WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Representative Pete Sessions is pushing a new healthcare insurance proposal as Congress faces another potential government shutdown over rising insurance premiums and unresolved Affordable Care Act funding.
The Waco Republican said a showdown over government-funded health insurance is inevitable between now and the end of January, and his fellow Republicans need a plan Americans will support to head off another shutdown.
"Republicans have failed to counter with a workable solution," Sessions said.
The compromise that ended the federal shutdown last month leaves unresolved Democrats' demands to add a trillion dollars to subsidize Affordable Care Act health insurance. Without that money, millions of Americans are expected to see their premiums skyrocket.
"We have to produce something to take care of all these people who are on Obamacare," Sessions said.
Sessions said "one size fits all" ACA insurance plans need to change.
"There are a lot of things the affordable care act requires that people do not have or need. If you are 50 years old, did not want any children, you still had to purchase a plan to have children. And so people said 'I don't want that. I can't afford that.' So it overnight made insurance more expensive," Sessions said.
Sessions is proposing his own plan which he said is simply "parity," a subsidy up to $12,000 per family to cover half the cost of choosing and buying their own insurance, just like employer-sponsored coverage they'd get through work.
"It really comes back to 'let me buy insurance based on my needs.' 'I do, or don't, have a problem. I do or don't want children.' You should be able to purchase it similarly to the way you purchase car insurance. Get what you need," Sessions said.
Sessions said fellow Republicans and President Donald Trump may be ready to support a plan like his.
"Now is the time when the focus should be on healthcare, or else," Sessions said.
Sessions said he's been advocating his plan for more than 10 years and, as a senior citizen with a disabled child, who's gotten his health coverage from employer-provided private insurance, as well as from government insurance and also on the Affordable Care Act, he understands the issue.
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