The next is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Invoice Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Nov. 16, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome again to Face the Nation. On Friday, we spoke with the Chairman of one of many Senate committees accountable for crafting well being care laws, Louisiana’s Invoice Cassidy, who can also be a physician. We started by exhibiting him what the President is pondering of for a healthcare repair.
VOSOT, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I am calling right this moment for insurance coverage corporations to not be paid, however for the cash, this huge amount of cash to be paid on to the folks of our nation in order that they will purchase their very own well being care, which can be much better and much inexpensive than the catastrophe often known as Obamacare.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So are you, Senator, coordinating with the White Home on this proposal?
SEN. BILL CASSIDY: So we’re completely in communication with the White Home and with the administration, as a result of there’s plenty of stuff that you must work out to try this. However let me give a bit meat on the bones of what the President’s talking about. Should you have a look at an Obamacare coverage now, there is a $6,000 deductible. Democrats are preventing to decrease the premiums. You decrease a premium on one thing which has $6,000 deductible, it is mainly a catastrophic coverage. Now, I like to talk of the price of being insured, not simply the price of the medical health insurance. The President is proposing that we take the $26 billion that might be going to insurance coverage corporations if we simply do a straight out extension, and by the best way, 20 % of that $26 billion, 20 % will go for revenue and administrative overhead, give it on to the American folks in an account through which 100% of the cash is used for them to buy well being care on their very own phrases. Now- now, that makes them an knowledgeable client. It additionally helps deal with the necessity to have protection for that deductible, and in the event that they get that coverage with the next deductible, they will truly decrease their premium. It is a candy spot, decrease premiums, assist with the deductible, making the affected person the knowledgeable client, the President and I are united. We must always all be united about that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Nicely, the President’s financial adviser, Kevin Hassett, was on this program final Sunday. He stated the president was simply brainstorming, issues aren’t formally put collectively amongst Republican senators but, however I simply wish to make clear what you might be coordinating with the President on right here, as a result of, is it to purchase your individual insurance coverage coverage, which is sort of sophisticated, or is it to make use of this versatile spending account you’ve got talked about for associated well being care wants? Like, are there restrictions on how you should use that cash?
SEN. CASSIDY: So first, there’s two forms of premium tax credit. There’s the baseline premium tax credit score, which was a part of Obamacare, that might keep in impact, and other people would nonetheless purchase a coverage. For instance, they get in a automobile wreck, one thing disastrous. They want someone negotiating on their behalf with all of the suppliers. That stays the identical. What we’re speaking in regards to the shutdown was over the improved premium tax credit. Insurance policies have grow to be so costly below Obamacare that below Joe Biden, Democrats handed one other subsidy on high of the primary subsidy. That is what we’re preventing about and what Republicans are saying, and I prefer to hope Democrats will too. Hey, wait a second, if we will have decrease premiums and assist folks with their deductible by giving the cash on to the affected person. By the best way, 20 % does not go for insurance coverage firm revenue and overhead. 100percent goes for well being care. Why do not we unite Republican and Democrats in doing that? That is the place the President is. You bought to determine some issues out. However we’re loads additional alongside than you may think.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So do you wish to repair Obamacare, or do you wish to get rid of Obamacare?
SEN. CASSIDY: First, you must, like, we’re going into 2026. That is like a month and a half from now.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Proper.
SEN. CASSIDY: And so you have to work with what you will have. However alternatively, Obamacare was a high heavy, administratively heavy kind system through which some huge cash is some huge cash, and accountability is taken from people and given to insurance coverage corporations. As one instance, I am a physician. I work for 20 years in a hospital for the uninsured. I discovered that should you give the affected person the ability, good issues occur that is supported, by the best way, by the medical literature, if the affected person is engaged in her well being care and the well being care of her household. She’s going to be a sensible shopper, sensible for her well being and sensible for her pocketbook. We have to have a brand new mannequin, and that mannequin is to have interaction the affected person in her personal well being care. Doing so is nice for her, good for us all.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, however you stated we have to work with what we’ve got. That’s, as you simply stated, you will have a brief period of time earlier than the top of the yr. Do you assume you should prolong the well being care tax subsidies which can be presently in place till you determine all the remainder of this sophisticated coverage making?
SEN. CASSIDY: Let me again you up just a bit bit, Margaret. I am going to simply say, everyone assumes it is simple simply to increase the premium tax credit, the improved premium tax credit. It is not that straightforward. 50 % of the states didn’t plan on them being prolonged, they usually haven’t got charges as in the event that they have been to be prolonged. So which means if we cross this mid December, they have to recalculate charges in time for, wait a second, by that point, we’re already into 2026 it is not a straightforward matter. And by the best way, did I point out the insurance policies that individuals wish to decrease the premiums for have $6,000 deductibles. It’s mainly one thing for insurance coverage corporations to generate income off of and for the person to wade via $6,000 of debt earlier than they will lastly entry it. Now, the sort of proposal I’m proposing Republicans are, and I hope Democrats will be part of, is, let’s take that cash, and we’ve got a mechanism to take action. We give it to the affected person. By giving her that cash, she may select a bronze degree plan, which is to say decrease premiums. So now her premiums are down, however she has cash in an account to assist with the deductible, and I feel we will determine that out about as simply as we will determine what we might do if we simply did a straight out extension.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So that you wish to do all this, although, by the second week of December, when the Democrats have been promised they’re going to have a vote on an ACA invoice of their alternative.
SEN. CASSIDY: Sure, and I inform my Democratic colleagues first, let’s not be Democrats and Republicans. Let’s be People, representing all of People. Let’s acknowledge what you are doing simply offers cash to insurance coverage corporations, however we will do it higher with decrease premiums and with cash and accounts to pay deductibles. After which why do not we come collectively? There is usually a Democratic invoice and a Republican invoice, and each fail. Let’s do an American invoice the place the American folks profit and this work collectively, collaborate to decrease these premiums and assist them with that first greenback protection in the- within the deductible.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So we seemed and there are about 293,000 Louisianans, your state, enrolled in Obamacare presently, six weeks from now, these extent expanded tax credit that you have been speaking about will go away for people making $62,000 or above. People making lower than that quantity will see their tax credit score shrink. So are you telling these a whole bunch of hundreds of Louisianans that that tax credit score goes away it doesn’t matter what, that- that they need to make plans–
SEN. CASSIDY: No.
MARGARET BRENNAN: – for larger costs?
SEN. CASSIDY: I am telling them that we’re I am telling them that we’re working to make it work higher for them. And they might inform you, by the best way, wait a second, I obtained a $6,000 deductible that doesn’t work for me. Margaret, I am a physician. I might discuss to folks after they’d come to see me, and they might inform me, I am unable to afford that. My deductible is just too excessive. That is actuality, and that actuality is being misplaced on this dialogue. We have got to do one thing about sky excessive deductibles. Possibly you possibly can afford the premium. You may’t afford the coverage. Let’s decrease the price of having medical health insurance, focusing by not simply on the premium, however the deductible. And I feel we will do each.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Nicely, even within the personal market, well being care prices have gone up up six to 9 % whenever you have a look at the projections. However I wish to ask you about your oversight function. Secretary Kennedy has this hand picked panel of vaccine advisors. You recognize them at ACIP. They are going to meet in a number of days and probably vote on altering the hepatitis B vaccine schedule for infants. That very same vaccine advisory group can also be contemplating the protection of vaccine substances like aluminum, which might influence a lot of childhood pictures. This could matter for American mother and father. Are you comfy with what they’re about to place to a vote?
SEN. CASSIDY: I am very involved about this. Because it seems, my medical apply targeted on hepatitis B, and so we all know that due to a beneficial dose at beginning of hepatitis B vaccine, beneficial, not mandated, the variety of youngsters born contracting hepatitis B at beginning, or shortly thereafter, has decreased from about 20,000, 20 years in the past to love 200 now. That is 20- successfully a clerical error. We’ve decreased incidence of persistent hepatitis B by 20,000 folks over the past twenty years with this type of suggestion. And by the best way, should you’re contaminated at beginning, you are extra likely- you are 95 % more likely to grow to be a persistent service. The vaccine is secure. It has been established, and these substances they’re talking of have been proven to be secure. That is coverage by individuals who do not perceive the epidemiology of hepatitis B, or who’ve grown comfy with the truth that we have been so profitable with our suggestion that now the incidence of hepatitis B is so low, they really feel like we will relaxation on our laurels. I am a physician. I’ve seen folks die from vaccine-preventable illness. I need folks to be wholesome. I wish to make America wholesome, and you do not begin by stopping suggestions which have made us considerably more healthy.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Nicely, the president of america additionally advised American ladies to not take Tylenol. Or give it to their youngsters. That is based mostly on a idea that it causes autism by some means. And he additionally in a social media publish, the identical one, referred to as for the measles, mumps and rubella shot to be damaged up into three totally different pictures. That was then endorsed by the performing CDC director. Are you involved by this type of suggestive linkage on the high of the CDC and from the White Home?
SEN. CASSIDY: Once more, I am a physician, and so I’ll go the place the proof takes me. And the perfect proof is a research out of Sweden with 2 million youngsters that discovered no- no causality, no affiliation, if you’ll, between taking Tylenol in being pregnant and getting autism. And naturally, that issues me, as a result of there’s going to be a mother on the market —once more, I am a physician, I discuss to I discuss to sufferers— in a room, and her youngster has autism. She took Tylenol for a excessive fever throughout being pregnant and now she blames herself. That is simply the best way mamas assume, and that is mistaken. We do not need her to assume that. The perfect proof is that there isn’t a relationship, by the best way, you probably have a excessive fever throughout being pregnant, which may be a danger for autism. Now, in fact, should you’re pregnant, discuss to your doctor earlier than you’re taking something, however level being, the perfect proof is that there isn’t a relationship between the 2. And I do not need ladies placing themselves on a guilt journey when the perfect proof reveals not. By the best way, the President has spoken out strongly in favor of immunizations in different circumstances, and I famous, when he obtained his bodily, he obtained the flu and COVID pictures. So the President has demonstrated that he believes in immunization.
MARGARET BRENNAN: However that is why clarifying the statements, I feel, is essential, because you interpret them otherwise. I’m wondering, do you remorse your affirmation vote for Secretary Kennedy?
SEN. CASSIDY: I smile as a result of each reporter asks me that–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Nicely, as a result of these questions run proper right into a pledge that you simply extracted from him to not tinker with a few of the constructions that have been set in place to have oversight of those vaccines and this course of.
SEN. CASSIDY: So you reside life ahead, once more, you simply do, let the day’s personal troubles be enough for the day. And I am going to credit score the secretary. He is introduced consideration to issues like ultra-processed meals that has, frankly, by no means acquired this kind of consideration earlier than, and other people reward him for that. So he and I’ve publicly disagreed on some issues, however I strongly agree with him on others, and so, in order that’s how I am going to reply your query.
if that is your remaining yr in workplace, sir, will you make overhauling well being care your high precedence?
SEN. CASSIDY: Nicely, I certain hope it is not my remaining yr in workplace, however, however I have been enthusiastic about healthcare for 30 years, as a result of after I labored in a public hospital for the uninsured, I noticed the burden it could possibly be on middle-income households who had center earnings however could not afford the insurance coverage or could not guarantee afford the healthcare. And so it has been my precedence for 30 years, and I’ll proceed to try this. And if there’s a silver lining, if there’s a silver lining within the shutdown, we simply had, the silver lining is now we’re targeted on how will we make well being care extra reasonably priced for the American folks. That ought to be our purpose, to not be partisan somehow. How will we make it extra reasonably priced for fellow People? If we will accomplish that, I’ll really feel like I’ve accomplished my job.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, thanks in your time.
SEN. CASSIDY: Thanks Margaret.
