Brett Guthrie: “Mr. Speaker, my point when I talked about the Affordable Care Act is that once it was in place, I wish it had worked. I…”

“Mr. Speaker, my point when I talked about the Affordable Care Act is that once it was in place, I wish it had worked. I wish what was believed to be in place worked because I think people with sincere hearts were the ones who voted for it and put it in place. If we did have choice and we had more people provided--we didn't have consolidation, and we had cheaper health insurance. That is what we wanted. I will tell you that the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ways and Means Committee are going to be focusing on the cost of health insurance. We talked yesterday and put out that health insurance executives from the major health insurance companies, or CEOs, are going to come before our committee. We are going to spend this year to hopefully find ways that we can work together because the premiums reflect the cost of healthcare. We want to understand the premiums, how they devise the premiums, where the premium is going, who is getting the money, and what about the consolidations. We are going to have a series of hearings, and the first one is going to be CEOs of major insurance companies to come before our committees to do the proper oversight to see why it is going from $14,000 to $22,000 and why are people being affected that way. That is the answer the American people deserve. That is the work we must do, and I hope we can do it together.”