'You're Not Saving Money!': Tina Smith Rips Into Secretary Bessent For 'Taking Health Insurance Away'

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During Thursday's Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) questioned Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent about the Big, Beautiful Bill, and its impact on medical debt.

Transcript

00:00I want to just start actually out by making an observation, which is that there seems

00:05to be an argument here today, the Republican argument, that somehow we can't give middle

00:10class tax cuts without also giving big tax breaks to billionaires.

00:15So I just want to be clear, I think I probably speak for everybody in my caucus, that Democrats

00:19want lower taxes for middle class, working class people.

00:22We just don't think that the price for that should be giving, in this case, the top 0.1%

00:30of income earners $400,000 in tax breaks while we're taking health insurance away from 16 million

00:37Americans because of Medicaid and because of the Affordable Care Act changes and cutting

00:41nutrition support.

00:42So I just want to be clear about that.

00:44The choice is not no tax breaks to middle class Americans because we're in support of that.

00:52But I want to ask you, Secretary Besant, I want to follow up a bit on the questions that

00:56Senator Warren was asking.

00:58One of the features of the Big Beautiful Bill is significant, I would argue historic cuts

01:02to Medicaid.

01:03You no doubt know that Medicaid is the largest health insurance payer in the United States.

01:08That's according to the American Hospital Association.

01:11It's the largest provider of mental health care coverage in this country.

01:16What percentage do you think is people on Medicaid that can work, do work?

01:23Do you have any thought?

01:24Do you know what that percentage is?

01:26Well, work requirements account for 8 million of the CBO's claim numbers, so they seem to

01:32think that 8 million people could come off.

01:34So I'll tell you, this is data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

01:38In 2023, 92% of Medicaid adults under age 65 are working already.

01:48And so what is happening here is the Big Beautiful Bill is making it so much harder for people

01:53to get the health care that they deserve that they just give up.

01:57But I want to ask you what impact you think this is going to have on the economy.

02:01So you've got health insurance that is taken away from 16 million Americans.

02:06My question to you is what happens next because, you know, the data shows that when people lose

02:11their health insurance, uncompensated care goes up.

02:15That's the issue with rural hospitals.

02:17Medical debt goes up.

02:19People delay care and they ration their medications.

02:21People get sicker.

02:23So this has a direct impact on medical debt.

02:26Do you have an idea what the current medical debt is in the United States?

02:30I do not, but I will tell you that I believe that that number you're giving is overstated

02:35by 5.1 million.

02:37And it's simply the Democrats' scheduled expiration of Obamacare subsidies, and you should have

02:42extended that when you were in control.

02:44Okay.

02:45So I'm not going to argue with you about whether it's, you know, how many multiple millions

02:50of Americans are going to lose their health insurance.

02:52I like precision in numbers.

02:53Well, I will believe in the precision of my numbers, Secretary Besson.

02:57But I can give you some precision about what the medical debt is in the United States.

03:02It is 220 billion dollars.

03:04That is, again, according to the American Hospital Association.

03:08So let me ask you, do you assess, how do you assess the impact of additional medical debt

03:13on American families, Minnesota families?

03:16What impact do you think that has?

03:17Because it seems to me to be pretty significant.

03:19Well, Senator, we are trying to bend the curve on medical costs, and I believe that the medical

03:27expenses are out of control.

03:29We have seen growth in a-

03:30But you're not controlling medical expenses by taking insurance away from people.

03:36You're just shifting the cost to hospitals and individuals and uncompensated care.

03:41We are trying to make sure that individuals who can work do.

03:45And we are trying to get the program back to the mothers and children it was meant for.

03:52Mr. Secretary Besson, the question I want to try to get you to hone in on is, you know,

03:58can you see that if we take insurance away from people, medical debt is going to go up,

04:04and that that is bad for families, and it is bad for our economy because people are going

04:08to be burdened with additional debt.

04:10It will be good for the economy for people to come back into the workforce.

04:14But, Mr. Secretary, nearly everybody who can work who is on Medicaid does work.

04:20And in fact, we have seen, I have no doubt, I won't get in the way of Senator Warnock,

04:26who I'm quite sure will want to talk about this as well because of the experience with

04:30Georgia, you're not saving money.

04:35You're just shifting cost to other places by taking health insurance away from people.

04:40Mr. Chair, I will close here and give back my 16 seconds.

04:45Thank you, Senator Smith.

04:46And for the remaining senators who came after my last announcement, we are under a time pressure

04:52here and so I've asked all senators to please stick rigidly to your five minutes.

04:58And next is Senator Lujan.

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