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bill cassidy
Pharma-Funded Republican Comes Out Swinging Against Medical Debt Cancellation
Sen. Bernie Sanders, by contrast, argued that "we must cancel all medical debt" and "move to Medicare for All."
Jul 12, 2024
A Republican senator heavily bankrolled by the pharmaceutical industry spoke out Thursday against calls to cancel medical debt, arguing that wiping out a financial burden saddling 100 million Americans "is not a solution."
"One-time cancellation of medical debt... is a Band-Aid approach to a one-time problem that's gonna come back," Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing on the nation's medical debt crisis.
After dismissing medical debt cancellation on the grounds that it would not address the "root causes" of the crisis, Cassidy—the ranking member of the Senate panel—proceeded to make clear that he opposes the kinds of transformational healthcare reforms that advocates say are necessary to eliminate the problem of medical debt for good.
"We may hear today about Medicare for All," Cassidy accurately predicted. "But I also say that a healthcare system in which you think it's free because the taxpayer is footing the bill—you've never seen how expensive something can be until you perceive that it is free."
Watch Cassidy's remarks:
Cassidy is a major recipient of campaign cash from the pharmaceutical industry, whose stranglehold on prescription drug prices has been a significant driver of medical debt in the U.S.
Over the course of his career, the Louisiana Republican has raked in over $1 million in donations from the pharmaceutical and health product industries, according to OpenSecrets.
STAT Newsreported last year that Cassidy reaped "a slew of campaign donations" from Big Pharma executives shortly after he officially became the top Republican on the Senate HELP Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—a leading supporter of canceling medical debt and enacting Medicare for All.
In May, Sanders and several Democratic allies introduced legislation that would eliminate all of the roughly $220 billion in outstanding U.S. medical debt.
Contrary to Cassidy's suggestion that the bill would do nothing to prevent the future accrual of medical debt, Sanders' legislation would "amend the Public Health Service Act, updating billing and debt collection requirements to limit the potential for future debt to be incurred," the senator's office noted in a summary.
Neale Mahoney, a medical debt expert at Stanford University, said in a statement after the bill was unveiled that the measure "cuts off medical debt at the source by requiring hospitals to uphold their obligation to provide charity care to eligible patients who cannot afford to pay and supports hospitals so they can forgive debt before it gets sold to debt collectors."
During his opening remarks at Thursday's hearing, Sanders called medical debt "one of the most outrageous and cruelest" aspects of the nation's "dysfunctional" healthcare system.
"Pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies charge the American people for the 'crime' of getting sick," said Sanders. "Let's be clear: The medical debt crisis our nation is experiencing is a uniquely American phenomenon—does not exist in other countries around the world."
"We are the only major country on Earth," the senator added, "where an emergency visit to a hospital can cause patients to lose their homes and their life savings."
1 out of 4 cancer patients in America either declared bankruptcy or lost their homes to eviction or foreclosure as a result of medical debt in 2022.
That is insane.
We must cancel all medical debt.
We must move to Medicare for All. pic.twitter.com/LSQoFyrCKm
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 11, 2024
Recent polling found that a majority of Americans believe it is "extremely or very important" that the federal government act to provide relief for those with medical debt. The health policy organization KFF estimates that around 3 million U.S. adults have more than $10,000 in medical debt and 14 million owe more than $1,000.
Abdul El-Sayed, director of Wayne County, Michigan's Department of Health, Human, and Veteran Services and an outspoken Medicare for All supporter, said in his testimony at Thursday's hearing that a single-payer healthcare system would "address the porous nature of health insurance" and help prevent the accumulation of medical debt "by guaranteeing universal health insurance coverage from birth."
"One of the main drivers of costs in our current system is administrative overhead, higher in our country than in any other country in the world," said El-Sayed. "Much of that overhead is imposed by the complexity of billing multiple health insurers. With only one insurer that bears no profit motive, we could eliminate some of that cost burden—ultimately reducing the costs born on Americans that show up as medical debt."
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GOP Lawmakers Move to Block Biden's Helping Hand to Student Loan Borrowers
"We condemn this move to block a plan that will provide significant financial relief to low-income borrowers and communities of color," said one advocate.
Sep 06, 2023
Just as the Biden administration announced this week that 4 million people have enrolled in its new income-driven repayment plan for student loan borrowers just two weeks after it was launched, Republican lawmakers in Congress announced plans to rip the debt relief away from Americans—saddling them with a continued financial burden that has left many working people unable to purchase homes, provide for a family, and save money.
Led by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Thune (R-S.D.), and John Cornyn (R-Texas), 17 Republican senators said Tuesday that they would use the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a tool members of Congress can invoke to overturn final rules set by federal agencies, to repeal the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan.
The plan bases student debt monthly payments on borrowers' income and family size, allowing those who earn $15 per hour or less to avoid any monthly payment. An estimated 1 million people are expected to have no monthly payments under the plan and other borrowers are expected to save at least $1,000 per year compared with other income-driven repayment plans.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Tuesday that Americans are submitting new applications for the SAVE plan each day "so that they, too, can take advantage of the most affordable student loan repayment plan in history."
"This is real money President [Joe] Biden is putting back into the pockets of working families," Cardona said last month when the program was launched. "And when borrowers struggle to make ends meet, we're not going to kick them while they're down."
But Republicans including Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), who have introduced a companion bill to Cassidy's in the U.S. House, claim the program is "illegal" and will "leave mountains of debt at the feet of taxpayers while absolving millions of borrowers of their loans."
Jaylon Herbin, director of federal campaigns at the Center for Responsible Lending, said Wednesday that lawmakers should "oppose the CRAs to repeal SAVE."
"Senate Democrats will strongly oppose this Republican measure should it come to the floor for a vote, and we will stand with student loan borrowers as we continue to push for as much relief as possible."
"We condemn this move to block a plan that will provide significant financial relief to low-income borrowers and communities of color," said Herbin. "SAVE provides hope for borrowers as the administration continues to fight alongside advocacy groups to find other ways to achieve broad-based student loan relief. We continue to support President Biden in his quest to make our educational finance system fairer for all borrowers and oppose harmful legislation, such as these CRAs, that will set our already flawed student loan repayment system back to the pre-pandemic era."
Debt relief campaigners and legal experts have said for years that the Biden administration is legally able to wipe out student debt—going much further than the SAVE plan does—using the Higher Education Act of 1965, which allows the education secretary "to enforce, pay, compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, lien, or demand" related to federal student loans.
Republicans including Cassidy previously tried to block Biden's debt relief plan which would have canceled up to $20,000 in debt for some student loan borrowers, before the right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the proposal.
The GOP announced its latest plan to stop borrowers from benefiting from the income-based repayment plan as the administration works on a broad relief plan under the Higher Education Act, and just days after interest on federal student loans began to accrue again following a pause that began during the coronavirus pandemic.
About half of student borrowers in a poll released by Life and My Finances said they would not be able to afford monthly payments when they resume next month.
While "Democrats work hard to find new ways to provide relief for borrowers in need," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), "Republicans, instead of working with us to find a fix to our broken student loan system, immediately shoot them down."
"Republicans use the same old, tired excuse: that student loan relief only helps the few, the wealthy. That's utter nonsense," said Schumer. "President Biden's SAVE plan will benefit the Americans who need it most: working and middle-class families, students of color, community college students, and borrowers working in public service."
"Senate Democrats will strongly oppose this Republican measure should it come to the floor for a vote," he added, "and we will stand with student loan borrowers as we continue to push for as much relief as possible."
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Louisiana Climate-Deniers Who Refused Sandy Victims Now Want Federal Flood Relief
Hypocrisy of lawmakers on display following disaster
Aug 23, 2016
As residents of Louisiana this week struggle to recover from "one of the worst floods in modern history," there is a chance that federal aid may not be so forthcoming thanks to a trio of Bayou State Republicans, who back in 2013 voted against helping victims of another storm: Superstorm Sandy.
House majority whip Rep. Steve Scalise, Rep. John Fleming, and Sen. Bill Cassidy all cast their votes against the $50.5 billion relief package because of their dogmatic adherence to austerity economics. At the time, Scalise said, "Paying for disasters and being fiscally responsible are not mutually exclusive."
But, as Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik and others noted this week, that decision may come to haunt them.
"No one is saying that the flood-stricken communities of Louisiana don't deserve all the assistance that the U.S. government can provide them," Hiltzik wrote. "But so did the residents of the Sandy zone. How do the lawmakers' 2013 votes to deny relief to those Northeast communities square with their demand for emergency flood assistance now?"
All three signed onto a letter sent to President Barack Obama earlier this month calling for a disaster declaration and requesting "that vital federal resources be made available in an expedited manner."
Though that aid has already been appropriated, the damages are extensive and will likely require supplemental funding from Congress.
"That extra money is going to be needed to cover costs that aren't met by insurance and to provide for other needs, such as providing vouchers to contractors who can gut houses," The Advocate's Jeff Adelson reports. "But its availability is dependent on the willingness of lawmakers to go along with the plan, something that's hardly a sure thing."
While it is too early to assess the total damage from the 1,000-year-flood, Nola.comreported Tuesday:
Gov. John Bel Edwards' office has estimated 60,646 houses were damaged and 30,000 people rescued; other people escaped on their own. The [Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)] says 109,398 people or households have applied for housing help, and 25,000 National Flood Insurance Program claims have been filed.
In a Tuesday op-ed, Louisiana Public Service commissioner Foster Campbell, who is running to replace Republican Sen. David Vitter, pulled no punches in laying blame on the GOP lawmakers.
"[I]f Congress denies Louisiana the aid funds necessary for recovery, it will be because some of our own congressional delegation turned their backs on the victims of Sandy," Campbell said. "Our 'leaders' have forgotten that their actions have consequences beyond election day--they've abandoned common sense priorities for our people to promote the political message of the day."
Not only are Scalise, Fleming, and Cassidy purveyors of "extreme, tea party ideology,"--as Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, who lost to Cassidy in 2014, put it at the time--they are also, as Hiltzik wrote
climate change deniers, a sign that they're unable to process evidence in front of their own eyes. Fleming has claimed that evidence of climate change is the product of a "radical environmental agenda." Scalise has griped that it's an effort by radicals "to prop up wave after wave of job-killing regulations that are leading to skyrocketing food and energy costs." Cassidy in 2014 claimed that global temperatures had not risen in 15 years, which happened to be untrue. Remarkably, both Fleming and Cassidy are medical doctors.
As for how the Republicans reconcile their vote on the Sandy package with their current demands for assistance, T.J. Tatum, a spokesman for Scalise, told Hiltzig that the relief claims amount to "Apples and oranges."
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