Laura Ingraham Straight-Up Asks Mike Johnson, ‘How Do You Avoid Getting Blamed’ for Rising Healthcare Costs?

Fox host Laura Ingraham straight-up asked House Speaker Mike Johnson how he would “avoid getting blamed” for rising healthcare costs.

In a segment on The Ingraham Angle on Friday, Johnson discussed the newly unveiled GOP healthcare plan, meant to address rising fears over increased costs if Affordable Care Act subsidies are allowed to expire at the end of the year.

Healthcare was a central issue in the recent government shutdown, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) promising a vote on an ACA subsidy extension proposal as part of a deal with Democrats to reopen the federal government. Since then, multiple coalitions in the House and Senate have introduced competing healthcare plans, though none have succeeded in passing thus far.

Johnson’s proposal would allow for a separate vote on subsidies, though the plan itself does not include ACA extensions.

“How close are Republicans to some type of agreement of this quote ‘fix?'” Ingraham asked.

“We’re very close, and we’re delighted to present this and put it through the House next week,” said Johnson.

Despite Johnson’s assurances that the GOP is close to an agreement, it remains unclear whether the Republican plan can pass the House. Multiple prominent GOP lawmakers have voiced concerns over the party’s stance on healthcare, fearing it will affect their chances in the upcoming midterm elections.

Ingraham seemed to reference these fears, bluntly asking Johnson how he will avoid public backlash.

INGRAHAM: How do you avoid getting blamed for this? The same kind of thing happened in the shutdown in October. We all know what they promised on Obamacare. It was all a lie. At the time, I fought against it morning, noon, and night three hours a day on the radio. So they were lying then, and we knew they were lying because the numbers didn’t add up. But now, the left is blaming you and Republicans. It’s your fault.

JOHNSON: Yeah, of course. It’s a total fiction. The mainstream media, of course, parrots the talking points of Chuck Schumer and the Democrats. But the way we defeat that is with the simple truth, the facts. The Government Accountability Office just came out with a new report this past week, Laura. And it is astounding. Just for example, over the last two years, they submitted twenty four– two dozen– totally fraudulent applications for these unaffordable care act subsidies, okay? Twenty three out of twenty four were approved. There were no social security numbers provided, no verification of income, or even citizenship, okay? Of course not, right? Tens of thousands of dollars paid to each one of those to the insurance companies for people who do not exist, okay? Dead people. Ninety four million dollars of taxpayer dollars paid to insurance companies for people that had been deceased. Then you had social security numbers. Sixty eight thousand social security numbers in 2024 alone were used for multiple persons. In other words, multiple people, using one number to bilk the system and defraud it. That’s the system that Democrats created. That’s the one they want us to subsidize. So when we go forward with the truth, we explain to the American people the reason their costs are out of control is because they created a broken system. We have the solutions to fix it. That is the message and the truth I think is going to prevail as you into the election year.

Though health insurance companies have acknowledged the presence of fraud in the ACA subsidy program, insurers and state officials have urged GOP lawmakers to extend the subsidies in addition to fixing existing problems with the system.

Sabrina Corlette, a research professor with Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, succinctly summarized their sentiment.

“If you have a problem with car thieves in your community, the policy solution is not to make cars more expensive for residents to buy,” she said.

President Donald Trump was asked about rising healthcare costs in the Oval Office on Friday.

“Well, don’t make it sound so bad,” Trump said in response to a reporter, “because obviously, you’re a sycophant for Democrats. You’re obviously a provider of bad news for Republicans.” He went on to call Obamacare “horrible health insurance,” accusing Democrats of being “totally controlled by insurance companies.”

“I want to see the billions of dollars go to the people, not the insurance companies,” the president continued. “I want to see the people go out and buy themselves great healthcare. Much better healthcare at very little cost.”