admin
Sen. Roger Marshall made it plain on Wake Up America that Obamacare hasn’t helped working Americans — it’s empowered insurance companies and sent taxpayer dollars straight into corporate pockets while premiums keep climbing. His blunt assessment echoes what millions of families already feel: the system funnels subsidies to insurers instead of putting purchasing power into the hands of patients.
Conservative lawmakers are finally calling out the obvious: when Washington writes checks to middlemen, prices go up and competition dies. Marshall and other Republicans argue that the so-called “enhanced” ACA subsidies mostly flow through insurers and prop up an extractive industry, not everyday Americans who need care they can actually afford.
The remedy Republicans are pushing — including Marshall’s plan — is simple and pro-consumer: stop stuffing money to the insurance cartels and instead send federal dollars directly to Americans through Health Savings Accounts or similar accounts. Handing money to people restores choice, forces transparency, and lets families shop for value instead of bailing out bloated insurers.
Democrats and their allied media will howl that this is risky, but let’s not forget who built the status quo. The Affordable Care Act has produced soaring stock-market gains for giant insurers while middle-class families see premiums jump year after year — a raw deal that cries out for reform. Those who defend that arrangement are defending the beneficiaries of the old system, not the American people.
Republican proposals to direct subsidy money into HSAs or Trump-style Health Freedom Accounts are about restoring common-sense market disciplines to health care. By putting purchasing power back with consumers, the market can reward value, not bureaucracy, and innovative options like cross-state plans and price transparency can finally take hold. This is the conservative solution: less Washington control, more American freedom.
To be fair, critics warn that HSAs alone won’t fix everything — they point out limits on covering premiums and that many Americans don’t yet have big HSA balances. Those are practical concerns, but they’re not reasons to cling to a failing subsidy scheme; they’re reasons to design better, targeted policies that expand access while giving people control. Conservatives should meet legitimate worries with smarter policy, not reflexive defense of the insurance-industrial complex.
Sen. Marshall’s message is a call to action for Republicans who actually want to help working Americans rather than preserve a crony system. If conservatives keep fighting to redirect federal dollars to individuals and empower families with choice and HSAs, we can break the stranglehold insurers have on health care pricing and restore dignity to health-care decisions. That’s the kind of bold, pro-worker reform patriots should support.
