Rep. Kiley hopeful health care deal reached by end of year

Californians could see their health insurance premiums rise next year with the enhanced Affordable Care Act credits expiring, but two California representatives have proposed legislation to prevent those steep increases in healthcare costs by extending those credits. Joining us now is one of those representatives, Republican Representative Kevin Kiley. Welcome back to California Politics 360. Thanks for having me. So Representative Kylie, you wrote this bipartisan bill with South Bay Representative Sam Lecardo called the Fix It Act. Do you two have *** sense of how many Californians could be at risk of these steep increases without action and how your proposal would impact costs in this state? Yeah, so we’re talking about 22 million Americans, uh, several million Californians who are going to see *** massive increase in their healthcare costs just suddenly at the end of this year. So on average people’s healthcare premium payments will double. Uh, some people will pay several $1000 more. Uh, independent contractors, small business owners, small business employees, retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare. These are. The people who are going to be most dramatically affected and I’m not willing to just do nothing and to let this happen and to raise the cost of living for so many people in our state when it’s so high already and Sam Locardo, my colleague from across the aisle, isn’t willing to do that either, and we’re building *** larger and water drill coalition of folks who are saying that we cannot let this happen. So I think that we’re, we’ve got major momentum here, but we have to get this done by the end of the year. What is the status of that proposal right now with it needing to be done by the end of the year? So we’re adding uh co-authors every day. We’re adding one Republican and one Democrat at *** time, uh, and I think you’re seeing *** lot of consensus around the basic principles that we’ve laid out that number one, we need to provide *** temporary extension of these, uh, healthcare tax credits so people can continue to afford their health insurance. Number 2, we have to control costs and make sure that these credits go to the people who actually need them. Number 3, we need reforms to root out. Fraud and improper payments, and number 4 we need what’s called *** pay for so that we’re not actually raising spending or increasing the deficit or going further into debt with this plan or raising taxes, but rather we actually provide the funding with existing reforming existing programs in order to make to make this work. So I think those components have *** lot of support on both sides and so I’m cautiously optimistic that we can get *** deal done by the end of the year. Earlier this week it seemed like the president was ready to push for at least some of the concepts of what you and Representative Ricardo are are pushing, but then it seemed like maybe he didn’t seem too hot on extending the credits. I mean, what’s your understanding of where he stands right now on this? Well, I think that the proposal that was reported to be coming from the White House was very similar in *** lot of respects to what Sam and I have offered. It’s *** temporary extension. It has these income caps and cost controls and mechanisms to root out fraud, and so they just kind of put that on hold for *** moment. I think that that was probably just to process the opinions of different members, which I think is. Fine, uh, but we do need to act with *** sense of urgency here because these, uh, credits expire at the end of this year. And by the way, I, you know, I, I, I’m not claiming that this is gonna in any way, shape or form solve the health care affordability crisis that we have in this country. Uh, that is *** much larger conversation and I think that Congress needs to be *** lot more proactive in taking those issues on. Uh, but at least it provides us some runway so that we can extend these credits for *** couple of years, spare people this massive increase in premium payments, and that’ll give us this runway to work on the larger reforms that are needed to really control the growing cost of health care in this country. Are you having trouble though recruiting Republicans, at least in the House to support this concept? We’re actually getting quite *** bit of support from Republicans. I mean, we’ve gotten 4 Republicans and 4 Democrats right now who are on our bill, and we’re adding co-sponsors, uh, practically every day. Uh, and you have, uh, various other Republicans who have come out in support of what we’re offering in principle. Uh, so I think that the bipartisan consensus exists that we can’t do nothing here, or at least there’s *** sufficient number of people on both sides of the aisle. To make *** majority and the way the House is supposed to work is the majority works its will. And so the president of course has voiced now some support for *** temporary extension. So I’m going to be doing everything I possibly can once we’re back next week to make sure that this happens because we don’t have any time to waste here, right? I mean you have weeks essentially to figure this out if any action is going to take place and with that, I mean. Have you heard from Speaker Mike Johnson on *** potential date as to when the House could vote on this? We don’t know the date in the House yet. The Senate is supposed to vote on some form of an extension by December 12th. Uh, so, uh, you know, hopefully the Speaker will understand that this is something that is *** priority for our members and *** priority for the American people, uh, and, but in some way, shape, or form, uh, we will be pushing to get *** vote on this, uh, in the House before the end of the year. All right, Congressman Kevin Kiley, we really appreciate your time. Thank you.