The “Unaffordable Healthcare Act” was passed long before Democrats caused the most severe cost-of-living crises in the past half century. Their central planning effort, which accounted for 20% of the U.S. Economy resulted into a government-dominated Healthcare that is unaffordable, and unsustainable. They are now demanding that Republicans extend their COVID era, fraud ridden Obamacare subsidy extension.

The “enhanced tax credits” that Democrats used during the COVID era, but which they call “enhanced subsidies,” are neither premium nor enhanced — unless you happen to be an insurance company. The subsidies are a combination of Obamacare’s flawed model and liberal COVID spending. Originally intended to be temporary, these subsidies are now being funneled to households with incomes above $600,000. They also have millions of non-eligible participants and zero premium plans, which shift the costs onto taxpayers.

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), waste, fraud and abuse in Obamacare are not an exception but the norm. For subsidised coverage, fake identities, deceased people, and stolen Social Security Numbers are approved routinely. Nearly 60,000 SSNs that received Obamacare subsidies belonged to deceased individuals.

The Joint Economic Committee also found that, for every dollar saved by consumers, another two dollars is lost in waste or to the pockets of insurance companies and their middlemen. This is not reform, it’s a scam and a textbook case of a policy that does more harm than good. Under any circumstances, extending these subsidies would be fiscal malpractice of a massive scale.

Democrats’ promise to make healthcare more affordable has had the opposite effect. The cost of healthcare has risen by 80%, while deductibles are routinely over $5,000. 20% of all claims are denied. Americans pay more for less. Why on earth would we vote for an expansion of this system after watching it fail over the past decade?

We all know that the system is a mess. It’s a question of whether we will do anything about it when the Swamp gets hot.

In 2017, during my first term in Congress, Republicans were close to repealing Obamacare. However, the effort was stalled in the Senate. The vote was lost, but even worse, the argument was conceded. We teetered around the monopoly powers of Big Medicine – insurers, pharmacy benefits managers, Big Pharma and hospital giants – while Democrats pushed closer to government run, socialized healthcare.

The tide has finally begun to turn thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act saved us over $1 trillion in wasted money, fraud and abuse from Medicaid and Obamacare. The president is right to have called out “big, fat and rich” insurance companies, as well as foreign countries over unfair drug prices.

The president led the charge and the House of Representatives passed legislation this week to reduce healthcare costs without taxpayer bailouts.

Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, which lowers Obamacare premiums 11% while saving taxpayers about $36 billion, is an important step. The act closes a loophole that was created by Obamacare, which gave insurance companies a perverse incentive to increase premiums. By empowering small business owners and their employees, it creates competition in the market for health insurance and promotes choices. It also reins in PBM middlemen who steal dollars from the supply of drugs by increasing transparency, assisting consumers to make cost-conscious decisions, and lowering drug costs.

Real reform demands more. Real healthcare reform must address the anticompetitive force of healthcare monopolies. We can invest and expand Health Savings Accounts to give Americans greater control over their healthcare spending.

We need to tackle the root causes behind rising costs. We can stop the excessive markups in hospitals through a site-neutral reform of payment and demand transparency for cracking down on billing schemes which inflate each medical bill.

Democrats have not shown any interest in lowering healthcare prices in a responsible, paradigm-shifting way. Republicans will have to be ready to use reconciliation in order to deal with the healthcare crisis Democrats caused.

This is a momentous occasion for Republicans. We can either cower under political pressure or we can be strong and face this crisis. We will know if we truly want to make healthcare affordable by what we do next. It’s time to stop the healthcare scam of the Swamp and make America healthy once again.

Jodey is the chairman of the House Budget Committee and represents Texas’ 19th Congressional District.