On Wednesday, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, unveiled a lengthy report that he says serves as a “roadmap.” “Make America Healthy Again” He points out how America's flawed health care system affects “national defense.”
Roy said the 47-page report — titled “The Case for Health Care Freedom” — is a “carefully researched” summary of “America’s health crisis and how to address it.”
Its findings include that US health care spending could reach $4.9 trillion in 2023.
The report says health spending represents 17.6% as a share of the country's GDP, and costs are growing at a faster rate of about 1% of annual GDP.
The report argues that “if conservatives care about a strong national defense and low taxes, these trends must be reversed.”
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Rep. Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, attends the inauguration of Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Deitch/Getty Images)
“The issue of health care freedom lays out a detailed roadmap for how Republicans in Congress can help President Trump deliver on his promise to address America’s health crisis,” Roy said in a statement. “The problem isn't just health insurance, Big Pharma, or food additives that are making us unhealthy; it's the fact that politicians, bureaucrats, and corporations all benefit from a broken patronage system that allows them to profit off sick people with impunity.” “.
Congress right now has a “tremendous opportunity to get America's health care back on track by embracing patient and physician empowerment through the promotion of expanded health savings accounts in the budget reconciliation process, and we need to take full advantage,” Roy said. The congressman went on to say: “Giving the same actors more power and money is not going to work if we want it to Make America healthy againThe answer is health care freedom. “If we want to control our budgets and our health care spending, the answer is health care freedom.”
The wide-ranging report comes just two days after President Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term. The pledge to “Make America Healthy Again” became a focal point of Trump's campaign when independent Democratic presidential nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew from the race and supported it. Trump has appointed Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, but his confirmation hearing has not yet been scheduled.
The report includes criticism of the program that provides food assistance to low-income families.
Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends Donald Trump's inauguration at the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025. (Saul Loeb-Paul/Getty Images)
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“While chronic nutritional diseases kill up to 678,000 Americans annually, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will likely pay more than $250 billion on fast food over the next 10 years,” Roy's office notes.
The report also takes aim at sought-after weight loss and diabetes medications called the “miracle drug,” which celebrities have also used to lose weight in recent months. It found that the Danish pharmaceutical company, Novo Nordisk, “spent at least $25.8 million over the past decade on American medical professionals to promote two of its obesity drugs, Wegovy and Saxenda.”
The report estimates that in 2024, families and employers spent an average of $25,000 a year, or about the cost of a company car, for health insurance, despite Obamacare's “false promise to reduce premiums by $2,500 a year.” The cost of insurance premiums has risen by at least 100% since 2010, according to the report.
President Donald Trump suspends an executive order after signing it at the presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Monday, January 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
“Obamacare has made health care so expensive that it now subsidizes families earning up to $600,000 a year for their health insurance,” the report says.
In 2024, the report found that four of the top five U.S. industries by revenue were healthcare-related. These hospitals were the ones that came in first place; Wholesale trade in medicines, cosmetics and toiletries, which came in second place; Health insurance ranked third. And wholesale pharmaceutical trade, which came in fifth place.
The report also discusses how 47% of hospitals' cash rates are lower than the insurance company negotiated rate “which people pay hundreds of dollars a month for the privilege of receiving.”
The report argues that many insurers, including UnitedHealth, Anthem/Elevance, and Humana, “earn” the majority of their revenue from taxpayers.
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“We do not have a free market in the health care system. The government controls more than 80% of health spending,” according to a summary of the report provided by Roy’s office. “The left's solution to fixing our health care system is to spend more money and give the government more control over the health care system. 'Medicare for All' would cost an additional $33 trillion over 10 years, leaving 70% of Americans financially alone.” “Worse off.”
