HYDE-SMITH APPEALS FOR LEGITIMATE COOPERATION TO FIX UNAFFORDABLE, FRAUD-PLAGUED OBAMACARE
Senate Fails to Advance Dueling Plans to Address Expiring Biden-era Affordable Care Act COVID Bonuses
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today appealed for legitimate and serious negotiations to help Americans afford healthcare insurance without continuing expensive COVID-era subsidies that prop up the fraud-plagued Affordable Care Act, otherwise known the ACA or Obamacare.
Hyde-Smith made the appeal after the Senate failed to garner the sixty votes necessary to advance a Republican-led plan (Health Care Freedom for Patients Act of 2025, S.3386) or a Democratic plan (Schumer Three-Year Biden COVID-Era Subsidy Extension, S.3385) to again extend ACA subsidies that are costing taxpayers approximately $35 billion a year and fueling fraud in the program.
Hyde-Smith supported the Republican plan and opposed the Schumer plan.
“Democrats quietly admit that the system is failing and that the Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable. The responsible Republican plan I supported today would have begun to lower healthcare costs for American families and provide a window for us to work together to find better ways to provide healthcare insurance. I see that as a better option than just throwing more money – $83 billion, in fact – to continue a flawed program for another three years. Senator Schumer’s cynically partisan plan does nothing to help fix what ails the system, period,” Hyde-Smith said.
“I know many Mississippians rely on Obamacare and the subsidies that Democrats alone passed to prop up the system, but we must do better. Escalating costs and growing evidence of fraud make the ACA unsupportable over the long term,” Hyde-Smith added. “We must find a workable alternative that provides good coverage without breaking the bank or profiting swindlers.”
S.3386, sponsored by U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), focused on redirecting power and tax dollars away from giant insurance companies and back to patients. It would:
- Send money to patients instead of insurance companies.
- Lower insurance premiums and health care costs.
- Save taxpayer dollars and be fully funded.
- Ensure no taxpayer-funded abortion or transgender surgeries.
The Biden COVID bonuses, which the Schumer plan would extend for another three years, were never meant to be permanent. The Biden COVID bonuses, enacted and extended without a single Republican vote, are being paid for wealthy individuals who do not need taxpayer-funded subsidies, include no fraud protections, and do nothing to lower healthcare costs.
Background:
- $1.5 trillion: Total cost to taxpayers of Obamacare’s base coverage portions, not accounting for the COVID-era subsidies. (Paragon Health Institute: Obamacare: Overbudget and Underdelivering – 10/28/24)
- $83 billion: According to the Congressional Budget Office, Democrats’ three-year extension of the Biden COVID bonuses will cost taxpayers $83 billion, and more than $335 billion over the next 10 years if extended permanently. (Kaiser Family Foundation: Inflation Reduction Act Health Insurance Subsidies: What is Their Impact and What Would Happen if They Expire? – 07/26/24)
- 96 percent: 23 of 24 fictitious applications submitted by the Government Accountability Office to Obamacare exchanges were approved. (Reason: Auditors Submitted 24 Fake Applications for Subsidized Health Insurance. Only 1 Was Denied. – 12/03/25; Paragon Health Institute: GAO Probe Finds ACA at High Risk for Fraud: 96% of Fake Applications Approved – 12/03/25)
- $20 billion: Potentially fraudulent federal funds allocated in Obamacare subsidies in 2024. (Reason: Auditors Submitted 24 Fake Applications for Subsidized Health Insurance. Only 1 Was Denied. – 12/03/25; The Wall Street Journal: The $20 Billion ObamaCare Subsidy Fraud – 06/19/25)
- $35 billion+: Taxpayer dollars sent to insurance companies in 2024 “for people who paid no premiums and never used their plan.” (Paragon Health Institute: Biden’s COVID Credits Are an ObamaCare Expansion That Congress Should Allow To Expire – 09/04/25)
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