As prepared for delivery

I'd like to begin by thanking our witnesses for voluntarily agreeing to appear before our committee today.

We are gathered here for one simple reason: health care is increasingly unaffordable for American families, workers, and seniors.

Today, the average family insurance plan costs $27,000. Deductibles exceed $3,000 for individuals, as high as $10,000 for families.

Obamacare premiums have climbed 80 percent in the last ten years, and families on exchange plans are exposed to out-of-pocket maximums of over $20,000, while one in five medical claims are denied.

But it's not only in the exchanges, which reflect just 7 percent of the population. The private employer marketplace you participate in, and the more than 160 million Americans for whom you provide coverage, is also experiencing the largest premium increases in 15 years.

Health spending in America totaled $1.4 trillion in 2000. Today it has tripled to $5.3 trillion. Nearly one out of every five dollars in our economy is tied to health care spending.

In short: Americans are paying more for coverage than ever before while getting less peace of mind and less access to care in return.

Ideally, insurers would help control costs and guide patients through our complex health care landscape.

But today, patients are forced to navigate systems designed around insurer priorities, not patient needs.

After paying thousands of dollars in premiums each year, families are forced to ask insurers for permission to access their own health care - only to face crushing out-of-pocket costs.

There is not one single American I have met that believes health insurers are effective at lowering costs.

This hearing is the first of more to come examining the entire health care sector. Today, we will ask some of the largest health insurers why costs keep going up, and how health insurers should make health care more affordable for all Americans - a question that my Democrat colleagues all but ignored when they were in the majority.

And here are the results: Americans are still struggling to afford basic care. Health insurance premiums are exploding, and patients are delayed and denied care every day. But instead of demanding answers, a senior Democrat reassured our CEO witnesses this morning, saying quote "it's not your fault."

Maybe because Democrats know it's their fault, because after 15 years of a Democrat-created health system under Obamacare, prices have only gone up.

I'd also like to remind my Democrat colleagues that these same corporations have exploited market power and vulnerabilities in federal programs to consolidate control, steer patient care, and maximize revenue.

Three of the largest health insurance empires rake in nearly $1 trillion in annual revenue, pocketing tens of billions of dollars in profit. For this their executives are rewarded with tens of millions in bonuses.

This is all made possible by the taxpayer. 90 percent of insurers' Obamacare revenue is taxpayer funded. The tax break for employer-sponsored coverage is worth $4 trillion for health insurers, and Medicare Advantage insurers will receive more than $8 trillion over the next decade.

Yet patients, families, and seniors still struggle to afford care.

Health insurers claim consolidation yields efficiencies and is necessary to survive regulation. It's not "survival" when three health insurers control nearly half of the market, and three PBMs control 80 percent of drug benefits.

Meanwhile, if efficiencies are meant to lower costs, why are insurers raising premiums, limiting competition, and shifting more costs onto families and taxpayers?

To be fair, blame can also be directed at federal mandates, draconian pricing rules, and open-ended subsidies intended to expand coverage and make it more affordable. Over time, these policies, in many cases, have had the opposite effect.

They have rewarded higher spending, complexity, and consolidation. Government health insurance subsidies have drawn bad actors to fraud like moths to a flame.

Large federal programs require clear guardrails and accountability. Sadly, you won't hear my Democrat colleagues grapple with the existence of fraud and abuse in our health system. They just want to cover it up with more taxpayer dollars. That's a shame, because acknowledging these problems is a necessary step toward reform.

Republicans are clear-eyed on reforming our health care system for the better.

Last week, President Trump released "The Great Healthcare Plan", his bold framework to lower costs for families and hold abusive middlemen accountable.

We must restore affordability, strengthen competition, and ensure that federal health policy works for all patients and taxpayers.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about what concrete steps they will take to address these challenges, and how they are prepared to work with this Committee to lower health care costs for all Americans.