Chaffetz: Americans should forgo new iPhone to afford health care

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz said Tuesday that the health care plan rolled out Monday by House Republicans will offer Americans at all income levels the opportunity to afford health care.

They just might have to sacrifice buying their next cellphone to do so.


“Well, we're getting rid of the individual mandate. We're getting rid of those things that people said that they don't want. And you know what? Americans have choices. And they've got to make a choice,” Chaffetz (R-Utah) said on CNN’s “New Day.” “And so maybe rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care. They've got to make those decisions themselves.”

The health care legislation unveiled Monday by House GOP members marks a major step forward by Republicans in keeping their longtime promise to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s signature health care legislation, the Affordable Care Act.

The bill from House Republicans keeps some popular provisions from Obama’s legislation, including protections for Americans with preexisting conditions and allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26. But it also does away with the mandate that all Americans purchase health insurance, a relatively unpopular provision in the law that nonetheless underpins many of its more popular aspects, as well as expanded Medicaid funding.

Sign up here for POLITICO Huddle A daily play-by-play of congressional news in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

“We have to be able to drive those cost curves down and provide good, quality access. We do think that with more choice, that you will get a better product at a lower price. And that will be good for everybody on the entire spectrum of income,” Chaffetz said on “New Day.”

“More access, but possibly less coverage? That might be the byproduct?” anchor Alisyn Camerota followed up.

“Well, yes. I think that's fair. But we're just now consuming this. So, more of the analysis has to happen,” Chaffetz responded. “That's premature. We just saw the bill as of yesterday. We're just starting to consume it. We will have to look at how that analysis moves forward.”