U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R) criticized Senate Democrats for extending the government shutdown while defending Obamacare, calling it a "failed system" that has driven up costs and funneled taxpayer money to insurance companies.
"Obamacare did not make health care affordable," Cornyn declared this week on the Senate floor. "It created a tangled web of regulations alongside taxpayer-funded subsidies that ultimately only led to higher costs for taxpayers and those receiving care."
He argued that "insurance companies have figured out how to use this muddled mess that is the Democrats' health care system to lobby for government subsidies." Through this, he pointed out that in 2025 alone, $130 billion in federal healthcare subsidies were paid directly to insurers.
Since 2021, the cost to taxpayers for subsidizing Obamacare plans has increased 150%, Cornyn noted.
Cornyn also highlighted how expanded eligibility rules have allowed high-income households to receive subsidies.
"Households earning upwards of $500,000 were made eligible for taxpayer-subsidized plans," he informed. "You tell me why taxpayers should have to subsidize somebody who makes half a million dollars a year and buy their health insurance policy for them."
Cornyn added that the "only promise Obamacare actually kept" was moving the country closer to a single-payer system, urging lawmakers to be wary of listening to "the same people who sold us Obamacare on false premises."
As the Shutdown continues, Cornyn has called on the Democrats to stop using healthcare as political leverage and instead work towards real reforms that lower costs and restore integrity in America's healthcare system.
