On Fox Business, Portman Discusses Health Care Plan, Tax Reform & Jobs

During an interview this morning on Fox Business, Senator Portman discussed the GOP House health care bill released earlier this week and the urgent need for tax reform. Portman has been outspoken on the need to lower costs and improve health care options for Ohio families as well as the need to reform our broken tax code to make American more competitive, create more jobs, and raise wages to help ease the middle-class squeeze.

Excerpts of the interview can be found below and you can watch the interview here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss-76-btt18&feature=youtu.be.

Portman on New House GOP Health Care Bill

"I think it is an improvement in one area that is very important to Ohio. We have expanded Medicaid in Ohio, and it is incredibly important, particularly right now with our opioid epidemic - the heroin and prescription drug epidemic. About half the money in expanded Medicaid is used for mental health and substance abuse, so I was very concerned about the first draft, as you know, a number of us were. The second draft is better, because during the transition period between now and 2020, it does provide for people to stay on that expanded Medicaid, which is critical for Ohio and other states that have expanded. But I do have some concerns."

Portman on Why ObamaCare Should Be Replaced

"It is a system that is incredibly complex, but it is not working now. The status quo is not acceptable. If you look at what's happening under the Affordable Care Act around the country, you have about a 25 percent increase in premiums year-to-year for the exchanges. In Ohio, it's been higher than that at times. We are up to a 91 percent increase overall over the last five years, so that is not acceptable. For small businesses, it has been 82 percent, and yet people have not been able to keep their own doctor and their own plan, and this, you know, has countered all the promises, including a promise that it would be less expensive. The current system is not working. It's not working for the people I represent. We do need to fix it, but we have got to do it carefully, because this affects peoples' lives in very fundamental ways."

Portman on Tax Reform, Increasing Wages & Jobs

"Let's not lose sight of the objective here, which is to have a pro-growth, simpler tax code that will give everybody more opportunity and increase wages, which is a significant part of the tax reform plan that we are working on. All the analysis shows it is actually going to help in terms of one of our big problems right now in our economy, which is flat wages."

Read this original document at: http://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=8D04B34F-0E71-4EF7-AB56-0C382D8C90DE