Scalise on Fox News: "Every Republican voted for our bill"

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) joined Fox News Channel's "Tucker Carlson Tonight" last night to discuss the CBO estimate that shows the House's American Health Care Act to repeal and replace Obamacare lowers premiums, taxes, and our deficit. Scalise highlighted the broad support for the conservative bill, noting that every Republican from all parts of the caucus voted for the bill in both the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees last week.

Click here or on the image above to watch the full interview.

On the CBO estimate:

"What the CBO said is, if given the option, our bill actually gives people freedom. You don’t have to get on Obamacare, you can get off of Obamacare, and what CBO is estimating is even with taxpayer subsidies, they think 14 million people just next year will get off of Obamacare if given the choice. Meaning, you can still stay on it but if they want to get off, they have the freedom to do it, and 14 million will. That’s not lost coverage, that’s not throwing anybody off, but CBO calls that lost coverage. To me that means you just had the freedom to say ‘ I don't want to be on Obamacare anymore and I got to make that choice for my family,’ and now you have better options because there's going to be a competitive marketplace we create where you can go buy whatever you want for your family at a lower cost and CBO most importantly backs up the fact that when our plan is implemented, it will lower costs dramatically—double digits decrease in the cost of health care premiums for families."

On the choice this patient-centered plan provides:

"What we're doing is getting rid of Obamacare and then letting families make the choice of what they want to do for their health care. They get to pick their own plan, which is the opposite of Obamacare. Obamacare said no matter what you think and what you want for your family, if you like what you have, you can keep it only if an unelected bureaucrat in Washington says this is the plan you can have...

"The other thing is there’s going to be real options for you. If you look at Obamacare, one of the things it’s done is led to monopolies in about a third of the marketplaces across the country. So even if you’re out trying to buy insurance under Obamacare, you literally only have one choice, which is called a monopoly, which is why costs are up.It’s because all of the mandates are so unworkable that companies just stop writing policies. So what we’ve seen is that a lot of these insurance companies that left the marketplace said ‘Look, under your plan we will actually be able to come back in and write policies again for people that they want to buy.’ If you like what you have, you truly can go and buy it for your family."

On ensuring Americans have access to health care options:

"But ultimately you get to choose the plan. That's the most important thing. There are tax credits for people that are low-income, working people that can have the ability—right now you get a tax break if you get your insurance from your employer. About 61% of the people in this country get their health care from their employer. But what happens if your employer doesn't provide health care? What happens if you’re a small business owner? We for the first time are actually giving the same tax break that employers get to families that can't get it through their employer, and so they can go and buy whatever they want for their family, and we bolster Health Savings Accounts. One of the biggest success stories in health care, pre-Obamacare was HSAs—Health Savings Accounts, which actually lowered costs and gave people more options. Under Obamacare they literally obliterated the HSA market. We’re bringing that back so that families can actually go work through HSA's and, again, get the ability to buy lower cost health care, what they want for their family, it’s their choice, not a government bureaucrat in Washington."

On the broad support for the American Health Care Act:

"We had a 27 and a half hour committee meeting—I was on the committee, Energy and Commerce. They said it’s a record, longest committee meeting in congress where we passed the bill to gut Obamacare, the repeal and replace bill—longest committee meeting.Democrats fought us every step of the way and it was a unified vote—every Republican voted for our bill, this is the repeal and replace bill, and every Democrat voted against it because they know our bill guts Obamacare and actually replaces it with reforms that put patients back in charge."

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