Republicans Agree: Miller-Meeks’ Health Care Bill Doesn’t Stop Health Care Premiums from Doubling

DES MOINES – House Republicans are weighing in on Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ health care bill before it comes to a vote on the House floor today – and they agree the bill will not stop health care premiums from rising for tens of millions of Americans in 2026.

Chip Roy (R-TX) said the bill was “milquetoast garbage.”

“Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who voted against extending the subsidies, said Tuesday night that Johnson’s health care bill was ‘milquetoast garbage,’” according to reporting by the Washington Post.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) said Miller-Meeks’ bill was “hastily thrown together…It doesn’t address the immediate crisis in front of us.” 

Reminder: Mariannette Miller-Meeks took an eight-week paid vacation before Thanksgiving instead of working on real health care solutions for Iowans. 

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) said “we have a bill on the floor that almost nobody in the Republican caucus even wanted to make it to the floor.” 

Ahead of the vote on Miller-Meeks’ bill and while frustrated with leadership for not putting a vote on expanding Affordable Care Act tax credits on the floor, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) said: “You have two leaders that are not serious about solving this problem.”

“I am pissed for the American people. This is absolute bulls—, and it’s absurd. Everybody has a responsibility to serve their district, to serve their constituents. You know what’s funny? Three-quarters of people on Obamacare are in states Donald Trump won. So maybe, just maybe, everybody should look at this and say, ‘How do we actually fix the health care system?’” Lawler said.

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has even said Congress needs to address ACA concerns head-on. 

“Health insurance is the coming crisis… In my rural district, I have 75,000 people that are on ACA tax credits. Here’s the truth for the Republican party: the large portion of those 75,000 people are Republican voters. This is a real issue,” Greene said. 

Miller-Meeks has claimed that Democrats misrepresented the seriousness of the looming health care crisis and that “people aren’t going to lose their insurance and people aren’t going to die,” if the ACA tax credits are not extended. 

“And then they’ll [Democrats] … misrepresent the premium tax credits. They’ll say this is because people will lose their insurance. People aren’t going to lose their insurance and people aren’t going to die,” Miller-Meeks said.

Despite her Republican colleagues’ concerns, Mariannette Miller-Meeks has been touting her bill, saying she’s proud to sponsor it. Representative Lawler might call “absolute bulls—” on that statement as well. 

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