Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah's 3rd District, said Americans may need to spend more on health care and less on "the new iPhone." He made the comments in an interview with CNN's "New Day."
The response came when host Alisyn Camerota asked him about costs to health care consumers under the GOP’s plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, which is called the American Health Care Act. “Access for lower-income Americans doesn’t equal coverage,” she said to him.
Chaffetz contends that part of the reason Americans can’t afford health care is due to their own choices.
“We’re getting rid of the individual mandate. We’re getting rid of those things people said they don’t want. And you know what? Americans have choices. Maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they should invest in their own health care. They’ve got to make those decisions themselves.”
He goes on to confess, however, that American health care costs are, out of control.
“We’ve got to be able to lower the cost of health care. I mean, one of the things we’re concerned about is health care inflation is just consuming the American budget, both for families and for the federal government. We’ve got to be able to drive those cost curves down,” he said.
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