Washington, D.C. – Today, the House Republicans on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust are holding a field hearing in Charlotte, North Carolina on fraud and competition within health care markets. While claiming to crack down on fraud, Republicans have consistently rejected efforts to actually reduce it, firing the inspectors responsible for oversight of corporate fraud instead of going after the corporations and executives ripping off American taxpayers. Rather than holding bad actors accountable, they’ve cut health care coverage for hard-working families to hand tax breaks to those very same corporations, the ones driving up health care costs in the first place.
In response, Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:
“This hearing is just another distraction from the real crisis facing American patients. Republicans in Congress are drowning politically after slashing Medicaid by $1 trillion to fund tax breaks for their billionaire friends. Now they want to talk about fraud, but the same Republicans holding this hearing have spent the past two years of this administration firing the inspectors general who actually root out corporate fraud, letting the executives and corporations drive up health care costs off the hook. This hearing is a desperate attempt to shift blame and dodge accountability. The truth is, their constituents are losing faith. Hospitals are closing. Health care costs are skyrocketing. And now these Republican members of Congress are scrambling to salvage whatever credibility they have left. For millions of Americans, the damage is already done.”
BACKGROUND
- Donald Trump doesn’t care about fraud; he has pardoned 70+ fraudsters during his time in office, including countless donors, allies, and celebrities.
- Trump has granted clemency to health care fraudsters convicted of stealing more than $2 billion in taxpayer dollars.
- Trump and Republicans in Congress passed a law ripping health care away from 15 million Americans — including seniors, children, veterans, and people with disabilities — in the name of fraud to hide the unpopular truth: he cut over $1 trillion from the health care programs working Americans rely on to bankroll tax breaks for his billionaire donors and corporations.
- Around 235,000 North Carolinians have already lost the Medicaid, CHIP, or ACA coverage they counted on to see a doctor after Republicans gutted health care. Nearly 70,000 North Carolinians have lost their Medicaid or CHIP coverage, and nearly 165,000 North Carolinians dropped their ACA health care coverage after premiums skyrocketed.
- Thanks to the Trump-GOP Medicaid cuts, North Carolina hospitals are expected to lose $35.4 billion over the next decade. Now, 23 North Carolina health care providers are at-risk, have announced cuts, are closing, or have closed since the law passed.