Wednesday, during an appearance on FBN’s “Mornings with Maria,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) reacted to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on Obamacare subsidies fraud, as he prepared to chair a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the subject.
The Wisconsin GOP lawmaker called the fraud a “scam” that was not necessarily new.
“You will chair the hearing today on the Obamacare subsidy fraud,” host Maria Bartiromo said. “What are you expecting on a potential package for these subsidies to be renewed?”
Fitzgerald replied, “Yeah, Maria, before we get to the point where we can fix Obamacare. I mean, the one thing I’m concerned about is this GAO report came out and just demonstrates — the President is right. It’s not just fraud and abuse. This is a scam that’s been run for some time. So we have a lot of members that are pushing already for some type of extension, but I think it’s going to be difficult to do now that this GAO report is out there on the street and members are starting to digest what’s in it.”
Bartiromo asked, “So you’re not expecting any change, then? These subsidies will expire at year end.”
Fitzgerald said, “I am. I mean, there’s about five different plans that are being sold. We’re going into conference this morning, at 9:00 a.m. to hear from the speaker, to see exactly what they’re pushing. But I’ll be honest with you. I mean, there seems to be a significant divide amongst plans and positions that members have taken on those plans.”
“So in other words, nothing gets the majority?” Bartiromo replied.
Fitzgerald said, “Well, I mean, I’m optimistic. I mean, the one thing that we do have is that the White House now is starting to coalesce around a couple of these ideas, Health Reimbursement Accounts, not HSAs, HRAs which is what the President was describing in his speech last night, which is moving dollars directly to people so that they can purchase their own health insurance which doesn’t seem like a novel idea. The Wall Street Journal editorialized about this about a month ago and said the Republicans have the answer right before them, if they just take it. So I’m optimistic that we can come to some resolution within the House. The Senate is a whole different game, though.”
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