This Essay was posted on 11/18/2025.
Republicans are echoing the words of Senator Roger Marshall in his X/Twitter:
“Up to 40% of Obamacare enrollees never file a claim. That’s billions in taxpayer dollars flowing to insurance companies for people who don’t even use the system.
Republicans are committed to ending the fraud and making healthcare truly affordable.”
Marshall doesn’t seem to understand how insurance works. Homeowners buy fire insurance for their homes, and they hope they never need to use the policy. Does that mean they are somehow committing fraud? The simple answer is: No. But the problem is bigger than just misrepresenting the purpose of insurance.
Remember that the model for Obamacare is Romneycare (my words), the insurance that Mitt Romney enacted when he was Governor of Massachusetts. Romneycare is a Republican compromise between no government-supported insurance and universal healthcare. Romneycare provides health insurance to the poor but also keeps private insurance companies busy selling government subsidized insurance. Marshall’s complaints about Obamacare would also apply to Romneycare, if they were valid.
The first argument involves all welfare to the poor, including Obamacare. Sure, eliminating Obamacare would help pay for tax cuts to the rich, but raising the federal minimum wage from a measly $7.25 to a meaningful wage would get people off of welfare without costing the government a nickel. The only caveat is that many states have already raised minimum wage at the state level.
The second argument involves Marshall’s comments about Obamacare. Obamacare and Romneycare both subsidize the operation of too many competing insurance companies, instead of just paying for claims. The government already has an operating insurance company called Medicare. In the end, universal healthcare would also help pay for tax cuts, because, by cutting out all the middlemen, it would cost less.
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