07.19.2017 / Press Release

Cruz Amendment Resurfaces: A Radical and Dangerous Amendment to a Radical and Dangerous Bill

Washington, D.C. – Republican Senators met with President Trump today to discuss ways to revive efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to media reports. The meeting featured Senator Cruz (R-TX) explaining his amendment to the recently-abandoned Senate bill, with a supporting analysis from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that claimed it would drive down premiums and increase enrollments.

Families USA Senior Fellow Stan Dorn today issued a critique of the Cruz amendment.

“Under the vision at the Cruz Amendment’s core, public policy’s overarching goal is letting the young and healthy buy health insurance with low premiums,” Dorn wrote. “It is entirely secondary whether that insurance has deductibles that make it unaffordable to obtain care; whether covered benefits meet consumers’ basic needs; or whether the insurance provides protection from catastrophic medical costs. And the Cruz Amendment will ensure that other consumers with health problems are locked out of coverage as a result of segregated and therefore unstable markets.

Plans offered under the Cruz amendment would have deductibles of $12,000, according to the Trump administration’s HHS report.

Dorn was also critical of the HHS analysis.

“The assumptions and methodology that yielded these rosy results are opaque, based on unspecified “proprietary” modeling.”

The Cruz amendment is not what consumers want or need, Dorn wrote.

“What consumers want and need is simple: health coverage that includes necessary benefits, with affordable premiums and deductibles, a sufficient network of providers, and protections against both foreseeable and unforeseeable needs for health care. What they do not want is junk insurance, sold on terms that discriminate based on preexisting conditions, age, or gender.”