Press Releases

This week, Congressman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) participated in a House Ways and Means hearing on the Democrats’ Medicare for All proposal. At the hearing, Congressman Arrington blasted the legislation that would amount to a socialist, single-payer government takeover of our nation’s entire healthcare system. CLICK HERE TO WATCH CONGRESSMAN ARRINGTON’S REMARKS “Fundamentally, I do not believe that government-controlled, socialized healthcare is the answer. In fact, I think it is a big part of the problem in terms of the cost and lack of access we are experiencing today,” said Arrington. “I think if we have healthcare organizations and provider groups actually competing for our business as patients and we have transparency in the system, that will lead to better quality care. And I believe the cost will come down. The quality of care in the countries that have adopted this socialized medicine system has actually decreased substantially in terms of wait times. For example, two months to get an MRI, there’s a 10-month waiting time for ultrasounds, and it takes five months to see a specialist… “The most comparable model in the U.S. I can think of akin to Medicare for All is the single-payer system that we've trapped our veterans in. I spent my first term on the VA Committee, and I was blown away by the lack of access for our veterans at the VA… These are the people who risked their lives for us, and we stuck them in a system that's broken. And the only way to help our veterans was not to throw more money at the problem, but rather a bipartisan effort to get our veterans out of a government monopoly and bureaucracy that was not serving them well… And I worry we are trying to in one fell swoop push every American into that same model, and it would be an epic failure.” Background:

• Under Medicare for All, all forms of private health insurance would be eliminated, taking away coverage from over 158 million Americans and forcing them onto one-size-fits-all, government-run plans.
• A study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University estimates that implementing Medicare for All nationwide would cost U.S. taxpayers $32 trillion over 10 years.
• Even doubling Americans’ taxes wouldn’t raise enough revenue to pay for Medicare for All.
• Despite the $30 trillion plus price tag of Medicare for All, Democrats don’t include proposals on how to pay for their plan.