people ‘hey we’re going to help you immediately.’” soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act subsidies.
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Hawley’s proposal is not an outlandish one — mainly because it benefits TAXPAYERS … who happen to be a core target constituent group for the GOP.
Republicans better fix this before mid-terms or they are dead meat.
“The problem is the warped cost of medical care”
I agree. I’d like to see a breakdown of various medical procedure, equipment and drug costs.
How about we just get the government (all levels) OUT of the healthcare business...
That’s all the GOP ever knows to do. They make me sick. My girlfriend and I could come up with a cogent healthcare alternative over lunch. Its not rocket science.
“ Currently, only taxpayers who itemize can deduct certain unreimbursed medical expenses that exceed 7.5 percent of a person’s adjusted gross income.”
Appreciate this deduction but… It’s yet another example of needless complexity in the tax code. Maybe I don’t want to take the time to lean all the various rules, deductions, etc. Maybe I don’t want to hire a professional each year for my taxes. Maybe I shouldn’t be put in a position each year of having to worry if I accidentally missed something on the tax return that will cost me, or that I’ll be audited.
Simplify it. Cut the BS, make it simple, and fair. Lots of good ideas on the table for people wiser than I to choose from. Suggest Hawley and his colleagues think bigger.
“𝙈𝙮 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙜𝙤 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 $490 𝙖 𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙤 $975 𝙖 𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙝. Republicans better fix this before mid-terms or they are dead meat.”
That sums it up. If there’s no fix, millions of voters will see their insurance go up atomically, and if that happens they won’t base their votes on tariffs, religious freedom, or anti-woke initiatives.
If you have any doubts about that, just do a survey here and see how many of them would be OK with overturning the three elements of ObamaCare that have played the biggest role in driving up health insurance costs:
1. Mandatory coverage of pre-existing conditions.
2. Elimination of annual and lifetime caps on coverage.
3. Required coverage of all kinds of medical procedures that most people don’t need.
Item #1 is the equivalent of forcing auto insurance companies to give you coverage for your car AFTER you’ve already wrecked it.
Item #2 is the equivalent of forcing your auto insurance company to replace your wrecked Honda Civic with a new Lamborghini.
Item #3 is the equivalent of forcing your auto insurance company to price the cost of a new V8 engine into the premiums for your motorcycle insurance.
The simple truth is that the vast majority of Americans — including most so-called “conservatives” — think they have a God-given right to force other people to pay their medical bills. There’s no way to fix that.
They aren’t going to do anything.
The republicans are terrified, meanwhile Obama smiles down upon us all.
A party in fear is not going to be passing an abolish bill any time soon. Obama and Obamacare is/are victorious.
Sad.
Stooopid
It’s like when it comes to health care people completely forget how markets work.
If you tell the public that they have a “free” $25k to spend or that they can spend $25k tax free or however this is supposed to work....it will just allow the health care industry to charge more for their services.
My proposal is to have the Department of Health and Human services commission a county by county study to determine what the actual baseline costs of various procedures are and then subsidize a percentage of THAT amount for that procedure.
If a hospital offers a service to set a broken arm... what is the salary of a mid level doctor, 10 year old imaging equipment, nurses from a community college with 1 year of experience, etc....? Come up with a baseline cost for that service in that county.
For example, in some midwest town, after factoring all of that in, maybe it costs the hospital $2,000 to set a broken arm. Have the government subsidize $1000 to have a broken arm set in that county. If you want to go to a top of the line hospital, maybe they charge $3000 and you will need to pay $2000 out of pocket. If you go to a terrible hospital, maybe they only charge $1500 so you can get it done for $500 out of pocket.
If you wanted to get private insurance to cover the difference, go ahead. If not, you don’t have to.
If a health care provider could find ways of providing the service cheaper than the baseline average, they increase their profit.
Competition, free markets and allowing the market to support premium, standard and substandard service are forces that drive prices down.
I understand that the subsidy would act as an inflationary force but it would be less than the current 3rd party payer system we have now.
Obamacare was supposed to fix it.
Only McCain believed this nonsense.
That’s not exactly fair. He just said we need a replacement.
Guess what? We still don’t have one.
Why don’t we vote on this, so we can tell people ‘hey we’re going to help you immediately.
Free cheese anyone (trap)
No. Stop the subsidies.
Just go back to paying directly, with catastrophic insurance also bought if so desired.
HE IS COMPLETELY FORGETTING PEOPLE WHO MAKE SO LITTLE-—THEY ARE NOT REQUIRED TO EVEN FILE A TAX RETURN.
WE ARE STILL BEING HAMMERED BY OUTRAGEOUS ACA COSTS.
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