Steve Scalise accidentally makes the case for government health care

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise attempted to criticize government health care initiatives while speaking at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland on Thursday, but accidentally made the case for government-subsidized care in the process.

Scalise (R-LA) made the comments while discussing the various “Medicare for All” health plans endorsed by several Democratic presidential candidates currently running in their party’s primary.

“Health care is really personal to me,” he said. “I would not be here today without the greatest health care system on the face of the planet. I’m surely not going to let them take that away from you or anybody else.”

Scalise was referring to the medical care he received after being shot by a lone gunman at a practice session for the annual Congressional Baseball Game in 2017. The congressman was hit in the hip and sustained fractures to his bones and bleeding in his internal organs, but was released from the hospital six weeks later.

Scalise, like other members of Congress, receives health care through plans offered on the “Obamacare” health insurance exchange.

“The members of Congress and their staffs choose from among 57 gold plans from four insurers sold on the DC Health Link’s small business marketplace this year,” NPR reported in 2017.

The federal government pays for about three-quarters of the premium, meaning that when Scalise underwent his emergency procedures, the majority of his care was paid for by taxpayers.

The various health care plans proposed by the remaining Democratic candidates would not, in fact, take away Americans’ health insurance coverage but would expand the overall number of people who are covered.

Scalise has personally voted multiple times for proposals that would repeal the Affordable Care Act and take away coverage from millions of Americans. He also backed the failed “American Health Care Act” in 2017, which would have also stripped coverage from millions of people.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.